Du Jazz Dans La Ravin

VINYL FORMAT. Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991): the original bad boy of French pop, the man all women wanted and all men wanted to be. He updated the French chanson and made it hip again, infusing it with the youth culture of the late 50s and 60s: one that was ruled by jazz, drugs and free love. The music of Gainsbourg heralded in this new era and his earliest songs became the soundtrack for a generation of Parisian youths. Side A features songs that originally appeared in 1959 on his second album (here in stereo), No. 2. Here Gainsbourg fronts the Alain Goraguer et Son Orchestre on songs like 'Le Claqueur de Doigts,' a song about seducing chicks at a jukebox....a standard operating tactic for Gainsbourg! While side B features material from his 1958 debut, Du Chant a la Lune!, which featured early hits like 'Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas' the morbid tale of a Paris Metro ticket man who contemplates suicide to free him from the monotony of his life. Tracks 1-3 on side B were recorded live at the 'Theatre des 3 Baudets' in November, 1958, while tracks 8-10 are taken from Gainsbourg's score for Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's 1960 film L'Eau a la Bouche (A Game for Six Lovers). While it has always been somewhat difficult for English audiences to appreciate Gainsbourg, due to the language barrier that keeps us from fully appreciating the sharp wit and raunchy innuendos that permeate his brilliant lyrical style, I find that if I allow the music to carry me to the world of 1960s Parisian vice, my imagination can fill in the rest!