Line #31 Music/SergeGainsbourg


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SergeGainsbourg_2725.png]]
2	->''"Je t'aime, je t'aime\
3	Oh oui je t'aime!\
4	Moi non plus\
5	Oh mon amour"''
6	-->-- "Je t'aime... moi non plus"
7
8	Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg, 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French SingerSongwriter, pianist, writer, actor, and film director.
9
10	He experimented with many genres of music, from {{Chanson}} and jazz to pop music, electro and reggae. He was a controversial character, who wrote many erotic and polemical songs and until his death had a scandalous reputation, but was also considered as a poet and a genius, the last of the tradition of the ''Poètes Maudits'' (doomed poets) and adapted many famous poems in songs.
11
12	Had somewhat of a BrokenBase during his lifetime, particularly during TheEighties, but since his death he is [[PosthumousPopularityPotential pretty much universally celebrated]].
13
14	He fathered two daughters, Creator/{{Charlotte\|Gainsbourg}} (from his most famous love affair, with Creator/JaneBirkin, who was also his most prominent [[TheMuse muse]]) and Natacha, and two sons, Lucien and Paul.
15
16	See also ''Film/{{Gainsbourg}}'', the 2010 {{biopic}} about him.
17	----
18	!!Serge Gainsbourg and his work provide examples of:
19
20	* TheAlcoholic: In TheEighties, when he was nicknamed ''"Gainsbarre"''. He made a lot of public appearances where he was visibly drunk.
21	* AnatomicallyImpossibleSex: In "Je t'aime... Moi Non Plus", there's this lyric that goes "I come and go, between your kidneys". That... just doesn't happen, unless you're impaling the poor woman.
22	** That's a case of LostInTranslation; the French ''reins'' literally means kidneys, but can also be used in the general sense of "loins", and all of a sudden, the anatomy makes sense.
23	* ArgentinaIsNaziland: "SS in Uruguay" is a first-person song about a former Nazi now living in Uruguay.
24	* BlackComedy: Many of his songs have a rather grim sense of humor.
25	* BecomingTheMask: With his alter-ego Gainsbarre.
26	* ButNowIMustGo: "Je Suis Venue Te Dire Que Je m'en Vais" - literally "I came to tell you I'm going".
27	* {{Chanson}}: He is still seen as a ''chansonnier'', despite his music being closer to rock 'n' roll and pop.
28	* CoolCar: The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost from ''Histoire de Melody Nelson''. He himself later bought a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
29	* ConceptAlbum: ''Histoire de Melody Nelson''
30	* DarkAndTroubledPast: His past as a young Jewish boy during the Nazi occupation. Possibly parodied/satirized in the album ''Rock Around The Bunker''.
31	* DramaticIrony: [[UnreliableNarrator He liked to tell]] the story of how he fought to be the first in line to receive the [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust yellow star]], thinking it was a sheriff star.
32	* DirtyOldMan: When he became "Gainsbarre" in the 1980s.
33	%%* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench:
34	* {{Expy}}: ''Histoire de Melody Nelson'' is a ConceptAlbum which is heavily based around ''{{Literature/Lolita}}''.
35	* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: France Gall [[https://web.archive.org/web/20040206023836/http://www.rfimusique.com/siteEn/biographie/biographie_6153.asp apparently]] had no idea that the Gainsbourg-penned "Les Sucettes" was one big {{double entendre}} about oral sex.
36	* GrammarCorrectionGag: "En Relisant Ta Lettre" has Gainsbourg reading a love letter. His only reactions are corrections of various spelling mistakes.
37	* [[invoked]]HeAlsoDid: He composed some film soundtracks such as ''Film/LaHorse''.
38	* IkeaErotica: "I come and go, between your kidneys"[[note]]meaning the small of the back[[/note]] in ''Je t'aime... Moi Non Plus''. It's French slang for "loins" and thus explains the apparent error.
39	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: "Je t'aime... Moi Non Plus" ("I Love You... Me Neither")
40	* IncrediblyLamePun: It happens in some songs in the album ''Vu De L'Extérieur''.
41	* IncrediblyLongNote: "Cargo culte," the last song of ''Melody Nelson'', ends with a choir chord edited to stretch out for over a minute. It seems to stretch to infinity.
