Histoire de Melody Nelson

Let's get this out of the way : the music is great, and Serge Gainsbourg has a very soothing voice. I know him better for his "Bonnie & Clyde" song with Brigitte "Nazi" Bardot, which I really like. The narration is fun.

But, and it's a big but... Were there no other Gainsbourg album to put on the list? Seriously? Because, and I shouldn't have to say this, but no, you do not have to listen to an adult fantasizing about raping children before you die. The presence of this album on the list is proof enough that rape culture is very real.

Yes, this album is about rape and pedophilia. I will excuse the people in the reviews who don't speak French and who didn't look up anything about the album. But to the others who try to minimize what this album is about : fuck you.

The first song is the narrator meeting the so-called Melody. Second one, it's stated that she's 14 years old, and the narrator describes her as a "delicious child". In the fourth one, he asks himself what he's going to do to her. In the fifth song, he goes with her to a "Hôtel particulier", basically a mansion where they let you fuck. He describes the bedroom, the mirror on the ceiling, and then he embraces Melody. The very next song is called "Inside Melody". No fucking comment. And then she takes a plane, that crashes, and there's this whole thing about dumb, savage indigenous folks in Papua New Guinea. Anyway.

I'm not sure what's more repugnant between this album and the many people here who frame this as him being a silly provocateur, who see the album as being "romantic" or "sexy" (it's one of the most frequent key word!), who will excuse the pedophilia because it influenced Beck or whoever the fuck else.

Serge Gainsbourg isn't just a guy who liked to provoke. If he was, he would have explored plenty of other offensive themes. Yet, his two favorite themes were pedophilia and incest. The guy made a movie where he and his daughter Charlotte played a father and daughter who had an incestuous relationship. He asked his own underraged daughter to show her breast on camera. He sexually exploited his daughter. Don't tell me he didn't actually want to bang her. He very clearly did, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was more than mere desire.

There's a French guy in the reviews claiming this album isn't actually pedophilic. Brother, there is a song called "Inside Melody" where we hear him fuck a kid. Please. Be fucking real.

The comparisons with Lolita also piss me off. Nabokov wrote the book to show how twisted and horrific the mind of a pedophile was. Humbert Humbert is depicted as a monstrous predator. Lolita isn't a sexy book, it's a terrifying one. And this album is anything but that. It doesn't even try to paint statutory rape in a negative way. It tries to be funny, and sexy, and romantic, and apologetic.

In the end, the reviews here piss me off way more than the actual album. Creepy artists can't help being creepy artists, but we choose to support their disgusting behaviors by minimizing their words and actions. Serge Gainsbourg is not unique in that fashion. Gabriel Matzneff, Roman Polanski, Bastien Vivès, Woody Allen, they all have a shitload of apologists and they're all roaming free. At least Gainsbourg is dead.

Attaching a full string section to such a loose funky band is undeniably impressive.

Ah Serge you mad sexy bastard.

meh

Garbage. Even if it’s meant ironically, his vocals are annoying and the music is not interesting

No strong feelings, it sounds nice but extremely french for better and worse

Edit: I do not know French, some background reading and
ew

🚨 NONCE ALERT!!! 🚨

Never been so happy to not speak French.

This album is a concept album about a presumably older, affluent guy getting intimate with a teenager(Americans will know this story pretty well because of the current president). I will still listen, because I once wrote in a Michael Jackson review that an artist's personal transgressions are not important to judging the quality of the music. However, here the transgression seems to be the music itself. The instrumentals are okay ish, especially on the opener, but the vocals are really fucking creepy. Of course, this is because the dude decided to write an album about, ahem, getting intimate with a teenager. And why is the sixth track a bunch of random laughing? The whole thing is an ick, and I don't give a shit how "high-art" or funny or "shock value" or whatever this is supposed to be. I'M FIFTEEN for Christ's sake! An album about abusing and permanently traumatizing people the same age as me is not something I want in my life. This album needs to join its creator in hell. The one star I will give it is entirely for the first track's backing music.

