Lay back on your (fake!) polar bear fur and listen to a Fireside Chat with (the real!) Jane Birkin. 60s icon and muse to the genial Serge Gainsbourg, Jane witnessed swinging London, the beau monde of Paris and has remained a tasteful and opinionated recording artist to this day.
Jane Birkin is a legendary figure in more than one way. Having first found fame as an actress in Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece ‘Blow Up’, she married composer and arranger John Barry at a very young age. In 1968 she was cast for a role in a French movie and met the scandalous poet/chansonnier Serge Gainsbourg when she sang the film’s theme which he had written. Here began a love affair that was outlasted by a long and fruitful musical relationship.
Finding fame and notoriety with the erotic pop song ‘Je T'aime.. Moi Non Plus’, which reached number one in the UK, but was banned in several countries and denounced by the Vatican, Birkin also featured on the heavily sampled classic ‘Histoire de Melody Nelson’, arguably Gainsbourg's all-time musical masterpiece.
Birkin continued to record and sing songs by Serge with whom she had a daughter in 1971, the filigree singer and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, worked as an acclaimed actress in many films, designed a handbag for Hèrmes and later began to collaborate with a new generation of songwriters such as Beth Gibbons (Portishead), Beck or MC Solaar.
Sit by the fire with Jane and listen to a few of her stories on Red Bull Music Academy Radio – about the swinging 60s in London, the revolution in Paris in '68 and her varied and unusual musical career...
Playlist:
Serge Gainsbourg – Ballad De Melody Nelson - Phillips
Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin – Lolita Go Home - Fontana
Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin – 69 Annee Erotique - Mercury
Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin – Je T’aime.. - Fontana
Jane Birkin - Di Doo Dah - Fontana
Serge Gainsbourg – Cargo Culte – Phillips
Serge Gainsbourg - Ballade De Johnny Jane - Phillips
Serge Gainsbourg – La Marseilles - Unknown
Jane Birkin/Francois Hardy – Sur Anee - EMI
Feist with Jane Birkin – The Simple Story – Polydor
Jane Birkin – Strange Melody - EMI
Franz Ferdinand/Jane Birkin – A Song For.. - Barclay
Jane Birkin – Enfants D’hiver – Capitol
Want More?
Joe Boyd: Documenting the 60s Revolution
The Persuaders: Putting The Sleaze Into The Seventies
The Rolling Stones: Swashbuckling On The French Riviera
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