Sonic Youth Gossip - SY secret girl invisibility origin

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SY secret girl invisibility origin

My Gainsbourg Integrale boxset arrived today, and I found this.

1984: Serge Gainsbourg - I'm the boy

Quote:

I'm the boy
That can enjoy
Invisibility
I'm the boy
Le garçon
Qui a le don
D'invisibilité

1986: Sonic Youth - Secret Girl

Quote:

My mother used to say
'You're the boy that can enjoy invisibility'
I'm the boy that can enjoy invisibility
Close your eyes make a wish

according to the mustang site the quote comes fro James Joyce though, the Gainsbourg link isn't mentioned.

It's from Ulysses (1922):

Her secrets: old featherfans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the sunny window of her house when she was a girl. She heard old Royce sing in the pantomime of TURKO THE TERRIBLE and laughed with others when he sang:

I AM THE BOY
THAT CAN ENJOY
INVISIBILITY.

Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.

The Gainsbourg connection is very curious though, could have been on their radar. The line is etched in the run-out groove of the Flower 12" attributed to "J.J." so they were definitely aware of the Joyce origin.

Damn. Gainsbourg is on my "critical darlings I do not care for" list.