French poet Serge Gainsbourg, author of "Je t´aime moi non plus", signs a special autograph in London in 1966.
- Autograph by Serge Gainsbourg, signed in London, 1966.
- 18 cm x 29 cm.
- London, 1966.
- Average state of conservation.
- Unique piece.
Gainsbourg was leaving a recording session in a studio on Oxford Street, a famous avenue in London, when a fan - from whom this document was acquired - happened to meet the artist in a corridor at HMV - Gramaphone Company. She had just bought an LP in a record store and used the paper bag to get the artist to sign it.
The French fan, also a journalist, says
It was a long time ago, in London in the late 1960s, but I still have an image of the meeting. He came out of a recording studio and I met him in the hallway of the famous HMV - Gramaphone Company building on Oxford Street. I think this was the time when he met Jane Birkin. He very kindly agreed to sign the only piece of paper I had with me, a paper bag of the record I had just bought, a 33 rpm. He already had a Gitane* cigarette in his mouth!!! I met him again much later in Paris for a long interview. He was a very reserved man, not very talkative, he spoke very slowly, with many silences, as if he thought a lot before saying short sentences, but very friendly, good-humoured and smiling. True to his image, there was a glass on the table with a double Pastis 51** and a packet of gitanes that he smoked, one after the other.
* Gitane is a famous French cigarette brand.
** Pastis 51 is a brand of alcoholic beverage made with anise, created in 1951 by Pernod Ricard.
Serge Gainsbourg (1928 - 1991) was probably the most important French musician, singer and composer of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He wrote songs for many important French performers, such as Juliette Gréco, Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Dutronc, Catherine Deneuve, Vanessa Paradis and his wife Jane Birkin.
A talented composer, he was able to work with a variety of rhythms and styles, ranging from jazz to rock, funk and reggae. He was also an actor and filmmaker. Addicted to cigarettes, alcohol and women, Serge Gainsbourg was also a very controversial artist who was involved in a number of scandals, such as his most famous song, "Je t'aime moi non plus", written for Brigitte Bardot. Gainsbourg is still considered a brilliant, anti-conformist poet by several generations of French people.
This document is extremely rare, as it was signed in 1966, when Gainsbourg's career took off, amid the YeYe craze. London, at the time, was also the world capital of music, with the emergence of bands that would become legendary, such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
