Although the ultimate Serge/Jane recording is generally considered the wildly scandalous ‘J’ Taime…Moi Non Plus’, with Birkin’s climactic orgasm managing to get the song banned almost world-wide, my favorite S&J duet is ’69–Annee Erotique’. Above is an unconvincing (but entertaining) mock-performance of the song in a faux concert setting. The
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqfd5xZZ30Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Dyxq2kw-c In 1969 Serge Gainsbourg starred in a French film called ‘Slogan’. It was the story of a film director played by Gainsbourg named Serge Fabergé who leaves his pregnant wife Françoise to attend an advertising award festival in Venice. There, he meets Evelyne, a young British woman played by Jane
Here is a remarkably cool musical short from 1964 featuring Serge Gainsbourg in his first iteration as suave, well-dressed, cool and disaffected young Parisian. (As the week continues we’ll get to the later loutish, unshaven, drunken and darkly funny Serge). This appears to have been made as a television featurette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6gjzNm6dA0 Yesterday I read an article about Serge Gainsbourg’s long shuttered house in Paris. Apparently the singer’s daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, has decided to let the public in and see the delightfully eclectic, memorabilia-filled digs, which have been preserved–Gitane cluttered ashtrays and all– just as the great French pop icon left
In September of 1965 the newly internationally famous David McCallum (who died earlier this week at age 90) made an appearance on singer Andy Williams network variety program. The above will show you A) that McCullum was low-key, charming and game for anything and B) that Williams, though popular in
The recently deceased actor David McCallum was born into a serious musical family–his father was an accomplished enough violinist to be named first chair (and thus technical leader) of the London Philharmonic. McCallum himself was trained as as Oboe player before stumbling (so it seems) into his career as an
The Marx Brothers were of German Jewish orgin and thus grew up steeped in German culture and language. One of Groucho’s true delights in life (and I don’t think there were many of them) was performing a German novelty song called ‘Schnitzel Bank’ and above we see him do so
There’s nothing really to say about the 20th Century show-biz phenomenon known as Liberace (birth name: ‘Wladziu Valentina Liberace’). Perhaps best to quote the opening of ‘The Song Of Bernadette’: “To those who believe, no explanation is necessary; to those who don’t believe, no explanation is possible.” Below are three
In keeping with this weeks exploration of the easy listening pianists of yore, today I’ve posted three delightful (if you’re in that kind of mood) videos featuring the twin-piano act Ferrante and Teicher, a duo of American pianists known for their clever arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOtgigQp_nshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PJ4KUFynlk Yesterday I posted two clips of Roger Williams, the most successful of the so-called ‘easy listening’ pianists of the 1950, 60s and beyond. But before Williams came several other influential and ground-breaking pianists in this highly specialized and often unfairly derided field of music. Chief among them was Carmen