· Part poet, part provocateur, Serge Gainsbourg was known outside France primarily for the heavy-breathing masterpiece J'taime moi non plus (the only French song ever to top the British charts) but to those at home he stood one of the more potent cultural figures of post-war France. His poetry was compared to Rimbaud and Baudelaire, his morality to the Marquis de Sade. He was surely the only man ever to have written hit songs about the joys of incest, sodomy, motorcycles and cigarettes and to still be awarded the Chevalier Des Arts et Lettres, his country¹s highest artistic honour.
· Poet and Provocateur comprises rare live and studio recordings by Serge, Juliette Greco's exquisite ep of Gainsbourg songs that did so much to establish his name, interpretations of some of his finest early songs by contemporaries such s Pia Colombo and Hugues Aufray, Gainsbourg's score for Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's film L'Eau a la Bouche (A Game for Six Lovers) and the soundtrack of Michel Boisrond's Voulez-vous danser avec moi? (Come Dance with Me) which saw Gainsbourg make his screen debut in a film which starred Brigitte Bardot, the biggest star in France, with whom he would soon so controversially collaborate.
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