Serge Gainsbourg‘s most appreciated album – universally considered his highest point – is Histoire De Melody Nelson, released in 1971. An epic, erotic and experimental concept album boosted by composer-arranger Jean-Claude Vannier and producer Jean-Claude Charvier, who took the original tapes from a London session (featuring Dougie Wright, Herbie Flowers, Big Jim Sullivan, Vic Flick) and added to them a string section of 30 elements; the result is an enticing concerto for funk-rock group and chamber orchestra.

Gainsbourg’s side, in this milestone of contemporary music, is Jane Birkin: the young, naive and sexy girl playing the main character in the story narrated in the arc of the album, but also singing with  feeble and enticing voice.

The plot of the story goes like this: a 43 year old man, cruising in his Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, knocks a teenage girl off her bike. She becomes his lover, they share ecstasy and bizarre experiences until disaster strikes: Melody, wishing to “see the sky of Sunderland again”, is involved in a plane crash and is never seen again, leaving the poor man alone with his grief.

Now the album has been re-released in an amazing deluxe version, featuring outtakes, demos and a full DVD: a 40 minute documentary featuring Birkin, Vannier and others, which genuinely enlarges on the release, with studio footage plus extracts from a rarely seen 1971 promo film. If the record itself was already perfect the way it was released 41 years ago, you shouldn’t miss the documentary: a real gem, showing rare footage and the master of bohemiennes – Gainsbourg, of course – in action.