Friday, February 11, 2005

Brigitte Bardot's Love For The Great American Motorcycle

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It's 1967, France. Take one blond bombshell actress. Add two incredibly hip tunes by the grand master of French perviness, Serge Gainsbourg. Mix well under the direction of Michel Colombier and his orchestra, et voila! Harley Davidson and Contact are a couple of very groovy go-go tunes. The first is a very silly ode to the famous motorcycle and the lifestyle attached to it -

"I do not need person
In Harley Davidson
I do not recognize any more person
In Harley Davidson
I go to more than one hundred,
And I feel with fire and blood,
That is essential to me to die
The hair in the wind!
That is essential to me to die
The hair in the wind!"


As a child in the mid '70s I have vivid memories of seeing the video for Harley Davidson in a cafe in Saigon (my dad worked for the State Dept. there at the time) on some old school video jukebox. Then a couple of years ago my folks (who retired to France) found a CD single reissue of these tunes and gave it to me. The second song is better known, having been covered by quite a few others. It's a space age love song. Brigitte isn't the best singer in the world, but manages pretty well on these tunes. Chalk another one up for Serge and his starlets...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it's funny because in france this song is pretty well-known!