France Gall has one of the best stage names ever. Often dismissed as a mid-1960s “baby pop” singing “doll” of the immortal and twisted Serge Gainsbourg, she was born Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall on 9 October 1947 in Paris, France, and managed to create (or was given) a galling Gallic name that James Joyce would have been proud to have coined. Gall was (is?) a popular French “yé-yé” singer.
I love France Gall’s song, “Laisse tomber les filles” (“Stop messing around with the girls”), written by Gainsbourg, and the pre-music-video video of the song below, from 1964 (age 17!), is wonderful, like a time capsule from a vanished world. Possibly the first example of really great terrible lip-synching.
Laisse tomber les filles
by France Gall
Lyrics by Serge Gainsbourg
| Laisse tomber les filles | Stop messing around with the girls |
|
Laisse tomber les filles Oui j’ai pleuré mais ce jour-là Laisse tomber les filles On ne joue pas impunément La chance abandonne Laisse tomber les filles Non pour te plaindre il n’y aura |
Stop messing around with the girls Yes, I have cried, but that day Stop messing around with the girls One cannot play without being backfired Chance forsakes Stop messing around with the girls For your whining |
Learn more about the incomparable France Gall
- Wikipedia: France Gall
- Wikipedia: Laisse tomber les filles
- YouTube: France Gall
- IMDB: France Gall
- Tumblr tag: France Gall
- France Gall website (in French)
- Wikipedia: Serge Gainsbourg
- The Secret World of Serge Gainsbourg (Vanity Fair, November 2007): “Serge, who had big ears that stuck out and who was considered ugly, often said he wished he had looked like the American movie actor Robert Taylor, but also said, ‘I prefer ugliness to beauty, because ugliness endures.’ He started to smoke and drink at 20, when he went into the army. His sister says his cynical persona was always a defense: ‘When you feel weak, you attack.’ He showed talent as a painter and attended the Académie des Beaux-Arts, but eventually realized he had to earn a living, and said he ‘had fear of the painter’s bohemian life.’ Like his father, he played piano in clubs, then branched out to write songs. He won the 1965 Eurovision contest with a song he wrote for the cutesy pop star France Gall; he then wrote a sexually sly song for her, which she thought was about sucking lollipops. He started to write successful songs for others and then, later, himself. He wrote and directed 4 movies and acted in 29. He became really famous at 40 with the orgasmic ‘Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus,’ then even more so with songs that ranged from lush and romantic melodies to Surrealist poetry to caustic and dark concept albums. He used American words in his songs — ‘blue jeans,’ ‘flashback,’ ‘jukebox’ — and studied the Ford Motor Company catalogue for phrases to use in his song ‘Ford Mustang.'”
- Remembering Former ’60S Teen Idol France Gall
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