He was born Lucien Ginzburg in Paris, France, the son of Jewish Russian parents who fled to France after the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. His childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, during which he and his family, as Jews, were forced to wear the yellow star and eventually flee from Paris. He had a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, with English singer and actress Jane Birkin; and a son, Lulu, with his last partner, Bambou (Caroline Von Paulus, who is related to Friedrich Paulus). Before he was 30 years old, Lucien Ginsburg was a disillusioned painter but earned his living as a piano player in bars. Daughter Charlotte would later become an actress and singer.
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. Performed by French teen singer France Gall, it won the grand prize. (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. Another of Serge's songs "Boum Bada Boum" was entered in by Monaco in the 1967 contest, sung by Minouche Barelli; It came 5th.
In 1969, he released what would become his most famous song in the English-speaking world, "Je t'aime... moi non plus", which featured simulated sounds of female orgasm. The song appeared that year on an LP, "Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg". Originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot, it was released with future girlfriend Birkin when Bardot backed out. 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. Even the Vatican made a public statement citing the song as offensive. Its notoriety led it to reaching no. 1 in the UK singles chart. A long-standing rumor maintains that Gainsbourg and Birkin were actually having sex during the recording session (asked about it in an interview, Gainsbourg answered that if this was true, the song would have lasted longer than 4 minutes).
The seventies
His most influential work came near the start of the seventies with Histoire de Melody Nelson, released in 1971. This concept album, produced and arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, tells the story of a Lolita-esque affair, with Gainsbourg as the narrator and Jane Birkin as the eponymous English heroine. It features prominent string arrangements and even a massed choir at its tragic climax. At the time, sales were poor, but the album has proven influential with artists such as Air, David Holmes and Beck.
In 1975, he released the album Rock Around the Bunker, a rock album written entirely on the subject of the Nazis. Gainsbourg used black humour, as he and his family suffered during World War II. While a child in Paris, Gainsbourg himself had worn the Yellow badge as the mark of a Jew.
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. This song earned him death threats from right-wing veterans of the Algerian War of Independence who were opposed to certain lyrics. Shortly afterwards, Gainsbourg bought the original manuscript of La Marseillaise. He was able to reply to his critics that his version was, in fact, closer to the original as the manuscript clearly shows the words "Aux armes et cætera..." for the chorus.
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. His appearances seemed devoted to his controversial sense of humour and provocation. He would frequently show up drunk and unshaven on stage. Perhaps his most famous incident came when, on Michel Drucker's live Saturday evening show with the American singer Whitney Houston, he exclaimed, "I want to fuck her."
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. It came second in a tie with Ireland. 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)." The title of the latter demonstrates Gainsbourg's love of puns (another example is "Bowie, Beau oui comme Bowie").
Discography :
1958 : Du Chant À La Une !
1959 : Serge Gainsbourg N°2
1961 : L'étonnant Serge Gainsbourg
1962 : Serge Gainsbourg N° 4
1963 : Gainsbourg Confidentiel
1964 : Gainsbourg Percussions
1968 : Initials B.B.
1968 : Bonnie And Clyde ( with Brigitte Bardot )
1969 : Jane Birkin-Serge Gainsbourg
1971 : Histoire de Melody Nelson ( with Jane Birkin )
1973 : Vu de l'extérieur
1975 : Rock around the bunker
1976 : L'Homme à tête de chou
1979 : Aux armes et cætera
1981 : Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Étoiles
1984 : Love on the Beat
1987 : You're Under Arrest
Black and White
Serge Gainsbourg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Qui buvait du lait
Ah! Se disait-elle
Si je le pouvais
Tremper ma figure
Dans mon bol de lait
Je serais plus blanche
Que tous les Anglais
Un Britannique
Devant son chocolat
Ah! Se disait-il
Et pourquoi ne pas
Tremper ma figure
Dans ce machin-là
Je serais plus noir
Qu'un Noir du Kenya
Une intellectuelle
Qui buvait du thé
Ah! Se disait-elle
Si je le pouvais
Tremper ma figure
Dans ma tasse de thé
Je serais plus jaune
Que les filles du Yang-Tsé
Un Américain
Qui buvait du sang
Ah! Se disait-il
Si j'avais le temps
De tremper ma figure
Dans mon bol de sang
Je serais plus rouge
Qu'un Mohican
The song "Black and White" by Serge Gainsbourg is a poignant reflection on the arbitrary nature of race and ethnic identity. The lyrics describe four individuals from different backgrounds who each imagine that by dipping their face into a liquids that represent their cultural identity, they could change their race. The first protagonist is a black woman who drinks milk and wishes to be white, while the second is a British man who consumes chocolate and imagines being blacker than a Kenyan. The third figure is an intellectual who drinks tea and wants to become more Asian, and the fourth is an American man who drinks blood and wishes to be more Native American.
