Customer Reviews

Comic Strip

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where most compilations fail, this one succeeds. Rather than trying to paint a picture of Gainsbourg's entire output, "Comic Strip" focuses on the artist's output from the late 60s, the period most regard as his peak.

While there are a few arguably important songs from the late 60s that are absent here, the track selection is excellent overall. 'Comic Strip' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' highlight Gainsbourg's work with Brigitte Bardot. 'Requiem pour un Con' is a timeless wonder. But what really impresses about this CD is that it does not try to merely provide a greatest hits package. Lesser known songs such as 'Ford Mustang' and 'Un Poison Violent' are welcome additions.

And as the album progresses we get Gainsbourg's late 60s output, accented by his collaboration with Jane Birkin in 'Soixante-Neuf Année Erotique.'

There were a plethora or songs that Gainsbourg wrote very other artists, so his value is doubly important. 'Les Sucettes' and 'Sous le Soleil Exactement' are great examples, and the inclusion of his own versions are very welcome indeed.

This is a wonderful overview of the peak of the most influential French songwriter ever, a man who still casts a large shadow of influence over modern day French, American, and British artists. A very smart buy to become familiar with his work....

I gave 4 stars instead of 5 because a few of these songs are a bit annoying and not for all tastes. But many other songs are absolutely indispensable:

"Bonnie and Clyde" (in French, despite its title) sounds like it could have come off of "The Velvet Undergound & Nico" album (one of the all-time greats). (His companions in his duets serve the same purpose as Nico, who herself was a model/actress not espeically known for her singing.)

"Je t'aime...moi non plus" is a legendary song that hasn't aged; the organ reminds me of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale."

"Chatterton" and "Requiem pour un con" sound incredibly contemporary - the first time I heard them, I thought they must be re-mixed versions (they aren't) because the beats seem influenced by hip-hop.

"Soixante neuf anne erotique" is pure bubblegum, a perfect song, and a nice companion piece to "Je t'aime." "Sous le soleil exactement" and "Les Sucettes" (with its wah-wah guitar in the background) are strange and beautiful songs. Other songs have the same experimental flavor found on late Beatles albums: "Comic Strip," "Ford Mustang," "Hold Up." A couple songs (especially "L'anamour") are Francoise Hardy-type Ye-Ye pop songs.

Every French rock collection should contain many of these songs; so should any collection of '60s psychedelic/California music.

For those who are unfamiliar, Serge Gainsbourg is (was) a French songwriter and performer who sang almost exclusively in his native language. Comic Strip focuses on pop material that he recorded between 1966 and 1969. If the age of the material or language puts you off, then I appreciate this opportunity to convince you otherwise. First of all, the French lyrics only add to the strange mystery of the music, while these songs sound remarkably contemporary. Imagine a pop song that consists of percussion loops and rhythm samples, recorded in 1967! The leadoff track "Requiem pour un Con" (translated as "Requiem for a Jerk") is just that, with a rhythm that sounds as if it were constructed by the most contemporary urban producer. Since he sings entirely in French, dweebs like me can't understand a thing except for the occasional American phrase that pops up - "Bonnie and Clyde", "Ford Mustang", etc.
Comic Strip can best be described as droll camp. Gainsbourg sings as though he were mocking the musical forms that he is embracing, giving each track a coy sexiness that permeates the entire project. In its time, "Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus" (translated as "I Love You...Neither Do I") was considered so sexy that it was banned in numerous countries, while Brigitte Bardot (!) provides guest vocals on "Bonnie and Clyde". Imagine Ray Davies as an ugly, sensuous Frenchman with a taste for the theatricality of lounge music super-hero Esquivel, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what this collections sounds like. Throughout, Gainsbourg's songs sound like a product of the ambitious sixties (which they are), even though he ignores what everybody else was doing. Simply put, he was an iconoclast who hammered out a niche that is his alone. Pardon my French, but Comic Strip has a certain `gene se qoi'. A- Tom Ryan

Some of the most invigorating, creative, loopy pop music ever created. Bonnie and Clyde, Initials BB, Comic Strip and Ford Mustang are aural delights that rank with the best work being done during the highly creative pop music scene of the late 60s. A wonder to behold, the most joyful work of one of the great geniuses of the 20th century.

comic Strip is an amazing collection of Serge Gainsbourg's Pop years. And what years they were: after listening to this CD one would think he was from 1996, not 1966. His influence on today's music is striking, and worth a listen.

