51 f The Anarchist


Georges Brassens is a musical icon in France, but barely recognised here. Mark Goodall tells us what we’ve been missing.


I


t is 30 years since the death – and 90 since the birth – of one of the world’s greatest singers. Yet if this anniversary goes unnoticed in the English-speaking world it would not be a surprise. In his lifetime the French singer-songwriter Georges Brassens sold over 20 million discs but is bareley recog- nised in the lands of pop music and rock ’n’ roll. Unlike his compatriot Serge Gains- bourg and Belgian Jacques Brel, Brassens’ songs remain largely untouched by Anglo-Saxon musicians and singers.


Georges Brassens was born in the Mediterranean port of Sète on 22 October 1921. His father was an agnostic stone - mason. His mother, of Italian extraction (whence Brassens’ Latin looks) conveyed her passion for folk songs and mandolin music to her son. While still at school Georges began writing poems and song lyrics and later formed a jazz group where he played


drums. His career was launched in 1952 by the singer and cabaret artist Patachou who immediately recognised his potential.


Brassens is the prime exponent of the chanson in the form of the auteur- compositeur-interpréte – the Gallic version of the singer-songwriter. Despite his huge success in France he never courted publicity, preferring the company of his copains (friends) most of whom were not in any way connected to the music business. One of his most famous songs – Les Copains D’Abord – celebrates the simple pleasures of this deep friendship. His other songs praise the lives of the ordinary (gravediggers, prostitutes, the ugly, society’s outcasts) and lambast the falseness and cruelty of organised systems of control which pit one human against the other. Instead of praising the so-called great and the good, he wrote songs such as Chan- son Pour L’Auvergnat for the ordinary cou- ple who sheltered him during the occupa-


tion. In essence Brassens was an anarchist but while he once wrote for the anarchist journal Le Libertaire, he was an anarchist in spirit rather than as part of any ideology (he believed that as soon as there are more than four of you become a bande de cons –a group of pricks). Brassens’ dislike of authori- ty probably stemmed from an incident in 1938 when he and his copains were caught stealing. The subsequent ‘bad reputation’ made its way into one of his best songs.


This reticence extended to his live per- formances which remained unchanged over almost thirty years. Brassens would nervously approach the foot of the stage, place one leg up on a chair and begin singing in a rich pipe-tobacco voice, strum- ming his guitar in a simple yet highly effec- tive manner. His stage manner was once described as resembling that of a fright- ened bear. The only accompaniment was the double bass of Pierre Nicolas. The


Photo: Jacques Aubert


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