Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson

Writing about Dashiell Hedayat's French psychedelic manifesto made me think of another shock I had in the French chanson field years later, when I found out that French provocateur Serge Gainsbourg not only released quirky and slightly misogynistic hit tunes, but also recorded a jaw-dropping concept album. Boomer alert: we're going to talk about one of the greatest pop albums ever made, up there next to Abbey Road. Pristine 1975 copy.

I don't feel particularly at ease with telling the Melody Nelson story, a story that has been told many times by extremely knowledgeable people. Nor do I think this page is the right place for it. So, no Jean-Claude Vannier, no L'Enfant Assasin des Mouches anecdotes here, all you need to know about Histoire de Melody Nelson is easily available online, in all languages. 

My wish is rather to introduce this well-kept boomer's secret to a new audience, that did not attend gloomy record fairs and dusty stores, and thus, have not necessarily been lectured about Gainsbourg by older men. Because I think it's worth discovering, no matter what year it is; though definitely a product of its time (big male chauvinism energy), Melody Nelson is undeniably complex, sophisticated and coherent - both musically and thematically - to a degree few LP's ever reached. And I mean it. It's been a while since I last listened to it before I played it today, and once again, not only was I mindblown out by about everything that this album combines (sumptuous arrangements, Gainsbourg's idiosyncratic singing / murmuring and an inimitable fin de siècle atmosphere), but it was a sensuous, genuinely bewitching experience; the kind that excites imagination and opens doors to sultry hotels, silent boudoirs and luxurious rooms furbished with canopy beds. Beautiful 1975 copy (VG++/VG++).

Tracklist

1. Melody
2. Ballade de Melody Nelson
3. Valse de Melody
4. Ah! Melody
5. L'Hôtel Particulier
6. En Melody
7. Cargo Culte