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Georges Brassens
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Georges Brassens was a French singer-songwriter born October 22, 1921 in Sète (known as Cette at the time). He died in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc on October 29, 1981.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Childhood

Brassens spent his childhood at his family home in Sète, where he lived with his mother Elvira Dragosa, his father Jean-Louis Brassens, his half-sister Simone (Elvira’s daughter by her first husband, who died in World War I) and his paternal grandfather, Jules. His mother, originally from Naples, was a devout Catholic. His father was calm, generous free-thinking, anti-clerical, and gifted with an independent spirit. Georges grew up with these very different people who were united by one thing: the love of music. Between his mother (whom Brassens called "une militante de chanson (an activist of song)") and Simone and Jules, singing was a constant presence at the Brassens home. Brassens had a natural love of music. He listened endlessly to his idols Charles Trenet, Tino Rossi and Ray Ventura and became part of a diverse culture of songwriters; these memories were a precious heritage throughout his life. The young Brassens loved music above all else; it was his first passion. It inspired him in a way that nothing else did: in an interview with his friend André Sève, he described it as "une sorte de vibration intérieure, quelque chose d’intense, un plaisir qui semble relever d’une certaine sensualité (a sort of internal vibration, something intense, a pleasure that seemed to carry a certain sensuality)". He wanted to enroll in a conservatoire, but his mother imposed a condition: he had to get better school results. As a result, Brassens never learned solfege. In school, he was much more of a dunce than a model student and spent his time clowning around, preferring games, pranks and figths with his neighbourhood friends to the homework that bored him.

But while enrolled in the troisième (approximately age 14), his literature professor, Alphone Bonnafé, introduced him to poetry. Brassens had already written some small songs and attempted poems as well. That year, he decided to show his first pieces to Bonnafé, who declared them bad; but far from discouraging Brassens, Bonnafé offered him advice and led him in a detailed study of poets. Brassens became interested in the technique of versification and approaches to rhyme. Bonnafé’s influence on Brassens was enormous: "On était des brutes, à quatorze, quinze ans, et on s'est mis à aimer les poètes. Il faut mesurer le renversement. Grâce à ce prof, je me suis ouvert à quelque chose de grand. Beaucoup plus tard, à chaque fois que j'écrivais une chanson, je me posais la question: est-ce qu'elle plairait à Bonnafé? (We were thugs, at fourteen or fifteen years old, and then began to appreciate poets. The change is tangible. Thanks to this teacher, my mind was opened to something big. Much later, each time I wrote a song, I asked myself: would this please Bonnafé?)". This experience led Brassens to turn from song and to dream instead of becoming a poet.

But at that time, friends, not teachers, had the most influence over Brassens, and at the age of seventeen he was involved in an experience that would mark him for the rest of his life. In order to obtain a little money they committed various petty thefts, the principal victims being their families. Georges stole a ring and a bracelet from his sister. When the police discovered who the thieves were, scandal ensued; they were labeled "scum", a "schoolboy mob". Some members of the group, disowned by their families, spent a month in prison. But Georges’ father sought out his son without delay. Nothing describes the scene better than these verses from Quatre bacheliers that were inspired by the incident:

Quand il vint chercher son voleur
Sans vergogne,
On s'attendait à un malheur,
À un malheur.
Mais il n'a pas déclaré, non,
Sans vergogne,
Que l'on avait sali son nom,
Sali son nom.
Dans le silence on l'entendit,
Sans vergogne,
Qui lui disait : « Bonjour, petit,
Bonjour petit. »
On le vit, on le croirait pas,
Sans vergogne,
Lui tendre sa blague à tabac,
Blague à tabac.
When he went to find the thief
Without shame,
I waited for misfortune,
For misfortune.
But he didn’t declare, no,
Without shame,
That I had dishonored his name,
Dishonored his name.
In the silence I could hear,
Without shame,
What he said: "Hello, my son,
Hello, my son."
I heard him, I didn’t believe him,
Without shame,
Holding his tobacco pouch,
His tobacco pouch.

