{"product_id":"relax-baby-be-cool-the-artistry-and-audacity-of-serge-gainsbourg-9781911036654","title":"Relax Baby Be Cool: The Artistry and Audacity of Serge Gainsbourg","description":"\"Why has Serge Gainsbourg crossed over to the English-speaking world when so many of his contemporaries have remained largely confined to the Francosphere? What is it about this unshaven provocateur that so appeals to us? And who was the real Serge Gainsbourg anyway? Was he the sensitive seducer and songwriting colossus of the 60s and 70s? Was he Lucien Ginsburg, the son of Russian Jewish refugees who had to wear a yellow star during the Nazi Occupation of Paris? Or was he Gainsbarre, the deplorable, attention-seeking drunk who shamelessly propositioned Whitney Houston on live TV?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gainsbourg's cult has only grown since his death in 1991, and \u003ci\u003eHistoire de Melody Nelson\u003c\/i\u003e is now regarded as a classic in France and internationally. The 1971 album had only sold eighty thousand copies by 1986 when it finally went gold fifteen years after its release; its canonical elevation is a remarkable story, and there are many more remarkable stories attached to all of Gainsbourg's genre-defying, transgressive long-players. In \u003ci\u003eRelax Baby Be Cool\u003c\/i\u003e, writer Jeremy Allen takes each studio album in turn while exploring themes pertinent to Gainsbourg's life and music: performance, provocation, theft, dandyism, avant-gardism, muses, Nazis, film and TV, Surrealism, vice, posterity, and fame.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e French pop music is more popular than it's been since the mid-90s, when the French touch was breaking. Gainsbourg's influence has also been huge on alternative music: from Pulp to Massive Attack, De La Soul to Danger Mouse, Black Grape to Kylie, David Guetta to Die Antwoord, Air to Iggy Pop. This book is full of new interviews from people who knew him, but also younger artists who discovered him after his death. Contributors include Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jacqueline Ginsburg (Gainsbourg's sister), Anna Karina, Mike Patton, Etienne Daho, Sly Dunbar, Alan Hawkshaw, Jean-Claude Vannier, Tony Frank, Mick Harvey, Bertrand Burgalat, Acid Arab, Jehnny Beth, Alan Chamfort, Metronomy, David Holmes, Blonde Redhead, Nicolas Godin of Air, Russell Mael of Sparks, Will Oldham, and many more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Jawbone Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/16\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781911036654\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304","brand":"Jeremy Allen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38294865936565,"sku":"9781911036654","price":19.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_0aa6852b-c294-4927-b53d-571e0eb0fe63.jpg?v=1611068838","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/relax-baby-be-cool-the-artistry-and-audacity-of-serge-gainsbourg-9781911036654","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}