Daddy Dearest

Comments (0) By Michael Leaverton Wednesday, Mar 24 2010

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Singer Serge Gainsbourg – rake, libertine, lizard king – died when he was 62, young enough for him still to be making oozy, boozy, lecherous public appearances, like the one where he told Whitney Houston he wanted to fuck her on live television. (Houston gasped, Gainsbourg imagined thunderous applause, and the host went full French: "Sometimes he's a bit drunk, you know.") There's so much to say about Serge – the sexacapades, the scandals, is he Pepe le Pew or what? – but as someone may have said about Paris in the '20s: What about the music? Bardot a Go Go's Serge Gainsbourg Birthday Party puts that center stage, and there are any number of years in Gainsbourg's long, many-genre-ed career that DJs Brother Grimm, Pink Frankenstein, and Cali Kid can lean on. Here's a couple we hope they do: 1967, when Gainsbourg fell in with Bridget Bardot. They rented a movie and created the double aught blast of French romanticism to the gut, "Bonnie and Clyde," with the two French singers saying "Bo-knee" so French in their French way. And 1969, when Gainsbourg fell in with Jane Birkin, and they recorded "Je t'aime...moi non plus," and she had orgasm halfway through the track, and they had a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, who's recently been having extraordinary sex with Willem Dafoe on camera and making good music of her own (notably 2009's IRM). Anyway, like we said, there are hundreds of moments of Serge-cool to choose from. You can make some of your own, too: Just imagine you drove up with God, close your eyes halfway, add alcohol, and dance like you're wearing a French tickler.
Sat., April 3, 9 p.m., 2010