His music, his lyrics, his excesses, his televised outbursts … Even thirty years after his death, everyone remembers Serge Gainsbourg. A “sacred monster” which inevitably evokes memories in many Côte-d’Oriens. However, the passages of the star in the department were very rare. In Dijon, we only found traces of two dates.
1978: the crowd of great days in Dijon station
The first was purely commercial. On August 31, 1978, Serge Gainsbourg got off the BB 7214 locomotive at Dijon station as part of a promotional tour organized by the record company Phonogram. And he is not alone! Among the passengers are also his then companion, Jane Birkin, as well as Johnny Hallyday, Serge Lama, Demis Roussos and a few others … With, at the end of the day, a furious crowd in Dijon station and a Serge Gainsbourg ‘ ‘eyeing the menu with obvious interest’ during an evening at Clos Vougeot.
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1988: the return of a funk version of Gainsbarre
After this first visit, it will take almost 10 years to see Serge Gaisbourg again in Dijon. This time in concert in “a full and overheated Sports Palace”, as the journalist Ivan Theis wrote in Le Bien public, who was able to interview the artist a few hours before he took the stage on April 25, 1988. A concert which, thirty years later, still leaves indelible memories with those who had the chance to attend.
As for the interview between Ivan Theis and Gainsbourg, it shows the time that has passed since 1978. Jane Birkin is gone, Gainsbourg has given way to Gainsbarre, this double created from scratch that will reinforce his legend of a cursed poet, badly. shaved and drunk. It is besides a Gainsbourg “ the glass in the hand, the bard of three days and the soaked eyes ”, which answers the questions of the journalist. An exchange during which “the unforeseeable” Serge Gainsbourg is at the rendezvous. And will play his role once again (“It’s not me who was drunk, it was the stage”, he says about a previous concert noticed at the Zénith in Paris).
Birkin, cinema and “too many badgers in politics”
Asked about his passage to funk from the album Love on the beat in 1984, the artist will have only one explanation: “It was to change my look, because it’s a flash and I’m unpredictable”. Before moving on to his past and the women who have marked his life. “When Jane (Birkin, Editor’s note) showed up, she was 18 years old. Whereas Bardot was already a woman, the most beautiful … ”.
Jane Birkin, who was featured in one of the films directed by Serge Gainsbourg, I love you, neither do I. At the mention of this 1976 film, often criticized on its release but which returned to success in 1988, the artist is revenge: “I have not forgotten what we said … have injured, but this film will end up in cinematheques ”. Before drifting, according to Ivan Theis, and falling into a “ half-megalomaniac, half-mystical ” version of Gainsbourg. “I have touched on all disciplines … I’m going to make a book of photographic self-portraits like painters did … I also started a next book and it’s a scoop. The title will be Techniques of love. It’s going to be poetic … “
An interview that will end with a rant, cigarette and second drink in hand, when we talk to him about politics when we are in the aftermath of the first round of the presidential election. “In politics, there are too many badgers … but it’s going to be fine. In France, we are grievers, and I like those who have something to say … ”.
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