Review of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Histoire De Melody Nelson”
By Lindsey Darden
Originally released in 1971, Serge Gainsbourg‘s concept album – Histoire De Melody Nelson - is on a level that discreetly supersedes most other contemporary works. Those familiar with Gainsbourg’s affinity with most things sensual won’t find issue with the far-from-innocent love story featuring himself as narrator and British actress Jane Birkin as a teenaged Melody (the jean-clad knockout with the monkey doll on the album cover – taboo much?).
Starting off with our narrator driving down the road in his Rolls Royce and into the young beauty on her bicycle, we are quick to find that it is Gainsbourg who is left with bluebirds circling around his head – lovestruck, pummeled by lust. The progression of their tumultuous love affair is laid-out from inception, to consummation, to eventual tragic end in the chanson style, provocative and engaging in a way that the most open of minds can entertain.
Thick layers of funk, deep bass tones, and symphonic overtures are joined at the hip with stirring classic rock guitar rifts, which assist in relaying aspects of the human condition usually kept under wraps, at least in such colorful phrases – for example, the soft, nearly-tangible feelings that ambush one’s senses when falling in love (“Ah! Melody”),or the raucous state of mind when having been had between dewy sheets, and the warm afterglow to follow (“L’Hotel Particlulier”; “En Melody”).
The benefit of it being a story – loosely based on Gainsbourg’s and Birkin’s relationship – grants one permission to get caught up a situation frowned upon by society, to jump in headfirst and deal with the consequences later. And the benefit of it being a work of Serge Gainsbourg is the personable quality throughout, coupled with his knack of weaving alluring imagery with rollercoaster emotion. However spoken and sung entirely in French, one cannot mistake what sounds like the phrase, “spirit of ecstasy”, leaping out from the measures. It goes without saying that its placement is far from coincidence.
Histoire De Melody Nelson will be released on March 24.
Photo via Light in the Attic
