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Old 02-24-2014, 02:51 AM   #6 (permalink)
totosama
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SERGE GAINSBOURG - Aux Armes Et Caetera (1979)



'Aux Armes Et Caetera' is the 13th studio album by french singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Released in 1979 after a series of four concept-albums (Histoire de Melody Nelson, Vu de l'extérieur, Rock Around The Bunker and L'Homme à tête de chou) which failed to be commercially successful, this album was recorded in Jamaica with famous reggae artists like Sly & Robbie and the I Three.

Serge Gainsbourg said later that he had to convince Sly & Robbie that he was more than a dirty alcoholic old man and played them some of his early songs at the piano. One of them was 'La Javanaise' which will appear on the final album in a reggae version ('Javanaise Remake').

'Aux Armes Et Caetera' is the first big commercial success of Serge Gainsbourg. He was then famous as a songwriter but his own albums failed to find a large audience. Gainsbourg was disappointed that songs he wrote in 30 minutes for other people would sell so much while his concept-albums in which he put a lot of effort remained ignored. The idea of recording a reggae album is born of a track on L'homme à tête de chou : 'Marilou Reggae' was already a reggae song but recorded with french musicians in Paris. Gainsbourg decided to go further in this direction and Jamaica appeared as the best choice to record a whole authentic reggae album. To this day, 'Aux Armes Et Caetera' remains the best french reggae record ever released.

The lyrics covered a wide range of themes from typical Gainsbourg obsessions (sex on 'Lola Rastaquouere', ugliness on 'Des Laids Des Laids', death on 'Pas Long Feu') to new things like drugs on 'Brigade Des Stups' (even if he has already composed the soundtrack for a movie called 'Cannabis' in 1970) and physical violence on 'Relax Baby Be Cool'. Gainsbourg was then playing with his public image and how the french public saw him at this time : an old stinky ugly man. He would create the Gainsbarre character after this record and played with it until his death at the end of the 80's. Gainsbarre was a parody of himself, Gainsbourg in his most digusting aspects. This schizophrenic artistic process started on this album.

The most famous song on this album is of course 'Aux Armes Et Caetera', a reggae rendition of the french national anthem 'La Marseillaise'. The song stirred up controversy upon its release because of the way Gainsbourg makes the national anthem his own and made black musicians play it this way. He was accused of being anti-patriotic, the song title and the chorus being especially unbearable for most of the french public. Gainsbourg only cared to sing in a very casual way the beginning of the chorus and only added 'Et Caetera'. Because of this laid-back and too relaxed version of what is mostly a war anthem, he faced many problems in the following months with militaries coming to his shows to keep him from performing the song. A famous episode is a show he was unable to play in Strasbourg in January 1980 due to the pressure and violence of military parachutists in the audience. He went on stage to sing the national anthem acapella in a 'traditionnal' way. The booing quickly became the whole crowd singing along 'La Marseillaise'.

Gainsbourg said later in a TV interview about what remains his most famous and successful song : "I didn't write the lyrics and I didn't write the music".

Years later, he bought the original partition of 'La Marseillaise' and was finally able to say that he owned the national anthem and was able to do whatever he wanted with it. This provocation sparked the 'Aux Armes Et Caetera' scandal again in France.

'Aux Armes Et Caetera' is not my favourite Serge Gainsbourg album but the high-quality reggae music played by Sly & Robbie (amongst other jamaican respected musicians) fits perfectly the 'talk-over' style of singing he adopted in the second half of his career. It is a very solid reggae record and Gainsbourg once again appears as a lyrical genius on most tracks.

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