Composer, lyricist, and performer, born in Paris, France. He abandoned painting for music after meeting Boris Vian. A controversial character, he sang about alchohol, adultery and poverty. Je t'aime, moi non plus was originally meant as a dialogue for Brigitte Bardot, who was replaced by Jane Birkin (with whom he had a daughter Charlotte, b.1971, who became an actress), and inspired a film with Dépardieu. He composed for Patachou, Gréco, Dalida, and Claude François, and his Poinconneur des Lilas gained the Prix Charles Cros in 1959. He wrote rock music (Harley-Davidson) for Bardot, Johnny Hallyday, Sacha Distel, and Jacques Dutronc. He used a technique of singing/speaking, Dieu est Juif , and shocked many with a reggae version of the Marseillaise, Aux armes in 1979, and by burning a 500 franc note in front of the television cameras.
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Serge Gainsbourg IPA: [seʒ gɛ̃sbuʀ] (April 2, 1928 – March 2, 1991) was a French poet, singer-songwriter, actor and director.
Biography
Personal life
He was born Lucien Ginzburg in Paris, France, the son of Jewish Russian parents who fled to France after the 1917 Bolshevik uprising.
Early work
His early songs were influenced by Boris Vian and were largely in the vein of "old-fashioned" chanson. Very early, however, Gainsbourg began to move beyond this and experiment with a succession of different musical styles: jazz early on, English pop in the 60's, reggae in the 70's, even hip hop in the 80's.
Success began to arrive when, in 1965, his song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" was the Luxembourg entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. (The song was covered in English as "A Lonely Singing Doll" by British teen idol Twinkle.) He arranged other Gall songs and LPs that were characteristic of the late 1960s psychedelic styles, among them Gall's '1968' album.
In 1969, he released what would become his most famous song in the English-speaking world, "Je t'aime... The song appeared that year on an LP, "Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg". While Gainsbourg declared it the "ultimate love song," it was considered too "hot"; the song was censored in various countries, and in France, even the toned-down version was suppressed.
The seventies
His most influential work came near the start of the seventies with Histoire de Melody Nelson, released in 1971.
In 1975, he released the album Rock Around the Bunker, a rock album written entirely on the subject of the Nazis.
The next year saw the release of another major work, L'Homme à la Tête de Chou (Cabbage-Head Man), featuring the new character Marilou and sumptuous orchestral themes.
In Jamaica in 1978 he recorded "Aux Armes et cetera," a reggae version of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar and Rita Marley.
The next year saw him in the new look of Gainsbarre, officially introduced in the song "Ecce Homo."
Final years
In the 1980's, approaching the end of his life, Gainsbourg became a regular figure on French TV.
During this period he released Love On The Beat and his last studio album, You're Under Arrest, (which saw him adapt his style to the hip-hop genre), as well as two live recordings. His third and last Eurovision Song Contest entry came in 1990 with the French entry "White and Black Blues", sung by Joëlle Ursull. His songs became increasingly eccentric in this period, ranging from the anti-drug "Les Enfants de la Chance" to the duet with his daughter Charlotte called "Lemon Incest (Un zeste de citron)."
Film work
During his career, he wrote the soundtracks for more than forty films. moi non plus, Equateur, Charlotte For Ever and Stan The Flasher.
Photography work
To be done
Death and legacy
Gainsbourg died on March 2, 1991 of a heart-attack and was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, in Paris. His funeral brought Paris to a standstill, and French President François Mitterrand said of him "He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire...He elevated the song to the level of Art."
Since his death, Gainsbourg's music has reached an iconic stature in France. His music, always progressive, covered many styles: Jazz, ballads, mambo, lounge, reggae, pop (including adult contemporary pop, kitsch pop, yé-yé pop, 80s pop, pop-art pop, prog pop, space-age pop, psychedelic pop, and erotic pop), disco, calypso, Africana, bossa nova and rock and roll.
He is also considered to be one of the first music pop artists of the late 1960s. While artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein explored modern iconographic consumer culture through painting, Gainsbourg explored similar territory in music with songs such as "Comic Strip," "Ford Mustang," "Qui est In Qui est Out," and "Teenie Weenie Boppie."
One of the most frequent interpreters of Gainsbourg's songs was British singer Petula Clark, whose success in France was propelled by her recordings of his tunes.
His lyrics are collected in the volume Dernières nouvelles des étoiles.
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