The song is a commentary on the way that society creates and enforces racial categories that have no inherent biological or genetic basis. The notion that a person's skin color or ethnicity has any significance outside of the social and historical contexts in which they are created is a fallacy, and the song highlights this by showing the ridiculousness of the characters' desires to change their race in such an artificial way. Furthermore, the song suggests that these identities are not fixed, but are rather fluid and can be redefined or subverted, as the characters in the song imagine doing.
Overall, Gainsbourg's "Black and White" is a thought-provoking and challenging work that encourages listeners to question the assumptions and biases underlying their own perceptions of race and identity.
Line by Line Meaning
Une négresse
A black woman
Qui buvait du lait
Drinking milk
Ah! Se disait-elle
She said to herself
Si je le pouvais
If I could
Tremper ma figure
Dip my face
Dans mon bol de lait
In my bowl of milk
Je serais plus blanche
I would be whiter
Que tous les Anglais
Than all the English people
Un Britannique
A British man
Devant son chocolat
In front of his chocolate
Ah! Se disait-il
He said to himself
Et pourquoi ne pas
And why not
Tremper ma figure
Dip my face
Dans ce machin-là
In this thingy
Je serais plus noir
I would be blacker
Qu'un Noir du Kenya
Than a Kenyan black person
Une intellectuelle
An intellectual
Qui buvait du thé
Drinking tea
Ah! Se disait-elle
She said to herself
Si je le pouvais
If I could
Tremper ma figure
Dip my face
Dans ma tasse de thé
In my tea cup
Je serais plus jaune
I would be yellower
Que les filles du Yang-Tsé
Than the girls from the Yangtze
Un Américain
An American
Qui buvait du sang
Drinking blood
Ah! Se disait-il
He said to himself
Si j'avais le temps
If I had the time
De tremper ma figure
To dip my face
Dans mon bol de sang
In my bowl of blood
Je serais plus rouge
I would be redder
Qu'un Mohican
Than a Mohican
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Serge Gainsbourg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Elian
on Ford Mustang
We're swapping spits / We're snorting lines [double entendre] (On s' fait des "lines")
In a Ford Mustang
And then, "Bang"
We're banging in [triple entendre]
To the plane trees / And then, "Bang," we're getting high ("embrasser les platanes = planer" [ French] (=to get high)
"Mus" to the left
"Tang" to the right
And to the left, to the right
A windshield wiper
A pack of Kool
A badge with the inscription
"Keep Cool"
A bar of
Chocolate
A Coca-Cola
We're swapping spits / We're snorting lines
In a Ford Mustang
And then, "Bang"
We're banging in
To the plane trees
"Mus" to the left
"Tang" to the right
And to the left, to the right
A bottle
Of make-up fluid
A flashgun
A Browning (automatic pistol)
A phonograph
A volume
Of Edgar A. Poe
And a plain brass ZIPPO
We're swapping spits / We're snorting lines
In a Ford Mustang
And then, "Bang"
We're banging in
To the plane trees
"Mus" to the left
"Tang" to the right
And to the left, to the right
An edition
Of Superman
A nut from
Paco
Rabanne
A pic of
Marilyn
A tube of aspirin
We're swapping spits / We're snorting lines
In a Ford Mustang
And then, "Bang"
We're banging in
To the plane trees
"Mus" to the left
"Tang" to the right
And to the left, to the right