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The aftermath of the album had been the best of times
and the worst of times. Gainsbourg s beloved daughter
Charlotte was born. His beloved father Joseph had
died. Gainsbourg had him buried among his people; the
musicians, poets and artists of Montparnasse cemetery.
Although he would enter a happy period with Birkin
and his daughters, things were already starting to slowly
unravel. A prodigious drinker and smoker to the point it
became his image, a façade to hide behind, Gainsbourg s
intake was undeniably becoming a problem. Worse, he
was giving in to a fatal isolationism as he told Magazine
Spectacle in November 1973: I had some friends. I ll have
a few less. I m becoming more difficult, more unsociable,
more and more misanthropic. He was already conspiring,
consciously or not, to drive away the two people who had
made Melody Nelson possible.
Undeterred by the commercial failure, Gainsbourg
and Vannier continued to work together, producing
Birkin s underrated Di doo dah album and a number of
throwaway but exquisitely arranged singles for France
Gall ( Frankenstein ) and Francois Hardy ( L Amour en
privee [ Love in Private ]). They also collaborated on La
Décadanse . Despite opening with a Melody Nelson-esque
blast of strings, the song settled into a vaguely Chopin-
sounding retread of Je t aime . For all the controversy of
its sordid lyrics and its accompanying dance, it marked
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a worrying lack of imagination and nerve, a retreat after
the advances of Melody Nelson. In stark contrast, Vannier
would construct his own uncanny avant-garde concept
album L Enfant assassin des mouches, a real successor to
the stylistic bravery of Melody Nelson, arguably even more
adventurous. Where Melody Nelson might be viewed as a
dream, L Enfant assassin des mouches has the qualities of
a nightmare; a hallucinatory musique concrète collage
of orchestral funk, free jazz, psychedelia, running water,
church bells, evil carousel music, footsteps and the breath
of someone being chased. Occasionally there are reprises
of motifs and moods from Melody Nelson most notably the
heavenly choir of Cargo Culte and the brash crescendos
of En Melody in the sublime L Enfant au Royaume
des Mouches ( The Child in the Kingdom of Flies )
and Les Garde Volent au Secours du Roi ( The Guards
Fly to the King s Rescue ). It is a startling listen, less
the soundtrack to a film in the cinema than one playing
in the head of a bedlamite. Gainsbourg would add to
the work not by singing but by creating its narrative
in the sleeve notes. Having listened to the album, he
dictated a fairytale vision it had conjured in his mind,
reminiscent of the deliriously violent morality tales of
his childhood Perrault and Brothers Grimm stories. A
child who delights in incinerating flies comes to sorely
regret doing so when he lured down into their nether-
world. Bar a live performance of L Enfant La Mouche et
Les Allumettes ( The Child, The Fly and The Matches ) to
soundtrack an Yves St Laurent collection on the Roland
Petit show, it was only released as 100 promo copies and
the album disappeared without trace, until being rescued
from obscurity by Andy Votel s Finders Keepers label.
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Their relationship would sadly come to an end
following a drunken argument one night. Vannier had
rightly felt aggrieved that his extraordinary contri-
bution to Melody Nelson had been overlooked; it was
after all only Gainsbourg s name and Birkin s image on
the record sleeve. Hypersensitive himself, Gainsbourg
responded to the criticism with a wounded stubborn
pride. A relationship that had been so fruitful and which
promised so much more to come came to an abrupt and
premature finish. Vannier would go on to a career of
soundtracks, solo albums and production work, littered
with gems like La girafe au ballon ( The Giraffe s Ballet ),
Je m appelle Geraldine ( My Name is Geraldine ),
Au Désespoir des Singes ( Despair of the Apes ) and
Fais-Moi l homme ( Make Me a Man , with Maurane)
waiting to be rediscovered. Neither party would surpass
what they d created together. He and Gainsbourg would
become almost opposite sides of the same coin. He the
undervalued creative genius in the shadows; Gainsbourg
the creative genius lost in the limelight.
Since a humiliating series of shows in 1965 supporting
the singer Barbara in which the audience cruelly heckled
him, Gainsbourg had shunned performing live. More
sinned against than sinning, the experience served to
deepen his insecurity and sharpen his misanthropy. Even
before then he had come to rely on the Dutch courage
of drink to steady his nerves and quiet his insecu-
rities. Gréco recalled on first meeting him he was
so nervous he dropped his glass of whiskey from his
visibly trembling hand. Alcohol would become a way
of coping for Gainsbourg as well as a debauched end
in itself. Most commentators present a false dichotomy;
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he drank to gain confidence or he drank for the hell of
it. It s possible that he drank for both reasons. Wine
gives a man nothing ... , Dr Johnson wrote, it only puts
in motion what had been locked up in frost. Initially,
at least, alcohol was conducive to his creative process
and his soon to be infamous capacities of seduction.
His hero Baudelaire had elevated intoxication as the
most desirable state of consciousness in his Fleurs de
Mal (Flowers of Evil), Always be drunk. / That s it! / The
great imperative! / In order not to feel / Time s terrible
burden & Gainsbourg celebrated the ceremony and
results of getting drunk, contrasting the miseries of work
with the illusory wonders of drunkenness in L alcool .
Yet he did not shirk from seeing the grim side of such
excess and reliance, to hallucinatory effect in the delirium
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