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Divine BB
Brigitte Bardot On Record
Paris
03/05/2004 -
On New Year's Day 1962 and 1963, and then again in 1968, French TV audiences were treated to a Brigitte Bardot special, the glamorous blonde icon appearing on set to give a run-through of BB hits. "It was like a New Year's gift to viewers," Bardot says, recalling the days when she stepped behind the mike to perform all her chart-toppers from La Madrague to Comic Strip and Bonnie and Clyde as a duet with the song's author Serge Gainsbourg. Other highlights of BB's New Year specials included a breathtaking, finger-flying performance from Manitas de Platas on guitar, watched by the lovely Brigitte herself, sitting open-mouthed in admiration. Back in those days when France had only one TV station – in black and white – and Bardot reigned as an undisputed screen goddess, one might have imagined BB acting it up as a TV diva. Nothing could have been further from the truth, in fact. Brigitte turned up on set with her own wigs and costumes and dressed without the aid of a make-up assistant or stylist. What's more, she was not even paid a fee for her appearances. "Not being paid for my TV work wasn't as strange as it sounds now," says Bardot, insisting she did her TV shows for pleasure, "You could easily imagine working for free in those days because money wasn't the be all and end all in life it is now."
The Divine BB DVD captures the special magic of Bardot's best-known TV moments, but also includes a number of previously unseen bonuses such as Bardot performing Stanislas with Les Frères Jacques and singing La Bise aux hippies as a duet with Sacha Distel, accompanied by the song's author, Gainsbourg, on guitar. When asked to pick her own personal favourites from her music career, Bardot replies without a moment's hesitation. "La Madrague and Harley Davidson – those are the two songs that are really typically me!" Strangely enough, for someone who straddled her mean machine with such authority on TV, Bardot admits she never actually owned a Harley in real life. "I may have given the impression I was in complete control of my Harley on set," she says, "but honestly, motorbikes aren't my thing at all. I did have a 125 cylinder once which I used to ride around clinging on to for dear life. The only reason I invested in one in the first place was because motorbikes were all the rage at the time. But, believe me, if you'd given me the slightest push I'd have fallen off flat on my face! And I'll let you into another secret here, Gainsbourg (the author of Harley Davidson) never got on a motorbike in his life. He didn't even have a driving licence!"
Bardot also admits that she was not driven by a love of music from an early age. "I remember there was this idea that I should have piano lessons and learn my scales as a child. But it really wasn't my thing at all. Believe me, the piano lessons didn't last long!" Bardot's great passion in youth was dance, a love she only later gave up for the cinema. Music was not a driving force in the Bardot family. "My family didn't really go out and buy records," she says, "The music we listened to at home was mostly Strauss, The Sad Waltz by Sibelius and the songs of Trenet and Maurice Chevalier. I didn't have my own music collection at all. All I had was my piano and that got sold off soon enough."
Interestingly enough, it was Bardot's involvement in the film world that led to her first real contact with music. "I learnt to play guitar when we were shooting La Femme et le Pantin in Seville in 1958," she says, "That was the first time I'd ever set foot in Spain and that was when I discovered flamenco guitar for the first time, too. The director got me to learn a bit of flamenco so I could dance in the film, but that wasn't all that difficult. The thing that proved to be a lot more difficult was mastering flamenco guitar chords. I kept up guitar after the film, in fact, playing with Los Incas, a group of musicians who often came down to La Madrague. When we got together we couldn't stop and it was thanks to them that I picked up South American chords and rhythms. Let me tell you, that's the hard bit. It's really tricky keeping up the rhythm with the right hand!." Divine BB does not neglect to promote BB's guitar skills, showing extracts of her playing El Cuchipe with Los Incas and assuring the guitar part on The Sunny Side Of The Street with the Claude Bolling Orchestra. "I have to say I wasn't too bad either," laughs Bardot, "I still play guitar now, you know. I'm a bit out of practice because I don't play every day, but I haven't completely lost my guitar skills!"
Despite having recorded some of the nation's favourite chart-toppers in the 60s, Bardot never really pursued a professional music career. Her forays into the studio and her TV specials were always more of a hobby than a job. The singer was none too professional in her recording habits, either. "I was never loyal to one label," Bardot recalls with a smile, "I started out signing a contract with Philips. The label was run by a bunch of very strict gentlemen in hats in those days. But that turned out to be a complete disaster! They were very nice to me, but they were absolutely not where it was at in terms of music and I went in there trying to shake them up a bit. After Philips I moved on to AZ, but then I became friends with Eddie Barclay and I eventually abandoned AZ to sign to the Barclay label."
Asked whether she harbours any nostalgia for the good old days, Bardot laughs, "What, do you think I actually sit at home listening to my old records all day? That would be a bit difficult because I listen to 'Radio Classique' most of the time!" BB's foray into the music world provoked outbursts of sarcasm in the early days, but Bardot insists "I'd do exactly the same thing all over again today… I reached the absolute height of fame at the pinnacle of my career and then one day I stopped and began a new chapter in my life. My life's radically different now. I see a lot of pain, death and suffering. But I think the fact that I had so much in my former life helps me to assume what I go through in my work with animals now. "
Brigitte Bardot, DVD Divine BB (Universal-INA)
Bertrand Dicale
Translation : Julie Street
28/10/2009 -
27/02/2008 -
