Serge Gainsbourg - En Concert Theatre La Palace 80

Vinylwav Personal Record Collection

I mean, “What the hell do I know anyways!?!”

Some time around the mid to late 2000s—probably around 2008—one of my good friends told me he was going to be taking a trip to Canada. He knew I was a record guy. I mean, he’s actually one of my best friends, and he offered to buy me a record while he was on his trip.

So he started asking me about different artists whose records I might be able to find in Canada, or any artists I was looking for. At that time, I’d been listening to a lot of Serge Gainsbourg—or, I guess, not a lot, but I’d been listening to Serge Gainsbourg and was quite interested in romantic French music that had heavy bass lines and great hip-hop-style drums. At least that’s what I’d heard in some of Serge Gainsbourg’s music.

So I told him, “If you find any Serge Gainsbourg out there, that’d be great.”

And lo and behold, he came back a couple of weeks later with this Serge Gainsbourg album right here: Serge Gainsbourg in Concert, Théâtre Le Palace, 1980.

And bro, I was super stoked. Right away I was like, “Dude! I say Serge Gainsbourg, and you actually bring me back a Serge Gainsbourg album? How cool is that?”

Now, I don’t recall listening to the album in front of him. I just remember receiving the album and thinking, “Bro, that’s hella cool.”

I do, however, remember putting the album on later and going… “What the hell?”

This was not what I expected at all.

And I guess if I’d looked more carefully at the cover, I might have gotten an idea of what was actually on the album. Like, if I hadn’t already been expecting a certain style of music and I came across this record in a shop, I might have looked at it and thought, “Hmm, there’s a lot of Black folks on this cover. This could be funk… it could be rock… I don’t know. But it definitely doesn’t scream romantic Paris to me.”

But because I was anticipating what I’d heard from Serge Gainsbourg in the past, I guess I was expecting something completely different.

Because when I put this record on, it had a real strong reggae vibe. Like… reggae with a French singer. And I was a little confused—thinking, I guess, that all artists just stay in their lane and never stray from it.

Yeah… I should have known better than that.

Since then, I’ve actually revisited the album. I just listened to it again recently to get a little recap, and you know what? I quite like it. I like it a lot.

I guess, knowing now that the record isn’t going to sound like what it was in my head when I first thought of Serge Gainsbourg, I can just listen to it for what it is. Because that was almost 20 years ago when I first listened to it and kind of shelved it.

But I wasn’t going to get rid of it. It was a present.

And now I look at it and think, “Oh… that would fit here, or that would fit there within a DJ set for me.”

Like the song “Harley Davidson.” It’s, you know… like I said, it’s got that reggae feel. And that’s one of the tracks I was able to find on YouTube. You could definitely make it fit somewhere. You could work it into an afternoon vinyl set. You could find a spot for it in a lot of different places.

Not that I’m going to force it to fit anywhere. But just because it’s not the Serge Gainsbourg I first came across doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means I shouldn’t be so confident that the artists I like will stay in one lane. Because that kind of thinking can lead you into territory where you’re buying some stuff and ending up disappointed—or getting a gift like this and feeling a bit like, “Oh… well, it’s the thought that counts, right?”

But more than that, I should just be thankful that my friend went out of his way to buy me this record—which actually is not a bad record at all.

So anyway, pulling this out just made me think of how I was super stoked, then not so stoked, and now just grateful that I’ve got friends who care enough to ask me, “Hey, is there anything you’d want while I’m in such-and-such place?”

Because that’s something nobody really has to do, and it’s really cool when it happens.

So regardless, I’d encourage you to check out Serge Gainsbourg records—whether you’re looking for beautiful, funky, romantic, French, sexy music… or something completely different that you’re really not expecting.

Because don’t put Serge Gainsbourg in a box like I did.

If you would like to hear any albums I share on this blog, check out my YouTube Playlist: Vinylwav Personal Record Collection