The manic and problematic concept of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Histoire de Melody Nelson’
He may well have earned himself a reputation for pushing things too far towards the debauched with his risqué 1969 hit, ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, performed alongside his then partner Jane Birkin, but remarkably, this is nowhere near the most controversial aspect of Serge Gainsbourg‘s career.
The sounds of simulated bonking heard on their chart-topping single turned many people against the Frenchman, inciting something of a moral panic amongst listeners who weren’t particularly keen on the idea of their ears being pumped full of such smut. In reality, the song probably wouldn’t be considered particularly racy by today’s standards, but back then, it was exactly the sort of thing that could whip up a storm of controversy.
But while that’s the song he’s best known for, he actually spent large amounts of his career doubling down on being a controversial figure, with his 1971 masterpiece album being a prime example of his ability to push buttons with lyrics that covered sensitive topics. Of course, the fact that he almost exclusively wrote in his native tongue of French meant that only Francophone nations around the world had a reason to be outraged, but at home, it was seen as another provocative piece from the enfant terrible.
Histoire de Melody Nelson is, to put it in the most plainly obvious terms, an album about falling for a teenage girl. The sexually-charged nature of what had come before was obviously a slight taboo, but Gainsbourg had clearly overstepped a line by making the object of his desire a minor, and if that wasn’t already morbid enough on its own, the fact that by the end of the album, she’s killed in a horrific plane crash only makes the concept a little more concerning.
Understandably, the public who understood what was going on in the lyrics took offence to Gainsbourg’s story, but for those who couldn’t understand the lyrical content, he had the courtesy to make sure they could also experience the same level of outrage by getting Birkin to pose topless on the cover as the 14-year-old protagonist.
Birkin was, admittedly, 25 years of age by this point, but the intention was obvious in his desire to create something that was shocking, which was underpinned by the fact that Gainsbourg’s narrator takes the virginity of the titular Melody Nelson before she boards the fatal flight back to Sunderland.
Nothing about the album’s concept would be acceptable in today’s standards, and it certainly wasn’t at the time either, but in terms of musicality, it’s regarded as Gainsbourg’s masterpiece, with inventive funk rock being laced with luscious string arrangements that try to add sexiness to an otherwise dismal state of affairs.
It’s also far from the last time that Gainsbourg would flirt with hebephiliac tendencies in his music, with his 1985 song ‘Lemon Incest’, being an extremely unsubtle song released alongside his then 13-year-old daughter, Charlotte, that has a completely repugnant tone about it.
Gainsbourg’s various crossings of sexual taboos in his music made him a controversial figure for sure, but one whose art, no matter how repulsive some might think it is, has continued to be hugely influential to the rest of the world.
