Serge Gainsbourg : a fistful of gitanes : requiem for a twister / by Sylvie Simmons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simmons, Sylvie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gainsbourg, Serge.

Singers--France--Biography.

Singers.

France.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

192 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Helter Skelter Pub, 2001.

Summary:

When Serge Gainsbourg was found dead in his bed in March 1991, France went into mourning. Brigitte Bardot, who'd slept with him, gave a eulogy; President Mitterand, who hadn't, gave one too. He was "Our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire" said the French head of state. "He elevated the song to the level of 'art'." Flags were flown at half-mast -- a less fitting tribute for the priapic pop genius than the bottles of Pastis and packs of Gitanes left by the crowds who descended on his house.

"Ask anyone in Paris", said Nicolas Godin of French group Air, "and they can remember what they were doing when they heard Gainsbourg had died. It was such a shock. Because he was always 'there', always doing something crazy. He was a poet. He was a punk. And he wanted to fuck Whitney Houston." He was also a singer, songwriter, actor, soundtrack composer, Eurovision Song Contest winner, novelist, photographer, artist, film director, screenwriter, intellectual and seducer of some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Drawing on hours of new interviews with people Gainsbourg worked with, played with and loved -- among them Jane Birkin, Sly & Robbie, Marianne Faithfull, and Serge's celebrated producer and 'Man in the Shadows' Philippe Lerichomme -- and with the contemporary artists he influenced -- including Air, Mick Harvey, David Holmes and Beck -- rock writer and MOJO scribe Sylvie Simmons tells the story of the provocative, classy, filthy, funny, hard-drinking, chain-smoking Gallic icon who reinvented French pop and inspired a new generation of louche wannabes. And examines his rich musical legacy -- from his earliest days as a nightclub singer to his transformation into a reggae and rap star; his controversial hit duet with Jane Birkin, 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus', to conceptual masterpieces like 'Histoire de Melody Nelson'. A Fistful of Gitanes is the first English language biography to capture Gainsbourg's magnificent, sexy, smoke-filled, booze-raddled, crumpled genius!

Contents:

Chapter 1 Lulu 15

Chapter 2 Death of a Hairdresser 21

Chapter 3 Looking at the Sky 27

Chapter 4 Le Twisteur 34

Chapter 5 Baby Pop 41

Chapter 6 Initials B.B. 47

Chapter 7 Initials J.B. 52

Chapter 8 I Love You, Me Neither 57

Chapter 9 Spirit of Ecstasy 63

Chapter 10 A Fistful of Gitanes 71

Chapter 11 Underneath the Foam 79

Chapter 12 Freggae 86

Chapter 13 Behind the Black Door 92

Chapter 14 The Art of Farting 98

Chapter 15 Stars and Stripes 105

Chapter 16 Suck Baby Suck 112

Chapter 17 Requiem for a Twister 118

Chapter 18 Afterlife 131.

ISBN:

1900924285

OCLC:

46332466