The rakish Serge Gainsbourg, France's international ambassador of decadence, experimented with jazz, Caribbean rhythms, and eventually reggae, but ultimately was most at home with twisted lounge music. His breathy, salacious collaborations with Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin in the 1960s and 1970s redefined bachelor-pad music. Gainsbourg died young but had lived a full, storied life by 1991. More