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sound on the twelve LP records that Brassens recorded for Philips barely altered either. While his peers began to augment their work with complex orches- trations, electronics and Anglo-American pop and rock, Brassens remained resolute- ly minimal in style. A rare exception to his two- or three- minute song-poems is the opening track of his ninth LP Supplique Pour Être Enterré À La Plage De Sète (plea to be buried on the beach at Sète) which weighs in at around eight minutes. A sim- ple yet memorable chord sequence plods through the 13 verses with purpose and determination. The song relates how the author wishes to the buried on the beach so that he can ‘spend his death on holi- day’. The words are relayed – as in many of Brassens’ songs – in the twelve-syllable Alexandrine mode of poetry.
Brassens’ guitar technique was also critical. He played an acoustic guitar in the Spanish style but strung with steel strings rather than nylon. The resulting sound is a rich blend of Portuguese fado tones with the jazz swing of Django Reinhardt. Soon all Brassens’ guitars were manufactured by Jacques Favino, one of the great luthiers of France. The only extravagance on the recordings was to allow Nicolas’ bass occa- sionally to be bowed rather than plucked and to bring in a second guitar to play melodic lines – normally the brilliant jazz players Barthélémy Rosso or Joël Favreau.
Brassens harked back quite conscious- ly to the Middle Ages, preferring tales of honour, courtly love and romantic passion to the ugly menace of the modern age. He imitated the lyrical wordplay and simple yet plaintive sound of the medieval troubadour while paying tribute to the great French poets such as Villon, Apolli-
naire, Paul Fort and Paul Valéry (who also hailed from Sète). This sensibility is cap- tured by his song Dans L’Eau De Claire Fontaine, a tale of a maiden spied bathing naked by an entranced vagabond. Anoth- er beautiful song is La Non-Demande En Mariage which achieves the feat of being both a tender and passionate love song addressed to his long-term partner (Joha Heyman) and a searing demolition of the institute of marriage.
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The highly melodic nature of Brassens’ compositions was not lost on more experi- mental musicians. Just before Brassens died he made a recording of jazz interpre- tations of his songs and it is a curious expe- rience to hear his unmistakable style trans- muted into swing, manouche and piano- ballad styles.
rassens’ songs have not gone completely unnoticed in the UK and USA. Jake Thackray was probably Brassens’ biggest fan and a friend sharing both likes (wine, women, words) and dislikes (pom- posity, hypocrisy, entitlement). Many of Thackray’s own songs were thematic reworkings of Brassens’ preoccupations. He also translated three of Brassens’ songs including The Gorilla, a surreal tale of the violent molestation of a judge by a large ape. Thackray accompanied Brassens at his only UK concert (he rarely travelled out- side France) held at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. Just before his own death, Jake Thackray spoke of how this was the proudest and greatest moment of his life.
New Zealand acid-folk singer Graeme Allwright has recorded some of Brassens songs, while more recently still a French- American singer Pierre de Gallande has released a disc of own interpretations in
English. The group Projet Brassens deliver jazzy version of the songs sung – with a twist on Brassens’ alleged misogyny – by a woman, Maxine Green. Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos is also a fan so maybe Georges’ (bad) reputation will grow. His influence now extends to world music: the group Brassens En Afrique deliver afro-beat versions of his songs [and just last issue, fRoots cover star Danyel Waro from La Reunion quoted Brassens as his first favourite on records… Ed.]
For a highly successful musical per-
former, Georges Brassens never lost his avuncular warm air. His guitar, bushy moustache and pipe are as famous to those who love his music as Hitchcock’s double-chin and Laurel and Hardy’s bowler hats. In one sense he is the ‘French- man’s Frenchman’.
French singers rarely – thank god – go out in a blaze of nihilistic, over-hyped glory. Georges Brassens died what Julian Barnes calls a “sourly ordinary death”, almost exactly 60 years after his birth, in a small town near Sète. He was buried in the town churchyard that sits in front of the sleek Espace Georges Brassens, the muse- um which now celebrates his life and work. He did not make it to the beach and his ‘poor man’s cemetery’ lacks even a view of the sea. Even his final repose was suf- fused with mischievous spirit of rebellion.
Le Temps Ne Fait Rien À L'Affaire - Intégrale Georges Brassens 30ème Anniversaire, is a 19-CD, 60 page book set released in October.
Georges Brassens: Les 100 Plus Belles
Chansons has just been released by Wrasse Records.
www.georges-brassens.com F
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