42	* IntercourseWithYou: ''Many''. For example, "Je t'aime... Moi Non Plus".
43	* KavorkaMan: Despite being notoriously ugly and an alcoholic and having a PermaStubble in latter years, he had relationships with some of the most beautiful women of his time, including Creator/BrigitteBardot and his long-term partner actress and model Creator/JaneBirkin. He even wrote a song about this: "Des Laids Des Laids".
44	* LastNoteNightmare: "Les Sambassadeurs" is a loud, wild song, which ends with what sounds like a large crowd of people screaming in panic, while gunshots resonate over them.
45	* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: Caused a stir among French military veterans when he released a reggae version of the French national anthem called "Aux Armes" ("To Arms"), with as only repeated phrase "Aux Armes Et Caetera" ("To Arms And So-on!")''.
46	* OutlawCouple: "Bonnie and Clyde" (with Creator/BrigitteBardot).
47	* ParentalIncest: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Incest Lemon Incest]]" makes ambiguous reference to this. Furthermore, the song is a duet with his [[RealLifeRelative daughter]], [[Creator/CharlotteGainsbourg Charlotte]], who was [[{{Squick}} twelve years old]] at the time. In the music video, they're laying on a bed, Serge is shirtless and Charlotte only wears a shirt and panties. In an interview in 2010 Charlotte defended her decision to record the track, though acknowledging it was a [[RefugeInAudacity "provocation".]]
48	* PunBasedTitle: He adored this trope:
49	** "69 Année Érotique"
50	** "La Décadanse" (pun on ''decadence'' and ''dance'')
51	** "Les Sucettes" (French for ''lollys'', but also slang for fellatio)
52	* RefugeInAudacity: The album ''Rock Around The Bunker'' (particularly the opening song "[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Rock]]"). "Lemon Incest" was also made with this intention. "Aux Armes Et Caetera", a reggae arrangement of the French national anthem, infuriated French nationalists and military veterans and "Je t'aime... Moi Non Plus" prudish listeners. Apart from that he caused many scandals by appearing drunk on TV and insulting other guests. A classic example was when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ7MqgSEK0I he turned up drunk to a chat show and candidly remarked to fellow guest]] Music/WhitneyHouston just how much he would like to fuck her. In exactly those words.
53	* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: In the song "Comic Strip" typical comic strip onomatopeia are imitated: ''Clip! Crap! Bang! Vlop! Zip! Shebam! Pow! Blop! Wizz!''
54	%%* SelfDeprecation
55	* ShoutOut:
56	** "Je Suis Te Dire Que Je m'en Vais" has a shout-out to poet Paul Verlaine: "Comm' dit si bien Verlaine au vent mauvais" (''As Verlaine mentioned so well in the bad wind").
57	** "Le Chanson de Prévert" is a reference to Jacques Prévert.
58	** "Docteur Jekyll et Monsieur Hyde" references ''Literature/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''.
59	** "Bonnie & Clyde" was recorded after Gainsbourg saw ''Film/BonnieAndClyde''. The lyrics are heavily inspired by ''[[https://allpoetry.com/The-Trail%27s-End The Trail's End]]'', a poem written by the real Bonnie.
60	** "Evguenie Sokolov" is named after a novel written by Gainsbourg.
61	* SmokingIsCool:
62	** It's hard to find a picture of him where he ''isn't'' smoking.
63	** The song "Dieu Fumeur de Havanes" even has God smoking havana cigars.
64	* SpokenWordInMusic: A lot, in the ''Histoire de Melody Nelson'' album.
65	* SuicideAsComedy: "Le Poinçonneur des Lilas" sings about a ticket collector on the Paris Metro who cuts holes in tickets for first and second class, then eventually gets fed up with this tedious profession and decides to buy a gun to make the "final hole", so that they can put him in his own "big hole in the ground".
66	* ToiletHumour: "Evguenie Sokolov" consists in a reggae-sounding instrumental, punctuated by various fart sounds. The title comes from a novel written by Gainsbourg himself. It's the story of an artist who paints his farts.
67	* UglyGuyHotWife: a man who looks as if he smoked sixty Gauloises a day managed to be married to Jane Birkin. And serially got off with others.
68	* WrittenSoundEffect: "Comic Strip" uses onomatopeia in the refrain.

Context Music / SergeGainsbourg