Brassens later commented, "Je crois qu'il m'a donné une leçon qui m'a aidé à me concevoir moi-même. J'ai alors essayé de conquérir ma propre estime… J'ai tenté, avec mes petits moyens, d'égaler mon père. Je dis bien tenté…(I believe that he taught me a lesson that helped me to build myself. After that I tried to earn my own respect…I’ve tried, through my own small means, to be my father’s equal. I’d say good try…)."

After the incident, Brassens was expelled from his school, and his bad reputation followed him throughout Sète. After a short experience as an apprentice mason at his father's company, he decided to leave for Paris in February 1940, shortly before World War II broke out.


[edit] During the war

[edit] Apprenticeship

In Paris, Brassens stayed with his aunt Antoinette in the 14th arrondissement, where he found a piano and began to teach himself about music. He also got a job with the auto manufacturer Renault. In May 1940 the Renault factory was bombed during the German occupation, forcing Brassens to leave Paris and return, happily, to his family and friends in Sète. But he felt that his future lay in Paris, and after a summer in his home town, he returned to the capital – and to his aunt’s piano. Since all work benefited the German occupiers he didn't look for it. Aware of the gaps in his knowledge of poetry, Georges passed his days in the library, meticulously and methodically studying the works of the masters: Villon, Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Hugo. (At this time he got into the habit of rising at five in the morning and going to bed at sunset, the rhythm that he would follow for most of his life.) His approach to poetry was almost scientific. Taking a poem by Verlaine, he would “dissect” it image by image, noting the slightest variations in cadence and analysing the rhymes and the patterns that they followed. He acquired an enormous knowledge of literature and wrote his first collections of poems. The conclusion of Des coups d’épée dans l’eau gave the first hint of the anarchism found in so many of his later songs:

Le siècle où 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 in which we live is a rotten century. There is nothing but cowardice, baseness, The biggest assassins go to the biggest masses, And the biggest kings have the biggest favorites. The author praises those who understand, and shit to the others.")

À la venvole was published thanks to money from his family and friends and, most surprisingly, from Jeanne Planche, Brassens’ aunt’s neighbor, who became Brassens’ first fan. Brassens later commented about these collections: “À l'époque, je ne faisais que régurgiter ce que j'avais appris à la lecture des poètes. Je ne l'avais pas encore transformé en miel.”(At the time i was only regurgitating what I learned from the poets. I had not yet transformed it into honey)

[edit] Exil

In March 1943, Brassens was requisitioned for the STO (Service du travail obligatoire, or Mandatory Work Service) and was sent to Basdorf, Germany. He found the time to write, but considered this period a waste of time. It was in Germany that he wrote Bonhomme and Pauvre Martin, along with many songs that were later burned or heavily modified before their final release (like "Le Mauvais Suject repenti"), and began his first novel, Lalie Kakamou. He also met some of his greatest friends, such as Pierre Onténiente, whom he nicknamed “Gibraltar” because he was “solid as a rock”, and who became his confidant and his personal secretary.

Exactly one year after his arrival in Basdorf, he obtained permission to go on leave for ten days. It was clear to him and to his friends that he would not return to Germany. In Paris, he had to find a hiding place, but Brassens was a solitary individual and hardly knew anyone (he spent time only with a friend from Sète who had followed him to Paris, and a few girls who were his early loves.) Finally, Jeanne Planche came to his aid and offered to house him for as long as he needed shelter. Jeanne lived with her husband Marcel in a slum located at 9, impasse Florimont – without gas, water or electricity. Brassens accepted and stayed with her for twenty-two years. According to Pierre Onténiente, “Jeanne s'est éprise de Georges et Marcel n'y voyait rien puisqu'il commençait à prendre sa première biture à huit heures du matin … (Jeanne was quite passionate about George and Marcel didn’t notice anything, because he had his first drink at eight o’clock in the morning . . . ”)

[edit] Anarchist influences

After arriving at Jeanne Planche’s house, Brassens had to remain hidden for five months while waiting for the end of the war. He lost no time in continuing to write poems and songs, although his only instrument was a small piece of furniture that he called “my drum”, on which he tapped rhythms. He also continued to write the novel that he had begun while in Basdorf. The end of the war and sudden newfound liberty did not change his habits much, except that he could recover his library card and continue his study of poetry.

