Gainsbourg Overdose, Part 6: La Marseillaise

This was supposed to be the second installment of my loose translation of Gainsbourg's appearance on Le jeu de la vérité back in 1984. But it didn't work out that way. Because the Serge Gainsbourg obsession is multifaceted and doesn't follow a straight and narrow path.

I knew that Serge Gainsbourg did a reggae album in '79, went to Kingston and recorded with Sly and Robbie, using Bob Marley's backup singers, and that one of the songs he did was his own interpretation of La Marseillaise (the song in this video), which pissed off right-wingers. You probably know that, too. But I didn't know the whole story until I watched this clip from French TV. If you don't know the whole story and don't understand French, here's what happened:

After recording the album, Gainsbourg then toured France with the group from Jamaica. He hadn't been on stage in like 15 years because he had developed stage fright after a shitty tour with French chanteuse Barbara. The tour in '80 did not go smoothly. Gainsbourg and the Jamaicans received a bomb threat at their hotel and concerts were attended by military groups who tried to stop the show. You will see Gainsbourg chewing out these extremists live at a concert in Strasbourg in the clip mentioned above. THEN... a couple years later... Gainsbourg went on to BUY the original copy of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, at an auction. He paid 130,000 francs for it in the mid-80s. I want to call that the last laugh but it's more complex and poetic than that.

It's hard not to want to be hungover and chain smoking watching this video, but caveat emptor: it doesn't look good on everyone.