Man,Alan Clayson really dislikes Serge Gainsbourg,I never read a book where an author puts his subject so low,what's worst he does it in a style that's so hard to follow it's almost a dare to finish this book,(makes one wonder if it's written in english),he had a lot of mistakes also,and he doesn't interviewed nobody close to Gainsbourg in real life,it seems all this books offers comes from his resaerchs and personal opinions,what's odd if why he wrote the book if he feels so bad about him.A bad book poorly written.

Like many reviews have already cited, it's a shame this is the only biography of Gainsbourg in English. This self-appointed "biographer", Alan Clayson manages to make one hell of an interesting life, unspeakably dull. Clayson simply cannot write.

For example:

"Until showtime, Serge might tinker secretively on a battered piano in a backstage alcove, but he couldn't stop himself being dragged into the behind the scenes intrigues and jealousies that would come to a head in 'prima donna' tantrums you could hear in the galleries and squabbles that ricocheted like shrapnel between any given combination of the principals for all the wonderful-to-be-here vaporings and scripted grinning unzipped as soon as they got in front of the footlights".

Less is more, pal.

If this sort of self-indulgent "purple prose" turns you on, by all means get the book. I couldn't believe what I was reading and it's apalling that Clayson's publishers put this stuff in print for unsuspecting Gainsbourg fans.

Besides being horribly written, Clayson is utterly arrogant and contemptable in tone. He's not only dismissive of the French music scene but apparently on his subject as well. I mean what's the point of writing the book in the first place?

What's worse is the guy doesn't even have his facts straight.

For all practical purposes, Clayson skips over one of the most formative events in his subject's character. For all the bile and venom Gainsborg poured into his ROCK AROUND THE BUNKER album, all we get from Clayson is a seemingly casual mention of Serge being a Jewish teenager during occupied France. No details or events are supplied on what was undoubtedly a harrowing time in Gainsbourg's life. The best we get is a caption under a photograph reading, "Lucien was concealed in a woodshed during a Gestapo descent on his secondary school".

In short, this is not only a clumsy, inept attempt at biography, it's an unbearable exercise in self-indulgence on the part of the writer. Pass it by and wait for a better one. Don't let this piece of idiocy be your introduction to Gainsbourg's outrageously uncompromising talent.

It's a pity that this turgid tome is the only Gainsbourg bio in English, but that will be changing soon, with a new one due in 2002 (and tantalizingly previewed in a recent issue of MOJO). Once it appears, Clayson's book can slink into the obscurity it deserves. I'm a major Gainsbourg fan, but am not averse to a warts-and-all portrait: would that Clayson gave us that much. No, all we get here is uninformed contempt for the man's music and the electrifying French popular culture from whence it sprang. He can't be bothered to put Gainsbourg in his context, and thus major contemporaneous French movements such as the cinema's nouvelle vague are given but cursory glances (and in the few sentences it is accorded, Clayson manages to embarrassingly mispell the names of both Chabrol and Truffaut - Chabril and Truffant, indeed)!

One has to wonder how much familiarity Clayson actually has with Gainsbourg's music: he admits to finding the CONFIDENTIEL album (spare songs delivered by one voice, one guitar, and one bass) indistinguishable from the heavily orchestrated material that immediately precedes it.

The discography at the back is loaded with gaffes that betray a shocking lack of familiarity with the music, if not total indifference: early tracks such as "La javanaise" and "L'eau a la bouche" are cited as c. 1968 duets with Brigitte Bardot when in fact they were recorded and released 6+ years before, by Serge alone, when Gainsbourg, by Clayson's own timeline, had not even MET Bardot! It's easy to see how this mistake was made: the songs were included to fill out a collection of Gainsbourg/Bardot collaborations in 1968, but less easy to understand how anyone who had devoted time and research to an artist's career could miss that. These are MAJOR songs in the Gainsbourg oeuvre. Just as telling is Clayson's footnote to the song "Je t'aime... moi non plus": "also known as 'Le chanson de SLOGAN'". No it's not. They are two COMPLETELY different songs, something anyone who had done the acceptable minimum of research would know.

If you want to read a biography that provides you with no context, treats its subject's creativity and national culture with utter contempt, and makes glaring errors of the kind cited above, VIEW FROM THE EXTERIOR is the book for you. If not, hold on, for help is on the way.

I really think that someone as fascinating a character as Serge Gainsbourg desrves a more eloquently written bio. As you the consumer deserves to know that unless you like reading fluffy jargon set out to impress those who knew Serge personally, this is not the bio for you. Here is an example:"Spontaneous salvos of applause would be provoked by specific couplets emoted either w/out embroidery-so as not to jar their elegance-or extemporised like a jazz vocalist after he got the knack of slipping comfortably from suppressed lust through lazy insinuation to intimate anguish, sometimes mingling humor and gloom in the same line." If this is how you enjoy reading and LEARNING about someone then buy, buy, buy, but if not beware because this example is tame! I would however, suggest checking out the other Serge book on Amazon, with reliable reviews from such distinguished musicians as John Zorn! I have never given the lowest rating before, but this one truely warranted it. Sorry Al!

If you're reading this you probably already agree that the subject matter is fascinating. Unfortunately this book earned its stars from me for subject matter alone. The writing is horrible. The information is sketchy. The ONLY reason to buy this book is that it is the only Gainsbourg bio in English.