Lemon Incest
Artist: Serge Gainsbourg / Charlotte Gainsbourg?
Song: Lemon Incest
Sitting next to her (Whitney Houston) was France’s greatest pop icon, the beloved Serge Gainsbourg. This haggard fifty-eight-year-old drunk seemed to be an entirely different species than America’s sweetheart. After decades of performing absurdly dirty songs, ranging from breathy orgasm pop (“Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus”) to a sex song performed with his underage daughter (“Lemon Incest” with Charlotte Gainsbourg, now an international film star), to an upbeat Holocaust rock opera, Gainsbourg could hardly shock France.
Original French Language (English follows)
Lemon Incest
Charlotte
Inceste de citron
(Lemon incest)
Je t’aime, t’aime, je t’aime plus que tout
(Papapappa)
Serge Gainsbourg
Naïve comme une toile du Nierdoi Sseaurou
Tes baisers sont si doux
Charlotte
Inceste de citron
(Lemon incest)
Je t’aime, t’aime, je t’aime plus que tout
(Papapappa)
L’amour que nous ne ferons jamais ensemble
Est le plus beau, le rare, le plus troublant
Le plus pur, le plus enivrant
Serge Gainsbourg
Exquise esquisse
Délicieuse enfant
Ma chair et mon sang
Oh, mon bébé, mon âme
Copyright:
Writer(s): Serge Gainsbourg
Copyright: Painted Desert Music Corp. O.B.O. Melody Nelson
————————————————————————————–
Lemon Incest
Charlotte
Lemon incest
(Lemon incest)
I love you, love you, I love you more than anything
(Daddydaddy)
Serge Gainsbourg
Naïve as a painting by Henri Rousseau*
Your kisses are so sweet
Charlotte
Lemon incest
(Lemon incest)
I love you, love you, I love you more than anything
(Daddydaddy)
The love we’ll never make together
Is the most beautiful, the rarest, the most disconcerting
The purest, the headiest
Serge Gainsbourg
Exquisite sketch
Delightful child
My flesh and blood
Oh my baby my soul
———————————————————————————-
Another translation of the song:
Lemon Incest
Lemon Incest
I love you, love you, I love you more than anything
Papapappa
Naïve as a canvas nierdoi sseau rou
Your kisses are so sweet
Lemon Incest
Lemon Incest
I love you, love you, I love you more than anything
Papapappa
The love we will never set
Is the rarest, the most disturbing
The purest, most intoxicating
Exquisite, exquisse
Delightful child
My flesh and my blood
Oh my baby my soul
—————————————————————
—————————————————————
Behind the story:
In 1984, when she was just 13, Charlotte duetted with her father on a single called “Lemon Incest”, which made “Je t’aime” seem positively quaint. It seemed to celebrate both incest and paedophilia, though, when I bring it up, she insists it does neither. Despite, or because of, the scandal the song caused, it spent 10 weeks in the French top 10 and bestowed on the pre-pubescent Gainsbourg an unwelcome notoriety. “Fortunately,” she says, “I had just gone to boarding school when the song came out. I was totally unaware of this big scandal. I was protected from it.”
How, though, did she feel singing the song, and then acting coquettishly in the accompanying video in which both are sprawled on a double bed, he shirtless and she wearing only a shirt and knickers? “Oh, I was not innocent singing it,” she says, “I knew what I was talking about. But for me, it wasn’t a problem. I had fun with it. Plus, there was pureness behind it. It’s really the love of a father and daughter. It says in the song – the love that will never do together. And, you know,” she adds, smiling, “even then I imagine I was used to his excitement about provocation. This is what he was good at.”