Today, is the day of death of a very special person:
The French singer, songwriter, provocer, cynic, drinker, smoker, 'enfant terrible', etc, SERGE GAINSBOURG! http://www.xaviervoirol.ch/portrait/Resources/sgainsbourg.jpeg
I'll drink to that guy tonight!
i read somewhere recently that Belinda Carlisle (of 80s pop fame) has moved to France and recorded an album of famous French songs - and it includes at least one Serge Gainsbourg cover!
based on my limited knowledge of Serge, I'm pretty sure that he would try to get Belinda into bed. he had a go at Whitney Houston at some point, if I remember correctly. on live tv, I think.
Anyone interested (and especially if you do not speak French), may want to check out Mick Harvey's two albums of Serge covers (Translated into English). The albums are "Pink Elephants" and "Intoxicated Man". I LOVED "Pink Elephants", much more than "Intoxicated Man". Those of you that are Nick Cave fans will know that Mick Harvey is in the Bad Seeds. I know, I know. It seems that I'm pushing the Nick Cave, but this seems appropriate on the subject of Serge Gainsbourg. I thint that you can get free samples of some of the songs on the net...
Doesn't look like pushing Nick! (who, besides, wouldbe worth pushing) since French is a very unknown language and Serge's lyrics are so very great.
(yes, you Knowers, it is impossible to translate the Many-meanings of his lyrics into One-other language, but ...)
Isn't it amazing, there's a WHOLE country, where EVERY One knows one special person, but outside, nearly Nobody does?
Now, what I wanted to say is - the CDs by Harvey are o.k. And:
They're not the only ones: There are cover-versions of Gainsbourg by Jarvis Cocker (spelling?), REM, Franz Ferdinand, Beck, Marianne Faithful, Marc Almond, Placebo, Portishead, and manymany others.
(and btw. he didn't WANT to fuck W.Huston, he just was drunk and she was female and it was Live-TV. It was a show. Kind of. The best (most complete) version I ever seen on youtube was:
As you mentioned Jarvis Cocker, there's a cover-version of the Gainsbourg-song 'Je suis venu te dire que je m'envais' on youtube translated 'I have come to tell you that I'm going' ().
