Serge Gainsbourg, Lemon Incest | Controversial Tunes 😈🎶

On the 2^nd edition of Controversial Tunes (2022), we explore the controversy behind “Lemon Incest” by Serge Gainsbourg & Charlotte Gainsbourg.   

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ring on the controversy! Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows and totally stirred the pot.  The records that grace Controversial Tunes are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  On the 2^nd edition of Controversial Tunes (2022), we explore the controversy behind the song, 🎵 “Lemon Incest” by 🎙 Serge Gainsbourg and his daughter, 🎙 Charlotte Gainsbourg.

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Theme & Lyrics ✍ 

Cutting straight to the chase, 🎵 “Lemon Incest” is top-tier controversy – NO CAP! Honestly, how could it not be? In a 2010 interview with 🎙 Charlotte Gainsbourg, who duetted with her father, 🎙 Serge Gainsbourg, Sean O’Hagan of The Guardian writes, “[“Lemon Incest”] seemed to celebrate both incest and paedophilia, though, when I bring it up, she insists it does neither.” Interesting! Of the song, O’Hagan continues, “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.” Yes, you heard right.  When “Lemon Incest” was recorded (1984) Gainsbourg was firmly a minor – 13 – and there are clearly inappropriate themes explored.

Incestuous relationships and pedophilia are topics generally avoided in pop music, FOR GOOD REASON.  In the same interview, Gainsbourg seems to write off the controversy as provocation, asserting, “It’s really the love of a father and daughter. It says in the song – the love that will never do together.” Even if it is provocation as she proclaims, “Lemon Incest” gives off creepy vibes that unsurprisingly, stirred the pot something fierce. “Naïve as a canvas,” Serge sings, later adding, “Your kisses are so sweet.” Um… As for Charlotte, she professes her love for her father on the chorus, proclaiming, “I love you more than anything / Daddy, daddy.” While there’s no problem loving her father, it’s the risqué moments scattered throughout “Lemon Incest” that raise eyebrows. Also, her breathy tone only amplifies the creepiness on this synthpop record. “The love that we will never make together,” she sings, “Is the most beautiful, the most violent / The purest, the most intoxicating.” What more can you say but, holy SugarHoneyIcedTea! At least, 🎙🎼✍ Frédéric Chopin (samples Étude, Op. 10, No. 3 in E Major) gives this disturbing number a lift.

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Final Thoughts 💭 

Want a record to leave you truly speechless? 🎵 “Lemon Incest” just might be the one to do it.  It’s creepy AF, even approaching 40 years after it was released.  Again, the ‘love’ just feels off. It is what it is… CREEPY!!!

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🎙 Serge Gainsbourg • 💿 Les 50 plus belles chansons de Serge Gainsbourg • 🏷 Mercury Music Group • 🗓 2007
Serge Gainsbourg & Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Lemon Incest”: Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 No. 2 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, cottonbro, Darkmoon_Art,  TheDigitalArtist, inna mikitas, Isabela Catão, Jonathan Nenemann, Mercury Music Group, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, Tazz Vaughn, Victoria Borodinova, zzzvector]

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