Georges Brassens (22 October 1921 - 29 October 1981) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
singer-songwriterA singer–songwriter is a musician who writes, composes and sings their own material including lyrics and melodies. They often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano...
.
Georges Brassens was born in
SèteSète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.Known as the Venice of Languedoc, it is a port and a sea-side resort on the Mediterranean Sea.-History:...
, a town in southern France near
MontpellierMontpellier is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the Hérault department.-Population:...
. Now an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his simple, elegant songs and articulate, diverse lyrics; indeed, he is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets. He has also set to music poems by both well-known and relatively obscure poets, including
Louis AragonLouis Aragon Louis Aragon Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time political supporter of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.-Early life (1897-1939) :...
(
Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux),
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
,
Jean RichepinJean Richepin , French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Medea ....
,
François VillonFrançois Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
, and
Guillaume ApollinaireWilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, writer and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was forced by the Germans to work in a
labor campArbeitslager is a German language word which means Labor camp.During World War II the Nazis operated several categories of Arbeitslager for different categories of inmates...
at a
BMW, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company. Founded in 1916, it is known for its performance and luxury vehicles. It owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.-Company history:...
aircraft engine plant in
BasdorfWandlitz is a municipality in the district of Barnim, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 25 km north of Berlin, and 15 km east of Oranienburg...
near
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
in Germany (March 1943). Here Brassens met some of his future friends, such as
Pierre OnténientePierre Onténiente was Georges Brassens ‘s friend and secretary . Brassens met him in 1943. He is also the co-author of the books about the songwriter, Brassens, Le regard de « Gibraltar » and Georges Brassens... chez Jeanne, 1944-1952....
, whom he called
Gibraltar because he was "steady as a rock." They would later become close friends.
After being given ten days' leave in France, he decided not to return to the labour camp. Brassens took refuge in a
slumA slum, as defined by the United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the proportion of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
called "Impasse Florimont" where he lived for several years with its owner, Jeanne Planche, a friend of his aunt. Planche lived with her husband Marcel in relative poverty: without gas, running water, or electricity. Brassens remained hidden there until the end of the war five months later, but ended up staying for 22 years. Planche was the inspiration for Brassens's song
Jeanne.
Childhood
Brassens grew up in the family home in
SèteSète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.Known as the Venice of Languedoc, it is a port and a sea-side resort on the Mediterranean Sea.-History:...
with his mother, Elvira Dagrosa, father, Jean-Louis, half-sister, Simone (daughter of Elvira and her first husband, who was killed in the war), and paternal grandfather, Jules. His mother, who came from a
NeapolitanNeapolitan may refer to:* Neapolitan--of, or pertaining to the city of Naples, Italy and sometimes its wider Duchy or Province of Naples*Previously a nationality, during the time of the Kingdom of Naples or the Neapolitan Republics* Neapolitan cuisine...
family, was a devout Roman Catholic, while his father was an easy-going, generous, openminded, anticlerical man. Brassens grew up between these two starkly contrasting personalities, who nonetheless shared a love for music. His mother—whom Brassens labelled a "missionary for songs" (militante de la chanson), Simone and Jules, were always singing. This environment imparted to Brassens a passion for singing that would come to define his life. At the time he listened constantly to his early idols:
Charles TrenetCharles Trenet was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s...
,
Tino RossiTino Rossi was a singer and film actor of Corsican origin.Born Constantino Rossi in Ajaccio, Corsica, France, he became a tenor of French cabaret and one of the great romantic idols of his time. Gifted with an operatic voice, a "Latin Lover" persona made him a movie star as well...
, and Ray Ventura. He was said to love music above all else: it was his first passion and the path that led him to his career. He told his friend André Sève, "[It is] a kind of internal vibration, something intense, a pleasure that has something of the sensual to it." He hoped to enroll at a music conservatory, but his mother insisted that he could only do so if his grades improved. Consequently, he never learned to read music. A poor student, Brassens performed badly in school.
Alphonse Bonnafé, Brassens' ninth-grade teacher, strongly encouraged his apparent gift for poetry and creativity. Brassens had already been experimenting with songwriting and poetry. Bonnafé aided his attempts at poetry and pushed him to spend more time on his schoolwork, suggesting he begin to study classical poetry. Brassens developed an interest in versification and rhyme. By Brassens' admission, Bonnafé's influence on his work is enormous: "We were thugs, at fourteen, fifteen, and we started to like poets. That is quite a transformation. Thanks to this teacher, I opened my mind to something bigger. Later on, every time I wrote a song, I asked myself the question: would Bonnafé like it?" By this point, music had taken a slight backstage to poetry for Brassens, who now dreamed of being a writer.
