Georges Brassens

Georges Brassens (October 22, 1921 - October 29, 1981) was a French singer and songwriter.

Related Topics:
October 22 - 1921 - October 29 - 1981 - French - Singer - Songwriter

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Georges Brassens was born in Sète, in southern France. 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 best postwar poets, and won the national poetry prize. In addition, he set to music poems by many well-known and relatively obscure poets, including Louis Aragon (Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux), Victor Hugo, Jean Richepin and others.

Related Topics:
Sète - Louis Aragon - Victor Hugo - Jean Richepin

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He rarely performed outside his own country, and his lyrics are hard to translate, though attempts have been made. He began his career in the 1950s. Among his most famous songs:

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• Les copains d'abord, about a boat of that name, and friendship;
• Chanson pour l'Auvergnat, 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", semi-autobiography;
• Le gorille – tells, in a humoristic fashion, about a gorilla with a large penis (and admired for this by ladies) who escapes and, mistaking a robed judge for a woman, forcefully sodomizes him; the song contrasts the wooden attitude that the judge had when sentencing a man to death by the guillotine, with his cries of mercy when being assault by the gorilla; this song, considered pornographic, was banned for a while; the song's refrain (Gare au goriiiiiiiiille – "beware the gorilla") is widely known;
• La fessée ("the spanking"), about a man being seduced by a widow, being offended by her, spanking her, then being seduced finally.

He died of cancer in 1981, in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc, near Sète, having suffered health problems for many years.

Related Topics:
Cancer - Saint-Gély-du-Fesc

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