Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Etoiles [Original recording remastered, Import]

Serge Gainsbourg | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered, Import
• Label: Mercury Import
• ASIN: B00009PM56
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,152 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overseas Telegram

2. Ecce Homo

3. Mickey Maousse

4. Juif Et Dieu

5. Shush Shush Charlotte

6. Toi Mourir

7. La Nostalgie Camarade

8. Bana Basadi Balalo

9. Evguenie Sokolov

10. Negusa Nagast

11. Strike

12. Bad News From The Stars

13. Ecce Homo Et Caetera

14. Overseas Dub

15. Dub Homo

16. Dub Maousse

17. Juif Et Dub

18. Dub Charlotte

19. Toi Dub

20. Nostalgie Dub

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Full title - Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles. Reissue of 1981 album features a new Jamaican mix & a bonus disc with 21 tracks, 'Overseas Dub', 'Dub Homo', 'Dub Maousse', 'Juif Et Dub', 'Dub Charlotte', 'Toi Dub', 'Nostalgie Dub', 'Bana Basadi Dub', 'Strik

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gainsbourg + Sly & Robbie + The I-Threes = a real treat....., December 18, 2010

By 

Mr. P. S. Rapaport (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Etoiles (Audio CD)

'Aux Armes Et Caetera' is usually cited as Gainsbourg's most celebrated foray into reggae but this superb album - not even given a UK or US release when it was recorded in 1981 - is arguably superior. Sly & Robbie are at their majesterial best and the I-Threes - Judy Mowatt, Rita Marley and Marcia Griffith - provide sumptuous backing vocals throughout (and on the final track, lead vocals). It's hard to fathom quite how seriously Gainsbourg himself was taking it all when he recorded this masterpiece in the Bahamas. Most of the time he sounds so laid back as to be virtually horizontal and track 9 is a typical slice of puerile Serge mischief (three minutes of farting). But that driving rhythm section and the beautiful female harmonies turn every other track into a gem. I don't speak fluent French so I can't testify to the lyrical profundity or lack of it, but the album's title translates as 'Bad News From The Stars'. The cover portrait on the original issue (white) sleeve is by celebrated UK fashion/portrait photographer David Bailey.

This is brilliant dinner party backing music, guaranteed to relax even the most stressed-out hyperactive. A magical album to pick up if you can find a copy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was reading the previous reviews...,, December 12, 2011

By 

The Shave Butler - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Etoiles (Audio CD)

...and this album it's far most than that!!

For some of us who had the privilege to see him alive on stage, in the 70's and 80's - this disc was his reggae era and influenced by Bob Marley - no one can denie his personality: audacious, provocative, eccentric and not taking himself too seriously ("I'm like Mickey Mouse, big ears [indeed, indeed...] and long..."queue"!!")

One day he was on TV, burning a FRF 500 notebank (a huge sum at the time, obviously, and illegal...) alive and in direct; other day saying, in prime time show, he wanna' f**k Witney Houston, or as in the previous album to this one("Aux Armes et Caetera")composing it's own interpretation of the National French Anthem "La Marseillaise" where the sentence "Aux armes, Citoyens.." was changed to "...etc..." Of course, some live concerts were stopped, when the song began, by Air Force Military Commandos (the mood was electrical!!) and other ones simply annuled!!

But, as the sicilian proverb says "La Vendetta se mangia fredda..." later he buyed the original De Lilles's Anthem manuscript for FRF 135,000.00, where it's written and by author's "manu propria": "Aux armes Citoyens...etc"!!

He will say, "La Marseillaise is a revolution "musique" (in french, meaning song...),Reggae music is a Revolution music too, I don't understand all the fuss about..."

So all his life was sulfurous...Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot (hear "Je T'Aime" or "Bonnie and Clyde" songs), he knew where beauty was!!

A song recorded with is daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, today a singer too, but at the time 8/9 or 10 years old named..."Lemon Incest", added some more powder to fire: it was videotaped with both of them on...bed!!

Today such things are regular on tabloids and pink press, even organized on schedule, or "there is no such thing as bad publicity!!" That said it's very difficult to take apart the man from the legend, and it's true, he had a slight heart stroke, but never ceased his regular "diet": alchool and Gitanes Noires cigs'(a french typical bitter, harsh and brownish/black tobacco blend)smoking them always on stage or TV clips, as his trademark (is there a cig' on this cover?!)!!And play the same game on others albums!!

But none of these things must hidden a simple fact: he was a truly genius, provocative and all (and add your own musical taste here...) his discs are today, how to say it..."Classical"!!So Classical and global as Mozart, Beethoven, Elvis, Bowie, The Stones or Miles Davis and same personnal eccentricity, but composing too beautiful and perfect songs!!

That said, and under this light, Evgueny Solokof song was just a gag and "agent provocateur" as always!! When on TV prime time interviews, all people stopped to watch "...C'mon guys, there's Gainsbourg on TV, he gonna' burn the house, you'll see, and we'll laught 'till tomorrow morning..." No need to say, next days,all newspapers and magazines were talking about!!

Gainsbourg as a "bad boy" reincarnated a very french way of life and music.Along the eras (from 60'S 'till 90'S) and on all albums, he cristalysed his own aesthetical point of view, making it part of general french taste and, today consensual, excellent and globalized music, in my humble opinion.No doubt about his influence, still today, on a myriad of song-writers and actual singers.Time told it, in fact!!

And please, if you don't have any disc of this wonderful singer and just want one, you must buy the conceptual and wonderful "L' Histoire de Mélodie Nelson"!!

Serge, R.I.P. Your genius is missed today!!

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars el sabor franco del reggae, August 18, 2007

By 

Arturo Miranda Videgaray (MEXICO D.F., D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Etoiles (Audio CD)

Edición que incluye la versión original en un cd, y otro mas con remezclas del álbum original.
Propuesta muy interesante y sentida, un ritmo cadente que atrapa irremediablemente, aunque creo que le falta el sentimiento jamaiquino que hace del reggae un ritmo irresistible.
Muy decorosa propuesta, muy bien ejecutada que muestra el gran oficio del compositor.