[nodisharmony]

When someone talks about Jane Birkin, usually Serge Gainsbourg goes with her and also, "Je T'aime Moi Non Plus", the famous song which went to No.1 in the charts and was quite controvertial as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHiMDB19Dyc

1969
Jane Birkin born in England; Serge Gainsbourg born in France
'Je T'aime' was the most controversial record to appear in the UK chart during 1969- if not during the entire 1960s. It was basically a simple vocal duet with heavy breathing from Jane Birkin accompanied by a light orchestral backing.

The powerful sexual inferences stemming from the vocal made the record instantly popular and it sold well. However, it did so despite a considerable degree of consternation in some quarters. For some reason, perhaps the growing notoriety, Fontana decided to transfer the rights to another record company- Major Minor.

However, by this time the record had reached the #2 position in the UK charts. The record dropped its place, but then went to the #1 position under its new ownership. Consequently the disc, as far as I am aware, holds the unique distinction of actually changing labels while still high in the sales listings. (Move the mouse pointer over the label to see the alternate version).

The record remained popular despite the controversy, and even gave rise to a spoof version more than a year later by Frankie Howerd with June Whitfield.

Actress Jane Birkin lived with Gainsgourg throughout the 1970s during which the Frenchman continued to produce material to outrage as well as entertain. However, none of this received the attention in the UK that "Je t'aime" had done. After a lifetime of excess, Serge Gainsbourg died in Paris during 1991 at the age of 62.

Link to the above article here:-
http://www.45-rpm.org.uk/1969.htm

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Anyway, there is a lot more music from Jane Birkin & plenty from Serge Gainsbourg.

I am not really into french singers, even though I like Vanessa Paradis a lot. Her music & her looks too

But for Jade Birkin, I love her music.

Below, I have included some music videos from Jane & Serge.
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1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4oRz8FbBQ

Jane Birkin - La Ballade de Johnny Jane

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVm-Fw-DtJU

Melody - Serge Gainsbourg

(Check out the rest from that Youtube member too)

More Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin stuff from the"Histoire de Melodie Nelson" LP...

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L__GymVsGw

Jane Birkin / Ex-Fan Des Sixties

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyn2YezaveE

Jane Birkin - Je suis venu te dire que je m´en vais

5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4m-T3fs3vE

Jane Birkin - Fuir le bonheur de peur qu´il ne se sauve

6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9rBYIVQasE

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - La Decadence

7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfLe2Oro95Q

Serge Gainsbourg - Elisa

8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCUCQ37n3oY

Jane Birkin - L'aquoiboniste

9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFXWkC71dCk

Manon - Serge Gainsbourg

10) http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...arch&plindex=7

Jane Birkin - A funny thing called love

11) http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...arch&plindex=9

Jane Birkin - Baby alone in babylon

12) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcF05G1gLFU

69 année érotique - Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg

(Sadly, this is the only surviving version left & it's a bit out of sync, with the video.. The other better version has disappeared off Youtube, typical...)



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There was more on Youtube that I liked by her, but sadly like many videos and Youtube members, they just get removed or thrown off.

The ones above that I have included in this thread, are ones I particularly like, but there are others too, that I don't.


There is some more info on Jane Birkin, which I have included below:-
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The second child of Major David Birkin and actress/singer Judy Campbell, Jane was born in London on December 14th, 1946. With a happy family, a childhood spent in the countryside, vacations to the Isle of Wight and boarding school classes, Jane was tame and well-behaved until the sixties revolution...

As a teenager, a miniskirted Chelsea girl, Jane embraced the pop excitement of " Swinging London ". Following in her mother's footsteps, she started auditioning. Noticed by Binky Beaumont, she made her acting debut at seventeen at the Haymarket Theater playing a young deaf-mute in Carving a Statue by Graham Greene.