Nonetheless, personal friendships and adolescence still defined Brassens in his teens. At age seventeen, he was implicated in a crime that would prove to be a turning point in his life. In order to make a little money, Georges and his gang decided to turn to small thefts whose principal victims were their respective families. Georges stole a ring and a bracelet from his sister. The police found and caught him, which caused a minor scandal. The young men were publicly characterized as "high school mobsters" or "scum". Some of the perpetrators, unsupported by their families, spent time in prison. While Brassen's father was more forgiving and immediately picked up his son, Brassens was expelled from school. He decided to move to Paris in February 1940, following a short trial as an apprentice mason in his father's business after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
had already broken out.
Apprenticeship
Brassens lived with his aunt Antoinette in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, where he taught himself to play piano. He began working at a
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
car factory. In May 1940 the factory was bombed, and France invaded by
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Brassens returned to the family home in Sète. He spent the summer in his home town, but soon returned to Paris, feeling that this was where his future lay. He did not work, since employment would serve only to profit the occupying enemy. Saddened by the lack of poetic culture, Brassens spent most of his days in the library. It was then that he set a pattern of arising at five in the morning, and going to bed at sunset - a pattern he maintained the greater part of his life. He meticulously studied the great masters:
VillonFrançois Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
,
BaudelaireCharles Pierre Baudelaire was a nineteenth century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence...
,
VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
and
HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
. His approach to poetry was almost scientific. Reading, for instance, a poem by Verlaine, he dissected it image by image, attentive to the slightest change in rhythm, analysing the rhymes and the way they alternated. He drew on this enormous literary culture as wrote his first collection of poems,
Des coups d’épée dans l’eau, whose conclusion foreshadowed the anarchism of his future songs:
- Le siècle ou nous vivons est un siècle pourri.
- Tout n'est que lâcheté, bassesse,
- Les plus grands assassins vont aux plus grandes messes
- Et sont des plus grands rois les plus grands favoris.
- Hommage de l'auteur à ceux qui l'ont compris,
- Et merde aux autres.
- (The century we live in is a rotten century.
- Nothing but cowardice and baseness.
- The greatest murderers attend the greatest masses
- And are the greatest favourites of the greatest kings.
- Homage from the author to those who understood him,
- And shit for the others.)
Brassens also published
A la venvole, thanks to the money of his family and friends, and with the surprising help of a woman named Jeanne Planche, a neighbour of Antoinette, probably the first Brassens fan. Brassens later commented on his early works: "In those times, I was only regurgitating what I had learned reading the poets. I hadn't transformed it into honey yet."
Exile
In March 1943, Brassens was requisitioned for the STO (
Service de Travail Obligatoire:
Obligatory Work Service) and was taken to Basdorf, Germany. He found time to write, but he stooped to easiness and considered this period a waste of time. It was nevertheless in Germany that he wrote
Bonhomme and
Pauvre Martin, along with more than a hundred songs, that were later either burned or frequently altered before they reached their final form (
Le Mauvais sujet repenti). He also wrote the beginning of his first novel,
Lalie Kakamou. In Germany, he met some of his best friends like Pierre Onténiente, whom he nicknamed "Gibraltar", because he was "firm as a rock." Onténiente later became his right-hand man and his private secretary.
A year after he arrived in Basdorf, Brassens was granted a ten day furlough. It was obvious to him and his new friends that he wouldn't come back. In Paris, he had to find a hideout, but he knew very few people. He had indeed led quite a lonely life in Paris, seeing only a friend from Sète and the girls with whom he had his first romances. Finally, Jeanne Planche came to his aid and offered to put him up as long as necessary. Jeanne lived with her husband Marcel in a hovel at 9 impasse Florimont, with no gas, water or electricity. Brassens accepted... and stayed there for twenty two years. He once said on the radio: "I was nice there, and I have gained since then quite an amazing sense of discomfort." According to Pierre Onténiente: "Jeanne had a crush on Georges and Marcel knew nothing, as he started to get drunk at eight in the morning."
Anarchist influences
Once put up at Jeanne Planche's, Georges had to stay hidden for five months, waiting for the war to come to an end. He continued writing poems and songs. He composed using as his only instrument a small piece of furniture that he called "my drum" on which he beat out the rhythm. He resumed writing the novel he started in Basdorf, for only now did he consider a career as a famous novelist. The end of World War II and the freedom suddenly regained didn't change his habits much, except that he got his library card back and resumed studying poetry.