The end of the war also marked the return of his Basdorf friends to Paris, and with them Brassens planned the creation of an anarchist periodical, Le Cri des gueux (The Cry of Beggars), which due to lack of funds never saw the light of day. At the same time he founded the “Parti préhistorique” with Émile Miramont (a friend from Sète) and André Larue (whom he met in Basdorf). They portrayed the other political parties with derision, and advocated return to a simpler way of life. When Miramont left the party for the security of upper-class life, it rapidly went downhill. After the failure of Le Cri des gueux, Brassens became a part of the Fédération anarchiste and wrote several virulent articles full of black humor for their journal Le Libertaire, under the pseudonyms Pépin Cadavre and Gilles Corbeau ("cadavre" means "cadaver", while “corbeau” is French for “raven”.) But he still dreamed of becoming a songwriter, and he soon decided to leave the Fédération.

[edit] End of apprenticeship

Brassens threw himself completely into his writing and finished his novel in autumn of 1947, published under the title La Lune écoute aux portes (The Moon Listens At Doors). But his talents as a musician and lyricist had matured. He had already written many of the songs that would make him famous, such as "La Parapluie" (The Umbrella), "La Chasse aux papillons" (The Butterfly Hunt), "J’ai rendez-vous avec vous" (I Have A Meeting With You), "Brave Margot", and "Le Gorille" (The Gorilla), and had set Aragon’s poem "Il n’ya pas d’amour hereux" (There Is No Such Thing As Happy Love) to music. The spirit of this poem did not reflect his life at all, and after a number of loves and a melodramatic relationship with Josette, who inspired songs such as "P … de toi" (F...ing you), "Une jolie fleur" (A Pretty Flower) and "La Première Fille" (The First Girl), Brassens met the love of his life: Joha Heiman, nicknamed Püppchen (German for “little puppy”). They never married, nor did they live together, but after meeting Heiman, Brassens had no more romantic adventures with women. As he wrote in one of his songs, the door of his heart was condemned, “en marquant dessus: fermé jusqu’à la fin des jours, pour cause d’amour (written above it: closed until the end of days, because of love)”.

At this time, Brassens also bought his first guitar with the help of Jeanne Planche. He studied the instrument with his characteristic determination and made spectacular progress quite quickly. He also perfected his skills at composition, especially writing melodies. Accompanying his words on his “drum”, he invented bare melodic lines, then transcribed them on piano and crafted a web of rich harmonies that he would finally adapt for the guitar.

By this point, Brassens had acquired the character traits that would define his life: his strange bearlike appearance; his iconic pipe and mustache; his free expression, embellished and yet tightly confined to classical meters and styles; his taste for antiquated figures of speech; his cult of friends and his need for solitude; his literary and musical culture; his core libertarian values, outside all established doctrine, supported by sharp individualism, visceral antimilitarism, profound atheism, and complete scorn for comfort, money, and consideration. He would not change much.

[edit] Dazzling success

In 1951, Brassens met Jacques Grello, a singer and mainstay of the cabaret Caveau de la République, who heard Brassens perform and began to introduce him to the Parisian cabaret scene. Yet even after many small appearances, and despite the fact that he had already written the songs that would form his first successes, Brassens was not comfortable promoting himself. The stage made him uneasy and he preferred to write songs for others to perform.

