The eclectic compositions of Serge Gainsbourg. "Chatterton". 1967.

Serge Gainsbourg (1928.1991)

Autograph manuscript.

A quarto page, slightly creased at the top.

Brown stain (coffee?) on the edge.

[Paris. Spring 1967]

A comical working manuscript, embryonic in several of the artist's compositional works: Gainsbourg's heterogeneous notes in fact constitute the beginnings of three titles in the making: "Hip hip hip hurrah" for Claude François, "Les Millionnaires" for Zizi Jeanmaire and "Chatterton" sung by him in 1967.

________________________________________________________

I'm fed up with it.

I've had it up to here

to be with a

so fat

a fat  slob

full  of dollars

Yes, you're just a   fat,   rich   guy .

a big pile of money

a big bowl of soup

a  fat,  filthy man full  of dollars

All geniuses are madmen

I practice

politics

of the burned woman

behind me

he must not grow anything

________________________________________________________

At the bottom of the page, Serge Gainsbourg writes (then crosses out) the opening line of the song "Hip hip hip hurrah" written for Claude François in 1967: "I practice the politics of the burned woman".

The phrase "All geniuses are madmen" appears to be the first draft of what would become "Chatterton" (published in July 1967) and its famous list of geniuses who committed suicide. It's worth noting that the music for "Chatterton" (very clearly borrowed from the American group Booker T. and the M.G.'s without crediting them) is almost identical to "Hip hip hip hurrah.".

The phrase "A fat slob full of dollars" (which can be sung at the beginning of the chorus of "Bloody Jack" or "Teenie Weenie Boppie," which have two interchangeable tunes) appears to be an attempt to replace the lyrics of "Bloody Jack," rejected by France Gall, who would eventually sing "Teenie Weenie Boppie" in July 1967. This same line would eventually be recycled by Gainsbourg in 1972 in the song "Les millionnaires," written for Zizi Jeanmaire, where the artist expresses the misandrist disdain of a woman looking for a millionaire, "a fat slob full of dollars.".