I’ve been listening to lots of France Gall lately. She was a popular French yé-yé singer in the early 1960s. The yé-yé style originated in France and became very popular throughout Europe (and Japan, unsurprisingly) in the 1960s. It means “young, cute, and innocent.” At least superficially that’s a perfect description of Gall’s infectious, sugary songs.
Christ, she had awesome hair!
Gall was just 16 when she started recording. Serge Gainsbourg, a French musician 20 years her senior, was hired to be her songwriter. Gainsbourg delighted in filling her songs with wordplays, innuendos, and double entendres that she apparently didn’t understand. He wrote “Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son” for Gall. It translates to “Doll of Wax, Doll of Sawdust.” In it, Gall describes herself as nothing but a “singing doll,” articulating her role as a conduit for Gainsbourg’s lyrics. Here’s a video of her performance. It’s really disturbing to see this talented gorgeous girl singing so sweetly about being this sick bastard’s puppet.
France with her horribly creepy puppetmaster, Serge Gainsbourg
In the Gainsbourg-penned, hugely successful “Les Sucettes,” Gall sings about a girl named Annie who likes lollipops. “Annie loves lollipops, aniseed lollipops. When the sweet liquid runs down Annie’s throat, she is in paradise.” Gee, I wonder what the hidden message in that could be. He certainly wasn’t a master of subtlety, now was he? According to Wikipedia:
The 18-year-old Gall was upset upon finally learning the truth about the lyrics–”mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone.” Gall said that she had sung Gainsbourg’s songs “with an innocence of which I’m proud. I was pained to then learn that he had turned the situation to his advantage, mocking me.” In a 2001 television interview, Gall said that she felt “betrayed by the adults around me.”
Which she of course was. (Where were her parents through all of it?) Here’s one of her performances of “Les Sucettes.” Gainsbourg proudly referred to the song as “the most daring of the century.” He manipulated a girl into telling the world that she loved to give head. I suspect that he mistook his banal desire to sexually exploit and control a much younger woman for some kind of artistic genius. It’s a fairly common mistake.
As sordid as the whole story is though, there’s no denying that they made wonderful music together.
“Et Des Baisers” is one of my favorite France Gall songs. I promise it will infect your brain! In a good way! Listen to it here. Gainsbourg didn’t write it so I don’t think it has any creepy double meanings, but I have no idea. If it does, I don’t think I wanna know.