This is a must CD for any serious music fans.

Pop music in France in the mid-60's was in the pits, but it was exploding over in England, so Gainsbourg decided to do this album in London with English studio musicians. I'd say that about half the songs are good. It was the beginning of the "Shocking Serge" phase of his career; he started out as a Left Bank singer-songwriter who developed a nicely ironic approach--e.g. the "Javanese" album. Then he started going for high-publicity stunts, like "Je t'aime". If you can find a version with Brigitte Barbot instead of Jane Birkin, it's better: Brigitte really knew how to moan and breathe heavy. Anyway, while always denying he was out for publicity, Gainsbourg kept manufacturing one scandal after another into the '70's, like the reggae version of "La Marseillaise", or the song "Lemon Incest" which he sang as a duet with his daughter Charlotte, or into the '80's with his songs about S&M, until he became a self-parody. He even created a persona for this self-parody, i.e. a character named "Gainsbarre".

Anyway, back to "Comic Strip". Gainsbourg was always experimenting with new styles and when he picked a style, he always got legitimate musicians of that style to accompany him. When he dabbled in Brazilian music, he got Brazilian musicians; when he did reggae, he got musicians from Kingston; when he did Mod Pop, like on this album, he got English Mods to do it. A lot of it sounds dated and the lyrics sometimes aren't all that clever, but I guess that's part of the reason there is Gainsbourg mania in the U.S.; good lounge music has to be at least somewhat stylistically passe.

When Gainsbourg was 'on' he could be very good; he could also produce the kind of terrible recorded pap that makes struggling new bands wonder how he kept employed. This CD spares much of the agonizing misses and gives us a generous hand of surprising hits that mythologized a true pop-icon.

Anyway, if Serge is forever a talented hack, a visionary who can't sing and coasted along on playboy faux-cool, well it is his ultimate triumph that he pulled it off. Chutzpah, the mother.

I like the strange little guy. He was a perv and a freak but he represented a certain breezy raison d'etre, and nailed various hot ladies eventually to co-produce Charlotte, a daughter as lovely and charming as... such a man could hope for.

COMIC STRIP is the one Gainsbourg you'll ever need - fun and silly and so very French. Good to confound houseguests who won't know it that well but will asume it must be hip.

Ok, this rocks...rocks beyond rockage...in a really dated, I can't speak French sort of way. Let's start off with Requiem Por Un Con....this sounds so current, and hypnotic. You could just believe you are listening to a 35 year old recording...and then the next cut...you are slam bang in 1966 ...Bonnie and Clyde? With Bridget Bardot? And then Comic Strip? with Bridget, the world's sexiest woman, singing Shebang, plop, boom, whiz.... Oh this is a dizzyingly strange work which never fails to surprise the listener. All the way to the last cut......I'm not going to give it away....BUT YOU AINT GONNA BELIEVE THIS...and all the way to the liner notes, talking about how ugly Serge was and how he came onto Whitney Houston....All in all, if you never heard about Serge before, you will suddenly feel yourself entering into a cult, french, pop culture megacomplex, Sergeland....and you will love it.

You know how you supposedly shouldn't do that? Well, take a good look at the cover of this record - it sounds EXACTLY like that. If that's a good thing or no, depends on what you're into.

A stunning combination ranging from the upbeat to the melancholic, Gainsbourg's cynical and witty perspective is apparent throughout. A masterpeice of Gallic genius, this compilation is only enchanced by appearances from the sex kitten icons of the seventies, Bardot and Birkin.