What you didn’t know about Serge Gainsbourg. 95 years ago, the interpreter of the scandalous song I love you was born

“I am not of this world. I am of no world,” Gainsbourg once said. Maybe he really was. His family always seemed to lack space. In 1919, his parents, graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, had to leave their old life behind the ship, hurriedly leaving the Crimean coast. After the October Revolution, a family of educated baptized Jews had to leave their home and go in search of a new home. After a series of moves, they finally settle in Paris. Then fascism came to France and forced them apart again, now with little Lucien and his sisters in their arms. They happened to wear a yellow star on their chest, then hide under false names to save their lives. Memories of these terrible events will forever remain in the memory of the great artist.The maestro called his best PR man the Pope, who officially condemned and banned his new song Je t’aime… moi non plus (“I love you. I don’t have you either”). The languorous and seductive moans of Jane Birkin, clearly audible on the recording, surprised more than one. The radios refused to broadcast it, people condemned it for having taken too much liberty. But the attention of the Roman pontiff caused such a surge of interest that the song became the best-selling song in France and a hit in Europe.
The artist himself did not consider himself beautiful by any means, but his unsurpassed sense of smell and charisma turned the heads of the brightest women of that time: Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Levitsky, Francoise Pankrazzi. But the “woman of his life” whom Serge’s relatives call the touching Jane Birkin, whom Gainsbourg at first found completely indescribable. In her memoirs, Jane describes a violent quarrel, for which she had to jump into the Seine to end. When they managed to pull her out of the river, the wet lovers immediately reconciled.Once Gainsbourg encroached on the holy of holies of French culture. He sang the reggae anthem “La Marseillaise”, which caused outrage among fellow patriots. They say that the most offended even waited for the star at home and proved him wrong with their fists. What people didn’t realize was that the new arrangement breathed life into old words and drew the younger generation to one of France’s greatest treasures.
Despite the eternal shocking attitude and free from any foundation, on March 2, 1991, the whole of France saw Serge Gainsbourg during his last trip. The Montparnasse Cemetery was overflowing with mourners, among whom were prominent political figures, famous actresses and famous artists. The French president at the time, François Mitterrand, said in his speech: “He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire…He raised song to the rank of art.”