After failure after failure, Brassens was close to giving up. But Roger Thérond and Victor Laville, two friends from Sète, still believed in him, and they secured an audition that would launch his career - with Patachou. As with every audition, Brassens hesitated - "À quoi bon ? Cela va encore se passer comme les autres fois . . . " - but his friends insisted and on March 6, 1952 he performed for Patachou, who was immediately enchanted. She invited him to return the next day for his first performance, and his string of failures didn't concern her in the least: "Vous resterez ici le temps qu'il faudra ! Les gens finiront bien par vous écouter." Brassens had had the idea that Patachou would perform his work and he would not sing himself, but she quickly extinguished his protests, demonstrating the traits that would lead him to dub her the "tigress": "Bien sûr je vais t'en prendre quelques-unes ; mais vous comprenez bien que Le Gorille, Corne d'Aurochs ou La Mauvaise réputation ne sont pas pour moi. Personne ne peut les chanter mieux que vous…" The next day, Brassens was overcome by stage fright. He began the performance without a single word to his audience before launching into "Le Gorille". Pierre Nicolas, seeing him performing alone, grabbed his contrabass to emphasize the rhythms and harmonize - the start of a collaboration that would last for thirty years. After six songs, Brassens left the stage the same way he had entered: without a word or a nod to his audience.

But success had finally arrived. For the first time, the public heard and appreciated Brassens. Eighteen months later, he would headline at Bobino. His success was brilliant. Patachou quickly introduced him to Jacques Canetti, at the time the most influential figure in French music, who had discovered such talents as Charles Trenet, Édith Piaf, and Jacques Brel. During the summer of 1951, Brassens went on tour for the first time with Frères Jacques and Patachou. By the end of 1952, he had signed a record deal with Philips, where Canetti as artistic director oversaw the recording of ten songs to be released on two 78 rpm records. The home-loving Brassens spent the next three years touring cabarets, music halls, casinos, and theaters in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

Brassens, who had long vacillated between a career as a poet and a career as a singer (or at least a songwriter) found himself launched into the world of music. His hesitation wasn't born of scorn, unlike Serge Gainsbourg, who wanted to become a painter and considered music an inferior art. Brassens believed that song was a distinct medium from poetry, a balance between lyrics and music, and he had a great talent for matching words and notes. So, doubting his skill as a poet, Brassens threw himself heart and soul into music, and far from considering it a compromise, he was determined to write the best songs possible. He wrote each song slowly, working and reworking, changing a word, replacing an image, until he believed it could go no further.

This did not stop him from publishing his second novel in 1954: La Tour des miracles, which he had finished in 1950. He also published a final collection of poems, La Mauvaise Réputation, which contained the lyrics to several songs as well as a long poem, "Les Amoureux qui écrivent sur l’eau".

[edit] René Fallet and friends

In the midst of his success, Brassens found himself with a new circle of friends. After his friends from Sète and his faithful companions from the war period (fellow Basdorf inmates, anarchists associated with Libertaire, and friends of Jeanne Planche) he began to make friends in the music industry. Some were unknowns, but others were or would become famous: Lino Ventura, Jacques Brel, Boby Lapointe, Raymond Devos, and above all René Fallet, who wasn't well-known at the time. An amateur songwriter, he published an article full of extravagant praise for Brassens' first album:

La voix de ce gars est une chose rare et qui perce les coassements de toutes ces grenouilles du disque et d’ailleurs. Une voix en forme de drapeau noir, de robe qui sèche au soleil, de coup de poing sur le képi, une voix qui va aux fraises, à la bagarre et… à la chasse aux papillons

. Brassens wanted to meet the journalist responsible for this glowing review. The two were instant friends, and their relationship lasted for the rest of their lives, marked by quiet walks together, long fishing trips and well-watered parties. Fallet wrote the liner notes for the complete collection of Brassens' recordings when it was released. It was also Fallet who encouraged Brassens to experiment with cinema. In 1957, Brassens played the role of the Artist in René Clair's film Porte des Lilas, inspired by Fallet's novel La Grande Ceinture. It would be difficult to find a role better suited to Brassens. He also composed the soundtrack for the film, writing songs such as "Le Vin", "Au bois de mon coeur", and "L'Amandier". But he didn't enjoy the experience, which was his only foray into cinema.