The end of the war meant the homecoming of the friends form Basdorf, with whom Brassens planned to create an anarchist-minded paper,
Le Cri des gueux (
The villain’s cry), which never came into being for lack of money. In the same time, he set up the "Prehistoric Party" with Emile Miramont (a friend from Sète nicknamed "Corne d'Aurochs" –auroch's horn) and André Larue (who he met in Basdorf), which advocated the return to a more modest way of life, but whose chief purpose was to ridicule the other political parties. After the failure of
Le Cri des gueux, Brassens joined the Anarchist Federation and wrote some virulent, black humour tinged articles for
Le Libertaire, the Federation's paper. But the extravagance of the future songwriter wasn’t to everybody’s taste, and he soon had to leave the Federation, albeit without resentment.
Brassens said in an interview: "I'm an anarchist, so much so that I always cross at the zebra crossing to avoid arguing with the police." He also said: "I'm not very fond of the law. As Léautaud would say, I could do without laws [...] I think most people couldn’t."
The beginning of his career
His friends who heard and liked his songs urged him to go and try them out in a cabaret, café or concert hall. He was shy and had difficulty performing in front of people. At first, he wanted to sell his songs to most-known singers such as "les frères Jacques". The owner of a cafe told him that his songs were not the type he was looking for. But at one point he met the singer
Patachou in a very well-known cafe,
Les Trois Baudets, and she brought him into the music scene. Several famous singers came into the music industry this way, including
Jacques BrelJacques Romain Georges Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter. Brel composed and recorded his songs almost exclusively in French. The quality and style of his lyrics are highly regarded by many leading critics of popular music...
and
Léo FerréLéo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...
. He later on made several appearances at the
Paris OlympiaParis Olympia is a music hall at 28, Blvd. des Capucines, in the 9th arrondissement Paris, France.Founded in 1888 by Joseph Oller, the creator of the Moulin Rouge, the Olympia is the oldest music hall in Paris and one of the most famous music halls in the world, today easily recognizable by its...
under
Bruno CoquatrixBruno Coquatrix, was born in Ronchin, Nord on August 5, 1910 and died in Paris on April 1, 1979, buried in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery . He is mainly known as the owner and manager of the music hall Paris Olympia...
' management.
Songs
Brassens rarely performed abroad. His lyrics are difficult to translate, though attempts have been made. He accompanied himself on acoustic
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
. Most of the time the only other accompaniment came from his friend Pierre Nicolas with a
double bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
, and sometimes a second guitar (Barthélémy Rosso, Joël Favreau).
Some of his most famous songs include:
- Les copains d'abord, about a boat of that name, and friendship
Friendship is the cooperative and supportive relationship between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis...
, written for a movie Les copains (1964) directed by Yves RobertYves Robert was a French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.Born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, in his teens Robert went to Paris to pursue a career in acting, starting with unpaid parts on stage in the city's various theatre workshops. To support himself, he worked at a variety of jobs...
; (translated and covered by Asleep At The WheelAsleep at the Wheel, is a multiple Grammy Award-winning Country/Western Swing band formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have...
as "Friendship First" and by a Polish cover bandA cover band , also called tribute band is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be know as a wedding band, party band and function band. Many bands, however, start as cover bands...
Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Kumple to grunt" and included on their 2007 eponymously titled CD).
- Chanson pour l'Auvergnat
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne...
, lauding those who take care of the downtrodden against the pettiness of the bourgeois and the harshness of law enforcement.
- La cane de Jeanne for Marcel and Jeanne Planche, who befriended and sheltered him and others.
- La mauvaise réputation — "the bad reputation", a semi-autobiographical tune with its catchy lyric: "Honest folks don't like it when you do something that they wouldn't do." (Mais les braves gens n'aiment pas que l'on suive une autre route qu'eux.).
- Les amoureux des bancs publics — about young lovers who kiss each other publicly and shock self-righteous people.
- Le gorille — tells, in a humorous fashion, of a gorilla
Gorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
with a large penisThe penis is an external sexual organ of certain biologically male organisms, in both vertebrates and invertebrates....
(and admired for this by ladies) who escapes his cage. Mistaking a robed judgeA judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is like an umpire in a game and...
for a woman, the beast forcefully sodomizesAnal sex most often refers to the sex act involving insertion of the penis into the anus. The term anal sex can also sometimes include other sexual acts involving the anus, including Anal–oral sex and fingering...
him. The song contrasts the wooden attitude that the judge had exhibited when sentencing a man to death by the guillotineThe guillotine was a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim's head from their body...
