His disappearance 30 years ago leaves an immense void, but his legacy is not about to end.
Serge Gainsbourg never hid it, he happily dug from the repertoires of his favorite composers (Chopin, Dvorak, Beethoven. Bob Dylan too) to create his work. What could be more normal than in their turn others to appropriate his songs.
It is an understatement to say that his legacy is enduring. A glance at the whosampled.com site tells us that 306 covers of his songs are listed, while 177 tracks contain excerpts from his sampled songs. Excuse the little! And the count is not exhaustive! Everyone got into it, almost all eras. Kylie Minogue, Marianne Faithfull, Beck, Alain Souchon and Laurent Voulzy, Texas, the legendary Massive Attack, not to mention the dance and electro scene with Technohead, David Guetta, Fat Boy Slim, etc.
Appropriately reissued last year, the album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited testifies to the international influence of the man with the cabbage head. Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Michael Stipe (REM), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and Portishead pay tribute to him.
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