One of the challenges I face in making the documentary is illustrating the pleasure derived from the lyrics of French Pop songs. For years my DJ focus was on enjoyable music that didn’t require a comprehension of the language since my audience primarily didn’t know French. As I got better at speaking and understanding the language a new depth of enjoyment opened-up. Some artists have both great lyrics and great music. Gainsbourg for starters. Here’s a little title theme ditty he wrote for a television program called Dents de lait, dents de loup.

(Notice that the cameraman doesn’t quite know who to focus on!)

Dents de lait… aired on January 11, 1967 and is a sort of French American Bandstand except that it was a one time deal with only a single episode. The line-up is jaw dropping - Gainsbourg, France Gall, Françoise Hardy, Eddy Mitchel, Clo-Clo, Sylvie Vartan, The Zombies (actually playing their instruments! almost everyone else lip synchs), The Walker Brothers, a high Marianne Faithful, and a few more Euro pop stars. It was hosted by Annick Beauchamps and Le President Rosko who was an American who made a career DJing on pirate radio (they actually were on a boat on the English Channel broadcasting from “international waters” to the mainland) before he came to Radio Luxembourg and did a show for a French audience.

Here are the lyrics:

The term dents de lait (milk teeth) means baby teeth and dents de loup means wolf teeth. So the lyric goes “You, you’re only a baby; nothing but a baby wolf. You have the baby teeth; not the teeth of a wolf.” To which France Gall responds “Yes, I have the baby teeth;I’m nothing but a baby wolf; Yes, I have the baby teeth; the baby teeth of a wolf!”

It’s cute, simple,  emblematic of the time and makes more sense in French than in English.

It’s never been released in any form whatsoever, but here is an MP3 nonetheless.

Dents de lait, dents de loup - (France Gall et Serge Gainsbourg)