But it was in a musical, Passion Flower Hotel, at the Prince of Wales Theater, that she made her singing debut. She auditioned for the part encouraged by composer John Barry, author of the James Bond 007 theme and whom she ended up marrying at nineteen. After a first movie experience in Richard Lester's The Knack, she was hired by Antonioni who was shooting Blow Up, which later received the Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes international film festival. This movie also created her first controversy brief scene, where she appeared naked; it was the talk of London.

After the failure of marrying too young and the birth of her daughter Kate in 1967, she decided to move to France. Recruited by French filmmaker Pierre Grimblat to star in his movie Slogan, it was love at first sight between Jane and her costar Serge Gainsbourg, a popular singer and musician.

A fashionable couple on the Paris scene, they made the headlines in 1969 with a artfully disturbing song, Je t'aime moi non plus Offending to some people, a delight to others, Jane's sensuous lovemaking sighs became a hit around the world.

A fragile, thin voice always on the verge of breaking remained her lasting trademark and was cleverly used by Gainsbourg who adapted his songwriting to Jane's timbre. He composed especially for her and shaped her according to his desires. They stayed together for twelve years, becoming a popular couple, adulated by the public and the media. In 1971, they had a daughter, Charlotte, who is now an actress.

During this happy period, Jane played in some thirty movies, including many comedies, a few detective films and one masterpiece C the first movie directed by Serge, Je t'aime moi non plus (1975). At the same time, she went on with her singing career, recording four albums which built her image as a sometimes sexy sometimes wistful Lolita, best showcased in her 1978 hit LP Ex-fan des sixties. In the early eighties, her personal life and career came to a watershed as she separated from Serge Gainsbourg and wanted to break away from her image of a "funny English girl". Behind her laughing, scatty naiveté and her British accent so delightfully amusing and sexy to French ears, there was an anxious, distressed and insomniac woman trying to come out.
This facet of her personality was reflected in several films d'auteur, especially those by Jacques Doillon, from La Fille prodigue to La Pirate. From Doillon she had her third daughter, Lou, born in 1982.

Serge Gainsbourg continued composing for her, but his songs became solemn, complex and subtle. Their album Baby alone in Babylone was a smash hit in 1983. Meanwhile, Jane pursued her movie career, but the films she played in were few and far between. She was in search of new experiences: she directed a TV feature film and ventured on stage for recitals.

In 1987, she gave her first gig at Le Bataclan, a former Parisian music hall, and, gradually, by establishing a rapport with her audiences, she developed a taste for the stage. She dreamt of acting and singing in a musical. She performed at Le Casino de Paris in 1991 two month after Gainsbourg's death and dedicated the concert to him. She also paid tribute to him in London in September 1994 at a charity event at the Savoy Theater, to give him recognition in her home country.
She wanted to do away with the "scandal Jane" image she had had in England since her infamous debut, and, in 1995, she played Andromache in The Trojan Women by Euripides at the National Theater.

In 1996 the album Version Jane is a final tribute to Gainsbourg including a potpourri of his songs, which Jane performed at the Paris music temple L'Olympia. She took them on tour in the spring of 1997, with a stop at the London Royal Festival Hall.

In 1998, she released her first album without Serge Gainsbourg A la légère with songs written by 12 contemporary French song writers, such as Daho, Art Mengo, Chamfort, Lavoine, Zazie, Souchon/Voulzy, François Hardy…. This album is followed in 1999 by the release of The Best of Jane Birkin.

In 1999, Jane Birkin met the musician Djamel Benyelles show "orientalised" a few of Gainsbourg's titles such as "Elisa", "Couleur Café" or "Comment te dire adieu". This project is first presented at the Festival d'Avignon in 1999 then at the legendary Théâtre de l'Odéon : the success was phenomenal. An international tour is currently taking place, bringing Arabesque through France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, Scandinavia, New York, Canada, Asia...

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http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Jane%20B...subpage=albums

4 pages of Discography, courtesy of Yahoo

also

http://www.janebirkin.net/uk/music.html


for more info...








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