Monday, 25 February 2019

Monday Long Song

Jean-Claude Vannier

Despite a running time that makes it feel more like a generous EP, 'Histoire de Melody Nelson' remains one of the most important and influential albums of Serge Gainsbourg's career - indeed of the 1970s as a whole. If you're at all familiar with the music of David Holmes, Broadcast, Mick Harvey, Massive Attack, Portishead, Stereolab or any number of other Gainsbourg disciples, you will have heard echoes of this record in their work. The basic tracks for the LP were recorded in London with the aid of largely uncredited British session musicians, before co-composer/arranger Jean-Claude Vannier added strings back in France. The 2011 Deluxe Edition of 'Histoire de Melody Nelson' adds a disc of out-takes and a DVD documentary to the story. From the former, here's a chance to fully appreciate the genius of Jean-Claude Vannier via an instrumental version of the album's closing track 'Cargo Culte'.

Serge Gainsbourg - Cargo Culte (Instrumental)
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

5 comments:

drew said...

Sampled on Don't Die Just Yet by David Holmes. Great to hear the source

25 February 2019 at 11:00
Rol said...

Other than Mick Harvey - who did a blatant Gainsbourg covers album which I own and although I liked some of the tracks on, some of the "magic" felt rather lost in translation - I'd never considered any of the other acts you list as Gainsbourg disciples up until now. I feel like you've done a big join-the-dots exercise in my head and left me thinking: d'oh.

25 February 2019 at 18:52
Rol said...

P.S. Your captcha is like The Krypton Factor this week.

25 February 2019 at 18:52
Swiss Adam said...

David Holmes, as Drew says, is where I came to Cargo Culte from.

25 February 2019 at 20:24
Brian said...

If you asked 10 people when this came out you would get 10 very different answers. Timeless.

25 February 2019 at 23:43

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Greatest Hits

  • Monday Long Song
    Lord knows I carry a few regrets around with me as I hurtle towards my dotage and pretty near the top of the list is never having learned to...
  • Version City #21 - Bruce Springsteen sings Suicide
    I'm delighted to note the inclusion of 'Dream Baby Dream' in the tracklisting of Bruce Springsteen's new studio LP, '...
  • Friday Photo #66
    My view pitch-side at Wembley in July When Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band toured Europe during the Summer of 2023, the only Londo...
  • Monday Long Song
    Sitting between Soft Machine's earliest psychedelic Canterbury scene fusion odysseys and the contemporary jazz-rock noodlings of their l...
  • The Squares
    Towards the end of the 1970s, I became friendly with a couple of bands from the Leeds area, one of whom, The Straits (no, not them), w...