Paul: France Gall & Serge Gainsbourg…

…French Pop is way more interesting than american

Back in the mid-sixties she was an up and coming 18 year old pop star, and he was a recording artist/songwriter pushing forty. They were never officially an item or anything, but he was a notorious player with a taste for the young girls and pictures like this one of them doing Bonnie and Clyde make you wonder. During her heydey he wrote almost all of her music and lyrics. One of her biggest hits was the song “Les Sucettes”, a song about a girl who likes lollipops which is actually a not-so-subtle metaphor for giving head…

Believe it or not, France Gall didn’t get the double meaning, and just look at this translation of the song’s lyrics:
_______________________________________________________________________________
Annie likes lollipops,
Anise lollipops.
Annie’s anise lollipops
Give her kisses an anise flavor.
When the anise flavored barley sugar
Sinks in Annie’s throat,
She’s in heaven.

For a few pennies,
Annie gets her anise lollipops.
They have the color of her big eyes,
The color of happy days.
Annie likes lollipops,
Anise lollipops.
Annie’s anise lollipops
Give her kisses an anise flavor.
When on her tongue lies only the short stick,
She takes her legs to her body (To run off)
And goes back to the drugstore.

For a few pennies,
Annie gets her anise lollipops.
They have the color of her big eyes,
The color of happy days.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Apparently when someone clued her in she was very upset. Seriously though, how naive can you be?

The lyrics to this one include:
I’m a wax doll.
His (or sound) doll.
My heart is full of my songs
Wax doll, sound doll
I’m the best and the worst
As a mannequin
I see my life as a piece of pink candy
A wax doll, sound doll

This seems to suggest that she’s basically his puppet, and that on her own she has no real substance. I wonder if she ever critically analyzed the words to this one the way she failed to with the other one. It’s a really good song, but I like it a little less now that I know what the lyrics mean. I could do without the misogyny.