[edit] Crespières

Brassens began to find himself more and more confined at the Planches' home, and after living there for 25 years, he did not want to disturb them further. (Jeanne was 67 years old.) In 1958, he bought a property in Crespières in the Yvelines region, the Bonde mill.

Plaque commémorativeapposée sur le moulin de la Bonde à Crespières (78)
Plaque commémorative
apposée sur le moulin de la Bonde à Crespières (78)

At the end of the 1960s, the duo of Pierre Nicolas on string bass and Brassens on guitar was jointed by Joël Favreau, a young guitarist, to record additional albums. One of Brassens' new songs, "Les Deux Oncles", aroused hostility by invoking the opposing camps in World War II. He described the controversy in a later song, "Mourir pour des idées". He also articulated his lack of respect for contemporary political movements in "Le Pluriel".

Jeanne Planche died on 24 October 1968, at the age of 77.

On 6 January 1969, at an event organized Rock & Folk magazine and RTL, Brassens participated in an historic interview with Léo Ferré and Jacques Brel, two giants of French music.

[edit] The "foolish zeal" of death

In November 1980, Brassens underwent surgery for cancer. The following summer, as his health declined, he returned to his hometown of Sète. On 29 October 1981, shortly after his 61st birthday, he died in the small village of Saint-Gély-du-Fesc at the home of his friend Maurice Bousquet, a doctor.

Contrary to his wishes in the song "Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète", he was buried not in Sète's naval cemetery alongside Paul Valéry, but rather in du Py Cemetery. du Py is also known as "the jumble" because, as opposed to the naval cemetery, it is where the poor were commonly buried.

[edit] Anecdotes

  • Recordings show that the song "Les Copains d'abord" went through three very different melodies before Brassens decided on the final version.
  • Brassens told the singer Renaud, "Your songs are well-structured." This earned him a mention in Renaud's song "Mon bistrot préféré", in which Renaud recalls his inspirations.
  • He was close to the editors of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and requested and received their presence at the filming of a clip for his song "Le Roi".
  • Georges Moustaki recorded a song titled "Les Amis de Georges" honoring Brassens and his friends. When he arrived in France, he chose the name Georges as a tribute to Brassens.
  • Jean Ferrat also composed a song in his honor: "À Brassens" (1964).

[edit] Discography

Georges Brassens sold around 20 million albums in his life, from 1953 to 1981 – a record for someone who began to compose in the 1950s and whose style was largely (and intentionally) outside the mainstream by 1970. With Moustache and other friends, Brassens made a brief excursion into jazz with Elégie pour un rat de cave, created as a homage to Moustache’s wife.

[edit] Essential works

These albums, released during his lifetime are considered to be Brassens’ essential works. This list exludes live recordings, songs that he didn’t record himself, duets, etc.: - 1953: La Mauvaise Réputation (The Bad Reputation) - 1954 : Les Amoreux des bancs publics (The Lovers of Public Benches) - 1955 : Chason pour L’Auvergnat (Song for the Auvergnat) - 1957 : Je me suis fait tout petit (I Made Myself All Small) - 1958 : Le Pornographe (The Pornographer) - 1960 : Le Mécréant (The Miscreant) - 1961 : Les Trompettes de la renommée (The Trumpets of Renown) - 1964 : Les Copains d’abord (Friends First) - 1966: Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète (Petition to be Buried at the Beach of Sète) - 1969 : La Religieuse (The Religious Woman) - 1972: Fernande - 1976: Don Juan

[edit] Other recordings

[edit] Unreleased

- Les débuts de Brassens, en privé, 1952-1955 (Brassens’ Secret Beginnings, 1952-1955) - Inédits, archives 1953-1980 (Unreleased, Archives 1953-1980)

[edit] Live

- 1964: Bobino 64 - 1966: Brassens at the National Popular Theater - 1972: Tour de chant à Bobino (DVD) - 1974 : Georges Brassens in Great-Britain


