UNCUT

Not Fade Away

JANE BIRKIN

Singer, actor and style icon (1946-2023)

IN 2021, recalling her first encounter with Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin told Uncut: “I think called him Serge Bourguignon. He was quite vexed that I didn’t know who he was, so not long after that he gave me a book called Chansons Cruelles, ‘cruel songs’. It was a little leather volume with some of his lyrics, and in it was written, ‘For Jane B., with whom I’ll write Histoire De Melody Nelson.’”

The pair initially met in 1968, while co-starring in French comedy-drama . Having recently separated from composer husband John Barry, London-born Birkin duly embarked on an intense personal and artistic relationship with Gainsbourg, 18 years her senior. Their first musical endeavour was “Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus”, an erotic duet that Gainsbourg had originally written for ex-girlfriend Brigitte Bardot. Birkin later confessed that it was jealousy that drove her to record the song, though she “got a bit carried away with the heavy breathing”. Lifted from their 1969 debut , “Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus”

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