L'Histoire de Serge Gainsbourg et Melody Nelson

When it comes to hobbies and obsessions, people have varying tastes. A lot of the people reading this will count music among their main interests, some people pick sports, others like travelling or cooking, or collecting. My personal obsession is Serge Gainsbourg. As a writer, I find him to be an enthralling subject. From the perspective of a music fan, he’s had an untouchable, if often invisible influence over a huge amount of the music that we listen to today. And as someone who’s always up for a bit of controversy and scandal, his life and story is a gossip goldmine.

One of the most interesting things to observe about the legacy of Serge Gainsbourg is the difference in reaction to his presence and work in his home country of France and in the UK. In France, the man was and continues to be regarded as a legend. Without Serge Gainsbourg, the French music scene wouldn’t be what it is today for many reasons; Serge Gainsbourg was amongst the first to release a reggae album in France, he wrote Eurovision winning songs, he got Brigitte Bardot to make noises like these, and he caused worldwide outrage with just one, four minute song.

Back here in the UK, even if he wasn’t particularly well known for the majority of his musical output, he was the first person to have a UK number one single sung in a language other than English, and he was also the first ever artist to have a number one single that had been banned from being broadcast by the BBC, the country’s most influential radio programmers. For a long time, the majority of British people knew of Gainsbourg because of his scandalous antics, but his reputation here in the UK has begun to change over the past few years. This is, in part thanks to Joann Sfar’s wonderful biopic Vie Héroïque which was released in independent cinemas across the UK in 2010, and the fact that his daughter has grown up to be the outstanding actress and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg has also cast a great deal more favour in the French crooner’s direction.

His life was certainly colourful, it was certainly full of controversy and it inspired some incredible music. 2011, more than any other year has been the opportune moment to reflect upon the life and times of this chanteur as the 2nd March was the 20th anniversary of the death of Serge Gainsbourg. This year also marks 40 years since the release of his seminal concept album, Histoire de Melody Nelson which, in commemoration and celebration of this anniversary, has been remastered and reissued.

As is the case with many great albums, when Histoire de Melody Nelson was released back in 1971, it wasn’t a huge commercial success. This wasn’t of particular concern to Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who provided the voice of the main character Melody Nelson, as in 1971 they were still very much reaping the rewards of the gamble that could potentially have killed both of their careers, the 1969 release of the highly controversial single and album ‘Je t’aime… Moi non plus’. Having awarded his record company substantial success, Gainsbourg was given license to create more or less whatever he wanted to with his next album. The result? An orchestral based concept album, featuring a Lolita-esque story line and some of the most beautifully woven string arrangements to have ever found a home on a pop record.

Serge Gainsbourg – Melody Nelson.

Histoire de Melody Nelson opens with a spoken word, electric guitar led song which introduces the plot and the main character of the album, the young, red headed Melody Nelson who is knocked from her bicycle by the Rolls Royce driving narrator (Gainsbourg). As the album progresses, the listener is taken on a journey through genre and through time, a twisting and sometimes twisted tale of a middle aged man falling in love with a young girl. The relationship develops over a series of 6 stunning tracks, before song seven, ‘Cargo Culte’, delivers the young girl’s untimely death. Poor old accident prone Melody.

Clueless as to what they were hoping to achieve with this new record, Gainsbourg and a bright, young composer named Jean-Claude Vannier embarked upon the creation of Histoire de Melody Nelson, enlisting the intriguing, childlike vocal of Jane Birkin and not allowing themselves to be constrained by any manner of genre constricting practice. The record sold respectably well upon release, but didn’t reach anywhere near the commercial success of Gainsbourg’s previous album. The record company, and to an extent Gainsbourg and Vannier themselves considered the record to be a flop.

What the duo didn’t count on was the enormous influence that the album would have over musicians in the future. Histoire de Melody Nelson is a record which has been cited as hugely inspirational for a large number of modern artists. Beck’s 2002 album Sea Change for example was heavily influenced by Histoire de Melody Nelson, both musically and conceptually. Artists from Portishead right through to De La Soul have either used recording techniques, taken inspiration from or covered tracks from the album. In 2006, the album was reproduced live at the Barbican in London, with chief string arranger Jean-Claude Vannier performing alongside artists such as Gruff Rhys, Mick Harvey and long time Gainsbourg advocate, Jarvis Cocker. A similar project was undertaken at the Hollywood Bowl this summer, featuring performances of tracks from all throughout Gainsbourg’s career, performed by the likes of Zola Jesus, Mike Patton, Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.

Histoire de Melody Nelson has very quietly, very unexpectedly but very deservedly become heralded as Gainsbourg’s most important work and on its 40th birthday, this reissue is a great way to celebrate that fact. Along with a track that was omitted from the original release of the record, ‘Melody lit Babar’ and plenty of alternative vocal and musical edits, this latest edition of the album provides a real insight into the recording sessions of Histoire de Melody Nelson, as does the 40 minute long DVD that’s included. Featuring interviews with all of the major players on the record, a Gainsbourg super fan is given the chance to witness clips of the recording sessions and to hear about the unwitting path that Gainsbourg and Vannier trod together in Vannier’s very own words.

For an album which many considered to be among Gainsbourg’s least successful releases, Histoire de Melody Nelson has become something of a cult classic. The superb quality of the recordings, enhanced even more on the recently released, remastered edition of the record is remarkable upon each listen, as is the poetry of Gainsbourg’s spoken word. This album is a mere 28 minutes long, but one of the most absorbing journeys that one will travel, one that has stood the test of time, and one that becomes more and more important as time goes by.

The remastered version of Histoire de Melody Nelson is available through Mercury, along with a 40 minute DVD featuring inteviews with those involved with the creation of the record and featuring plenty of brilliant footage of Serge himself.