[edit] Interviews

- 1971 : Radioscopie de Jacques Chancel, 1995, Radio France - 1952-1979 : J’ai rendez-vous avec vous, Documents et entretiens (I Have A Meeting With You : Documents and Interviews), 2001, France Inter


[edit] By other artists

  • 1963 : Barbara chante Brassens et Brel
  • 1979 : Paco Ibañez canta a Brassens
    • Giants of jazz play Brassens
  • 1980 : Georges Brassens chante les chansons de sa jeunesse
  • 1982 : Dernières chansons by Jean Bertola
  • 1984 : Brassens chante Bruant, Colpi, Musset, Nadaud, Norge
  • 1985 : Le Patrimoine de Brassens by Jean Bertola
  • 1992 : Chantons Brassens
  • 1993 : J'ai rendez-vous avec vous, by Renée Claude
  • 1996 : Renaud chante Brassens
  • 2000 :Georges Brassens en kantari : Anje Duhalde sings Brassens in Basque
  • 2001 : Les Oiseaux de passage
  • 2006 : Putain de toi
    • Ils chantent Brassens
    • Salut Brassens : Joël Favreau and Jean-Jacques Franchin (Harmonia Mundi)

[edit] Adaptations

Throughout his career, Brassens adapted and recorded poems and songs by a number of different authors and artists. Among them:

[edit] Today

Brassens never doubted that one day he would be internationally renowned. Today more than fifty theses have been written about him, and his music is known everywhere: in Japan, in Russia, in the United_States (where he has his own fan club), in Italy, in Spain, etc. His works have been translated into over twenty languages.

Many musicians have recorded translations and interpretations of his works, notably Graeme Allwright in English, Sam Alpha in Creole, Paco Ibáñez in Spanish, Fabrizio De André in Italian, Yossi Banai in Hebrew and even Jacques Yvart in Esperanto.

Many attempts have been made to translate his works into German as well. For example, Franz Josef Degenhardt, who has been called (with some exaggeration) the "German Brassens", has recorded an album of Brassens translations that preserve Brassens' social message but lack his lyricism. Ralf Tauchmann's translations are said to be more faithful to Brassens' literary ambitions.

There is an international association of Brassens lovers. In Germany, a group called "Brassens in Basdorf" was created in 2004, and organizes a festival every September.

[edit] Memorials

Many schools, auditoriums, parks, gardens, and other public spaces bear Brassens' name. Among the most noteworthy:

  • The park constructed by the city of Paris in the 15th arrondissement, to replace the abbatoirs of Vaugirard, was named parc Georges-Brassens. Brassens lived much of his life a short distance from the park, first at 9, impasse Florimont (14th arrondissement) and later at 42, rue Santos-Dumont (15th arrondissement).
    Commemorative plaque9, impasse Florimont(Paris)

    Commemorative plaque
    9, impasse Florimont
    (Paris)
  • The marketplace of Brive-la-Gaillarde is known as "place Georges-Brassens" to honor "several police-killing women who were responsible for the most beautiful of bloodsheds."
  • In Sète, L'Espace Georges Brassens is a museum near the cemetery where he is buried.
  • A mosaic depicting Brassens is on one of the walls of the metro station Porte-des-Lilas in Paris.
  • Le collège Georges-Brassens is a school located in Bouc-Bel-Air (Bouches-du-Rhône).

[edit] Prizes

Brassens, who never sought official recognition and never considered himself a poet, has earned two important prizes: the prize of the Académie Charles Cros for his first album, and the Académie française's grand prize for poetry in 1967.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External Links

In French:

  • [1]: A thorough biography from Radio France.
  • [2]: Official site.
  • [3]: Maxime Le Forestier is interviewed about Brassens in 2005.
  • [4]: Translations and recordings in German.
  • Vidéo : Georges Brassens: Video of Brassens in 1961 discussing his life in Paris - from the archives of Télévision suisse romande.
  • Analyse Brassens: Site collecting analyses of Brassens' songs with explanatory notes.