Bonnie and Clyde (song)

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Bonnie and Clyde
Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg
publication 1968
length 4:13
Genre (s) Yéyé , chanson , psychedelic rock
Author (s) Serge Gainsbourg
Producer (s) Claude Dejacques
Label Fontana Records
album Bonnie and Clyde , Initials BB

Bonnie and Clyde is a song by the French singer and actress Brigitte Bardot and the chansonnier Serge Gainsbourg from 1968. It appeared on their joint album Bonnie and Clyde and Gainsbourg's album Initials BB and was written by Serge Gainsbourg himself and produced by Claude Dejacques .

background

Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg went on a rendezvous in 1967 that would later initiate a short-lived, mutual affair . Gainsbourg felt his charm fail at the sight of Bardot's beauty and was therefore surprised when she called him shortly afterwards. She asked him to write the most beautiful love song for her that he could imagine. At this request he composed the two songs Bonnie and Clyde and Je t'aime… moi non plus . He would record the latter in 1969 together with his then partner, the British singer and actress Jane Birkin , and thus publish his most successful title worldwide. Inspired Bonnie and Clyde from 1967, directed by Arthur Penn resulting movie Bonnie and Clyde , whose success made the titular people again popular with critics and audiences and the history of film, the reasoning of the New Hollywood -Epoche attributed.

The song was recorded with Michel Colombier and his orchestra .

Music and lyrics

Bonnie and Clyde is a yéyé song with slight borrowings from psychedelic rock . The instrumental consists mainly of a guitar , strings , bass and drums (especially hi-hats ) and stands out for its continuously looped voice sample , which The Guardian describes as a "bizarre yodeled exclamation". The two interpreters speak and sing alternately, whereby it is different how many lines the respective musician takes on per verse and they supplement the individual lines of the other at irregular intervals (especially when the name of their character is mentioned). After each verse, both performers sing the name of the song twice together.

It tells the story of the eponymous US crime duo Bonnie and Clyde . A large part of the chanson is written from the point of view of the two protagonists, only at the end the role of a narrator is assumed, since the death of the two robbers is described here . In addition to their deeds, the song particularly addresses the characters' feelings and portrays them as a tragic love story. So it is described that every time the two tried to settle down, the tommy guns of the police sounded, and Clyde's fear of losing Bonnie is also picked up. The text makes strong reference to the poem The Trail's End, written by Bonnie Parker himself, and sometimes quotes its French translation verbatim.

Music video

In the video clip for Bonnie and Clyde, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot play the two title characters. At the beginning, Clyde, wearing a white shirt and black pants , stands leaning against a transmission mast and smokes a cigarette . Then he walks slowly to a door that leads to a barn-like room littered with hay and goes inside. Behind it sits Bonnie with a Tommy Gun, which she points past the camera at something invisible to us. She wears a red , with floral pattern decorated blouse , a brown skirt and a black beret . Later she stands smoking against a stone wall, lies on boxes and stands on a ladder, with Clyde always standing or walking next to her. During the latter scene he loads a pistol , whereupon he and Bonnie walk down the room and aim their firearms, although nobody is in the room.

criticism

Bonnie and Clyde received positive reviews. Particularly praised was the eroticism , as it could only arise in view of imminent death, the chemistry between Bardot's "exhausted drunkards" and Gainsbourg's scratchy voice, and the instrumental, which was innovative at the time and impressed with loops. Rolling Stone voted it 15th for Best Dramatic Duets of All Time in 2014 ; The Guardian named it the fifth best song by Serge Gainsbourg that same year.

success

In France , Bonnie and Clyde was a huge commercial success, which managed to climb to number 2 on the charts. It reached number 18 in Belgium .

This and that

  • The Australian singer Kylie Minogue KRIWET sampled Bonnie and Clyde on the song Sensitized from her tenth studio album X . The song uses an almost identical instrumental, only that Minogue uses additional drum kits .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Album credits. Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Open Culture Article. Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ Note on the record. Retrieved January 30, 2020 (French).
  4. ^ The Guardian's "10 of the best: Serge Gainsbourg". Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  5. ↑ Lyrics. Retrieved January 30, 2020 (French).
  6. ^ "The Trail's End" by Bonnie Parker. Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  7. ↑ music video. Retrieved January 30, 2020 (French).
  8. ^ Rolling Stone's "The 20 Best Dramatic Duets of All Time". Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  9. ^ The Guardian's "10 of the best: Serge Gainsbourg". Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).
  10. ^ French charts. Retrieved January 30, 2020 (French).
  11. ^ Belgian charts. Accessed January 30, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Sample. Accessed January 30, 2020 (English).