, with his cries of mercy when being assaulted by the gorilla. This song, considered pornographic, was bannedCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
for a while. The song's refrainA refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
(Gare au gori – i – i – i – ille, "beware the gorilla") is widely known; it was translated into English by Jake ThackrayJohn Philip "Jake" Thackray , was an English singer-songwriter, poet and journalist. Best known in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his topical comedy songs performed on British television, his work ranged from satirical to bawdy to sentimental to pastoral, with a strong emphasis on storytelling,...
as Brother Gorilla, by Greek singer-songwriter Christos Thivaios as Ο Γορίλας ("The Gorilla"), by Spanish songwriter Joaquín Carbonell as "El Gorila" ("The Gorilla"), by Italian songwriter Fabrizio De AndréFabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. In his works he often told stories of marginalized and rebellious people...
as "Il Gorilla" ("The Gorilla" -- FDA included this translation into his 1968 album "Volume III") and by a Polish cover bandA cover band , also called tribute band is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be know as a wedding band, party band and function band. Many bands, however, start as cover bands...
Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Goryl".
- Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète
Sète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.Known as the Venice of Languedoc, it is a port and a sea-side resort on the Mediterranean Sea.-History:...
, describing his wish to be buried by the Gulf of LionThe Gulf of Lion is a wide embayment of the Mediterranean coastline of Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence in France, reaching from the border with Catalonia in the west to Toulon.The chief...
in his hometown.
- Mourir pour des idées, describing the recurring violence over ideas and an exhortation to be left in peace (translated into Italian by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André
Fabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. In his works he often told stories of marginalized and rebellious people...
as "Morire per delle idee" and included in FDA's 1974 album "Canzoni" and by a Polish cover bandA cover band , also called tribute band is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be know as a wedding band, party band and function band. Many bands, however, start as cover bands...
Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Śmierć za idee" and included on their 2007 CD "Kumple to grunt").
Brassens died of
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
in 1981, in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc, having suffered health problems for many years, and rests at the Cimetière le Py in Sète.
Legacy
In recent years, more than 50 doctoral dissertations have been written about Georges Brassens. Many artists from Japan, Israel, Russia, the United States (where there is a Georges Brassens fan club), Italy and Spain have made cover versions of his songs. His songs have been translated into 20 languages, including
Esperantois the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself...
.
Many singers have covered Georges Brassens' lyrics in other languages, for instance Pierre de Gaillande, who translates Brassens' songs and performs them in English,
Fabrizio De AndréFabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. In his works he often told stories of marginalized and rebellious people...
(in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
), Alberto Patrucco (in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
), and Nanni Svampa (in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
and
MilaneseMilanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....
),
Graeme AllwrightGraeme Allwright is a singer-songwriter. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, he moved to France in 1948. He began to perform and write folk songs a few years later and was eventually signed by Sonogram. In the 1960s, he translated into French a number of songs written by Leonard Cohen...
and
Jake ThackrayJohn Philip "Jake" Thackray , was an English singer-songwriter, poet and journalist. Best known in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his topical comedy songs performed on British television, his work ranged from satirical to bawdy to sentimental to pastoral, with a strong emphasis on storytelling,...
(in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
), Sam Alpha (in
creoleCreole patois refers to the variety of creole dialects and the accompanied patois of native, local, or regional people.-Background:On several territories presently or formerly under French rule, a French-based creole language is widely spoken. These include Creole patois refers to the variety of...
),
Yossi BanaiYossi Banai was an Israeli performer, singer, actor, and dramatist.Banai was born in Jerusalem, and grew up in the neighborhood of the Mahane Yehuda market...
(in
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
), Jiří Dědeček (in
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
), Mark Freidkin (in
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
),
Paco IbáñezFrancisco "Paco" Ibáñez is a Spanish singer and musician born in Valencia on November 20, 1934, before the Spanish Civil War.He went to France in 1952 during the Franco dictatorship in Spain and recorded his first album in 1964....
, Javier Krahe, Joaquín Carbonell and Eduardo Peralta (in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
), Jacques Ivart (in
esperantois the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself...
),
Franz Josef DegenhardtFranz-Josef Degenhardt is a German poet, satirist, novelist, and -- first and foremost -- folksinger/songwriter with decidedly left-wing politics...
and Ralf Tauchmann (in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
), Zespół Reprezentacyjny and Piotr Machalica (in
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
),
Cornelis VreeswijkCornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949, at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became more and more involved in music, performing at...
