The legacy of the French singer Georges Brassens includes about two hundred songs. And, as a rule, he himself was the author of the texts for them. Brassens' lyrics are distinguished by colloquial intonation, richness of vocabulary, metaphor, the presence of allusions and hidden quotes. Today, many people appreciate Brassens not only as a performer, but also as a wonderful poet.
Childhood and early life of Brassens
Georges Brassens was born in October 1921 in the French town of Sete, located on the coast of the Gulf of Lyon. It is known that Georges's father was a bricklayer by profession. In the family, the future chansonnier was not the only child, he had a half-sister.
When Georges was young, popular melodies of those years were often played in his house. And Brassens quite early began to try to compose and perform songs on his own. And later he became the drummer of a small orchestra that performed at city holidays.
In 1940, Georges moved to Paris, already occupied by Nazi troops - at that time the young man was 19 years old. After settling with his aunt Antoinette, Brassens got a job at the Renault plant.
In March 1943, Georges was taken from the French capital to the German city of Basdorf for forced labor.
A year later, Brassens managed to defect from the labor camp and until the end of the war he hid in Paris. He remained in this city after the war.
Early work and the release of the first album
In the forties, Brassens was seriously fond of not only poetry and music, but also politics. In 1946, he joined an anarchist cell and began collaborating with the anarchist newspaper Libertair. He performed some of his early songs at the meetings of the anarchists.
In 1947, Brassens met a girl named Joha Heimann, an Estonian by birth. She was Brassens' faithful companion until the very end of his life. However, they never became a wife and husband officially - the chansonnier did not recognize the institution of marriage.
At some point, Brassens realized that in order to popularize his songwriting, he needed a suitable performer. And in 1952, the popular singer Patasha agreed to cooperate with him.
Soon Patasha persuaded Georges to go on stage himself, since some of his texts could only be performed on behalf of a man. Brassens at first did not see himself as a singer at all, but the audience liked his performances. As a matter of fact, this was the beginning of his career as a singer. His first solo album, entitled "Bad Reputation", was released in 1952.
Further career of a chansonnier
Since 1953, Brassens' albums have been released almost every year. And they were eagerly bought up - during the lifetime of the chansonnier, about twenty million copies of his records were sold.
At concerts and when creating recordings in the studio, Brassens' songs were performed with simple, minimalistic accompaniment - guitar (the author himself played it), lead guitar and double bass.
Of course, Brassens wrote very deep poetry (and in 1968 he was even awarded the prize of the French Academy of Poetry), but at the same time, his repertoire also included songs on the works of other poets - François Villon, Pierre Corneille, Louis Aragon, Paul Faure, etc. …
Chansonnier died on October 29, 1981 in the French town of Saint-Jelly-du-Fesc. Cancer was the cause of death.
Today, one of the parks in Paris bears the name of Brassens. And at the Paris metro station Porte de Lille, you can see a large wall portrait of a chansonnier with a quote from his song.
