Ces Gens-Là (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ces gens-là" is a French language song by the late Jacques Brel, published in 1966 by the Éditions Pouchenel of Brussels, about the despair of a hopeless love. The title, meaning "those people", or, "those folks", has been translated also as "that lot there".

In it the singer is talking to another man (a certain "Monsieur" (Sir)), where he starts by depicting each member of a given family in a very harsh manner, with the exception of the last person, the beautiful daughter Frida, with whom he is madly in love, and whose love is mutual, but whose family does not approve of her marriage to the narrator, for they deem him insufficient, possibly explaining his hatred for them.

The music is a slow 3/4 time signature of a repetitive theme, of a somber, depressed mood.

The song has since been covered by French popular music bands such as Ange, Oxmo Puccino and Noir Désir, although it seems that Ange missed the point by excluding the part about Frida; on the Cimetière des Arlequins album cover, is mentioned: "To Jacques Brel, we didn't dare take Frida from you".

In other languages