(Swedish) and Tuula Amberla (in Finnish). Dieter Kaiser, a Belgian-German singer who performs in public concerts with the French-German professional guitarist Stéphane Bazire under the name Stéphane & Didier has translated into German language and gathered in a brochure 19 Brassens songs. He also translated among others the poem "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" of the French contemporary poet Louis Aragon. Franco-Cameroonian singer
Kristo NumpubyGuitarist and singer born in Paris but raised in Eséka, South Cameroon.Author and composer, Kristo sings mainly in Bassa and French on Assiko music but he is also inspired by other Cameroonian music styles and Jazz.- Discography :...
also released a cover-album with the original French lyrics but adapted the songs to various African rhythms.
An international association of Georges Brassens fans exists and there is also a fan club in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
-Basdorf which organizes a Brassens festival every year in September.
Brassens composed about 250 songs, of which 200 were recorded, the other 50 remaining unfinished.
Renée Claude, an important
Québécois singer, dedicated a tribute-album to him,
J'ai rendez-vous avec vous (1993).
His songs have a major influence on many French singers across several generations, including
Maxime Le ForestierMaxime Le Forestier is a French singer.He was born in Paris to an English father and a French mother who had lived in England. He had two older sisters, Anne and Catherine....
,
Renaud SéchanRenaud Pierre Manuel Séchan, known as Renaud, born in Paris on 11 May 1952, is a popular French singer, songwriter and actor.His father comes from a Protestant southern-french family , and his mother is the daughter of a coalminer from the poor Nord-Pas-de-Calais region...
,
BénabarBénabar is a French songwriter and singer, who could be compared to Vincent Delerm and other singers from his generation. As many of them he was influenced by Georges Brassens, Renaud Séchan, Jacques Higelin and also Tom Waits. His songs describe day-to-day life events with humour and a tender...
and others.
In 2008, the English folk-singer
Leon RosselsonLeon Rosselson is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, in the BBC's topical TV programme of the early 1960s, That Was The Week That Was...
included a tribute song to Brassens, entitled "The Ghost of Georges Brassens", on his album
A Proper State.
The song "À Brassens" ("To Brassens") from
Jean FerratJean Ferrat is a French author, poet and singer.-Biography:The youngest of four children from a modest Jewish family which moved to Versailles in 1935, Ferrat studied at the Jules Ferry College. His father was deported to Auschwitz during the war, where he died...
's album
Ferrat was dedicated to Brassens.
Heritage sites
Many schools, theatres, parks, public gardens, and public places are dedicated to Georges Brassens and his work, including:
- A park built on the site of the former Vaugirard horse market & slaughterhouses, was named parc Georges Brassens. Brassens lived a large part of his life about hundred metres from the slaughterhouses, at 9 impasse Florimont and then at 42 rue Santos Dumont. The park was inaugurated in 1975.
- A nearby station of Tram line 3 is also named in Brassens' honour.
- The Place du Marché of Brive-la-Gaillarde
Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. The population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999...
was renamed Place Georges Brassens, as a tribute to women that had had a clash here with the French gendarmerieA gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military body charged with police duties among civilian populations. The members of such a body are called gendarmes. The term maréchaussée may also be used but is now uncommon.-Etymology:The word gendarme comes from Old French gens d'armes, meaning men-at-arms...
, a clash he evoked in one of his songs, Hécatombe.
- In the Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit system in Paris. It is a symbol of the city, notable for its station architecture, influenced by Art Nouveau. It has 16 lines, mostly underground, and a total length of 214 km . There are 300 stations...
station Porte des LilasPorte des Lilas is a station of the Paris Métro. It serves Line 11 and is the northern terminus of Line 3bis.The station was opened on 27 November 1921 when Line 3 was extended from Gambetta to Porte des Lilas. The line 11 platforms opened as part of the original section of the line from Châtelet...
(Line 11Paris Métro Line 11 is one of 16 metro lines built in Paris, France. It links Les Lilas in the North East of the city to Châtelet in the center of Paris. It is the shortest of the 14 metro lines having independent management...
) there is a mural portrait of Brassens along with a quote from his song "La Porte des Lilas", written for the 1957 film "Porte des Lilas" by René ClairRené Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
. In this film, Brassens had a supporting role, practically playing himself.
External links
http://www.sete.fr/brassens/english/index.html Espace Brassens museum in Sète http://www.georges-brassens.com/ http://georgesbrassens.artistes.universalmusic.fr/ Official Website http://www.aupresdesonarbre.com/ http://www.analysebrassens.com/ http://www.apparemment.fr/brassens/