This album is ranked #35 of 37 albums for 1971. Other 1971 albums rated by me:
Led Zeppelin IV(1/37)-5
Who's Next(5/37)-5
Sticky Fingers(6/37)-4
Pearl(7/37)-5
L. A. Woman(8/37)-3
Maggot Brain(9/37)-4
Imagine(14/37)-4
Fela Kuti Live!(15/37)-4
Nilsson Schmilsson(16/37)-4
Coat of Many Colors(18/37)-5
At Fillmore East(19/37)-4
Surf's Up(22/37)-4
Every Picture Tells A Story(25/37)-4
Songs of Love and Hate(29/38)-5
Tago Mago(33/37)-4

Love the music but I guess the lyrics are a bit gross

let’s hear it for his guitarist, but what a tiresome asshole.

What in the world am I listening to lol?! After looking this album up…I feel a little uncomfortable with what he is singing about. If I were to separate the story from the actual musical sound, the arrangement of instruments and spoken word/French vocals sound really unique and interesting to hear.

But….yeah, I can’t get into the intention here.

2
The story the album tells is pretty disturbing but considering he was both a 70s rockstar AND French, he should probably be praised for his restraint rather than criticised for it.
The music is pretty good on the first and last tracks but ruined by the mic-in-mouth vocals, and the shorter track in-between, while the vocal are less annoying, are a lot less interesting musically. In terms of the lyrics, on the one hand a lot of other artists have done worse in real life, but Elvis or Jimmy Page never wrote a whole album about it. And it seems like Gainsbrough was uncomfortably interested in these themes, which makes it difficult to give the benefit of the doubt - especially since the whole presentation (the cover, his girlfriends schoolgirl-voice lines, etc.) seem to want to lean into the shock value.

Arrangements are ahead of its time. Sound so up to date in 2026

The instrumental element of this record is incredible, but a concept album about a middle aged bloke running over and then fucking a 14 year old girl is abhorrent.

Lyrically Serge Gainsbourg is deliberately sparking controversy. He is a man in his mid-40s singing a series of love songs about a fictional 14 year old girl from Sunderland. Comparisons to Lolita spring to mind but the direct inspiration was his 24 year old wife Jane Birkin who is pictured on the album artwork holding a teddy bear. Presenting fictionalised versions of Jane and himself with a heightened age gap is there to (in my opinion) give a sensationalist edge to a series of poetic love songs directed towards someone from a different generation. I’m kind of indifferent to this device but can see why it would wind some people up, as that was the intention.

I can’t speak French though, so none of this had any bearing on my enjoyment of the album which can be summed up like this: the way Serge’s vibey rock instrumentals mix with the luscious, cinematic strings and his softly spoken, narrative heavy, mostly spoken vocals totally works on me.

If this was an instrumental only album it would be a 4. Knowing what the story is about, kicks it right down to a 1.

????? okay???? boring french mumbling.

Lyder urimeligt godt, men jeg tror ikke, at jeg helt følger konceptet her
Jeg skal ikke kloge mig på det franske sprog, så jeg holder mig til den lille wiki-box ovenover, og det lyder sgu lidt sus

Lidt kedeligt, lidt lækkert, lidt underligt koncept, meget fransk, meget lidt replay value for mig

2.4

When you call an album 'Lolita-esque', there's a fine line you have to walk on. You can certainly bring to light the shocking, dangerous, and horrifying aspect of pedophilia, as it is sadly a part of humanity's darker facets. But you can't glorify it. You can't be fascinated or enamored by it.

Lolita is written in a way where you're grossed out and obviously have to treat the protagonist as an irredeemable piece of shit. While there are some lecherous guitar jams in here, there's a strange... romanticizing of the relationship between Melody and the Rolls Royce driver.

So no. I don't think this is Lolita-esque. It's just creepy.