Any Serge fans around? I have been meaning to get into this guy forever and I just got a great opportunty. There's this 5cd set they're selling in France for like 30 euros that encompasses his entire career with "the 100 most beautiful songs."

Here's a link with the songlist:
http://www.franceloisirs.com/catalogue/produit.jsp?docRef=833921

For people acquainted with his oeuvre, what do you think of this as an entry point? I've listened to the first disc a couple of times and I love it. "Le Poinconneur des Lilas" "Le claqueur des doigts" "Cha cha cha du loup" "en relisant ta lettre" "les cigarillos" "requiem pour un twister" "black trombone" are all already among my favorites on the disc.

awesome. i'd buy it.
you can consult billy g, opa, splates, polly and i about serge. i'm not a connoisseur or anything but i like him all the same.

i haven't looked at the set but i like that serge's albums feel like albums, not discrete songs.

so, ill repeat



And also, i'm interested if those of you who enjoy or listen to him have any French connaissance or if it's just an I-like-the-way-it-sounds kind of thing.

Yeah that would totally be worth picking up at that price. You should try to find a review or description in english to find out exactly how its compiled. I'm too lazy to really cross reference by song but I can see at least that it contains all of Histoire de Melody Nelson, his best album in its entirity. I recognize a lot of the other songs as coming from some of his other top albums. I suspect that it may contain some of his other best albums in their entirity as well but am not sure.

You don't need to understand French to appreciate him -- his swagger and attitude comes across without understanding the words. I suspect though if I did understand the lyrics I'd love him even more. I wouldn't be surprised if Melody Nelson would shoot up to a top ten album if I understood french. Either way he's a tremendous artist with more swagger than Mick Jagger and and all of the artistry and adventurism across many genres as say Elvis Costello. He's highly recommended.

i doubt there will be anything in english as this is being only released here in france i believe, but at any rate if i could find that in french it wouldn't be a problem.

i've been picking through it seeing how it's organized and you've basically got everything from No. 4, Confidentiel, Percussions Gainsbourg. You get some morsels from No. 2 and L'etonnant Serge Gainsbourg and that's only on the first two discs. Seems to be a great pickup and I'm glad I did.

That's my second favorite album by him. And I guess I've got to roll my eyes a little less when people obviously haven't read the opening posts because my skim reading missed the part about you already picking it up.

no big deal.

basically i love all of it so far. i've only listened to the first three discs, so that means up until 1969. i still haven't breached 'histoire de melody nelson' so i'm really looking forward to that. just off the first two discs, i love "le poinconeur des lilas", "le claqueur de doigts", "l'eau a la bouche", "en relisant ta lettre", "requiem pour un twister", "intoxicated man", "scenic railway", "negative blues", all of percussions gainsbourg.

my favorite song so far though is "no no thanks no." hilarious.

no no thanks no
je ne fume que le marijuana
(i only smoke marijuana)

when you listen to this do you have absolutely no idea what it's about? aside from stuff like "new york usa" "comic strip" and other stuff where english is present i guess not. have you ever looked at translations? because something like "en relisant ta lettre" sounds great but knowing what he's saying just takes on an incredible new meaning. i can't even imagine it without knowing what it said. if there's any songs you'd be particularly interested in having translated let me know as i'd be glad to. although i'm sure it probably exists somewhere online and you've probably sought it out.