Serge Gainsbourg and the Milord l'Arsouille. Rare early postcard. 1961.

Serge Gainsbourg (1928.1991)

Autographed card signed to his pianist friend Lucien Merer.

An oblong octavo page on the back of a view of Zagreb.

Zagreb. October 27, 1961.

" They'll have to add more sauce to the sauce, sir."

A precious and rare document dating from the early years of Gainsbourg's musical and cinematographic career, in Yugoslavia for the filming of a peplum film.

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Best regards to you, Lucien

Serge Gainsbourg

The lord will have to add more sauce

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Serge Gainsbourg was staying in Zagreb for the filming of the peplum La Furia di Ercole (directed by Giafranco Parolini), a film in which he played the role of the tyrant Menistus, pursued by Hercules after the assassination of the young Daria.

It was during this Yugoslavian sojourn that Gainsbourg carried out his first exploits as a financial pyromaniac. Indeed, he decided to light a cigarette with a burning 100 dinar note. Arrested by the police, he had to undergo questioning in custody for "provoking the regime." Back in Paris, he explained to Jacques Chancel: " They don't have a sense of humor over there " (In 1984, the episode of the burning banknote during the 7/7 broadcast had an even more spectacular impact).

From the Croatian capital, he sends his regards to Merer, mentioning the famous Parisian cabaret in the 1st^{arrondissement} , Milord l'Arsouille, where he made his debut in 1957, accompanied by his pianist friend.

Lucien Merer (1927-2019), pianist, composer and arranger, accompanied Gainsbourg from his earliest days. Merer collaborated with several other big names in the music scene: Boby Lapointe, Jean Ferrat, Cora Vaucaire, Édith Piaf, Léo Ferré and Charles Aznavour, sometimes assisting them during their beginnings or their singing tours in cabarets and concert halls.

Note a faint discharge of writing (reversed) on the back of the card: the "ghost" of an autograph note by Merer, difficult to read, in which the arranger recalls, ten years after Gainsbourg's death, the circumstances of this shipment from Zagreb.