page_title: Georges Brassens
section_title: Songs
hierarchical_section_title: Georges Brassens / Songs
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Tombe de Georges Brassens au cimetière de Sète (France).
context_page_description: Georges Charles Brassens was a French singer-songwriter and poet.
  Now an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and articulate, diverse lyrics. He is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets. He has also set to music poems by both well-known and relatively obscure poets, including Louis Aragon, Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Jean Richepin, François Villon, and Antoine Pol.
  During World War II, he was forced by the Germans to work in a labor camp at a BMW aircraft engine plant in Basdorf near Berlin in Germany. Here Brassens met some of his future friends, such as Pierre Onténiente, whom he called Gibraltar because he was "steady as a rock." They would later become close friends.
  After being given ten days' leave in France, he decided not to return to the labor camp. Brassens took refuge in a small cul-de-sac called "Impasse Florimont," in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, a popular and working-class district, where he lived for several years with its owner, Jeanne Planche, a friend of his aunt.
context_section_description: Brassens rarely performed abroad. His lyrics are difficult to translate, though attempts have been made. He accompanied himself on acoustic guitar. Most of the time the only other accompaniment came from his friend Pierre Nicolas with a double bass, and sometimes a second guitar (Barthélémy Rosso, Joël Favreau).
  His songs often decry hypocrisy and self-righteousness in the conservative French society of the time, especially among the religious, the well-to-do, and those in law enforcement.  The criticism is often indirect, focusing on the good deeds or innocence of others in contrast.  His elegant use of florid language and dark humor, along with bouncy rhythms, often give a rather jocular feel to even the grimmest lyrics.
  Some of his most famous songs include:
  "Les copains d'abord," about a boat of that name, and friendship, written for a movie Les copains (1964) directed by Yves Robert; (translated and covered by Asleep at the Wheel as "Friendship First" and by a Polish cover band Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Kumple to grunt" and included on their 2007 eponymously titled CD).
  "Chanson pour l'Auvergnat," lauding those who take care of the downtrodden against the pettiness of the bourgeois and the harshness of law enforcement.
  "Brave Margot," about a young girl who gives a young kitten the breast, which attracts a large group of male onlookers.
  "La Cane de Jeanne," for Marcel and Jeanne Planche, who befriended and sheltered him and others.
  "La mauvaise réputation" – "the bad reputation" – a semi-autobiographical tune with its catchy lyric: "Mais les braves gens n'aiment pas que l'on suive une autre route qu'eux" (But the good folks don't like it if you take a different road than they do.)
  "Les amoureux des bancs publics" – about young lovers who kiss each other publicly and shock self-righteous people.
  "Pauvre Martin," the suffering of a poor peasant.
  "Le gorille" – tells, in a humorous fashion, of a gorilla with a large penis (and admired for this by ladies) who escapes his cage. Mistaking a robed judge for a woman, the beast forcefully sodomizes him. The song contrasts the wooden attitude that the judge had exhibited when sentencing a man to death by the guillotine with his cries for mercy when being assaulted by the gorilla. This song, considered pornographic, was banned for a while. The song's refrain (Gare au gori – i – i – i – ille, "beware the gorilla") is widely known; it was translated into English by Jake Thackray as Brother Gorilla, by Greek singer-songwriter Christos Thivaios as Ο Γορίλλας ("The Gorilla"), by Spanish songwriter Joaquín Carbonell as "El Gorila" ("The Gorilla"), by Italian songwriter Fabrizio De André as "Il Gorilla" ("The Gorilla" – FDA included this translation into his 1968 album "Volume III"), by the Polish cover band Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Goryl" and by Israeli writer Dan Almagor as "הגורילה".
  "Fernande" – a 'virile antiphon' about the women lonely men think about to inspire self-gratification (or to nip it in the bud).  Its infamous refrain (Quand je pense à Fernande, je bande, je bande..., 'When I think about Fernande, I get hard') is still immediately recognized in France, and has essentially ended the use of several female first names.
  "Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète" (in French), a long song (7:18) describing, in a colourful, "live" and poetic way, his wish to be buried on a particular sandy beach in his hometown, "Plage de la Corniche".
  "Mourir pour des idées," describing the recurring violence over ideas and an exhortation to be left in peace (translated into Italian by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André as "Morire per delle idee" and included in FDA's 1974 album Canzoni and by the Polish cover band Zespół Reprezentacyjny as "Śmierć za idee" and included on their 2007 CD Kumple to grunt).
caption: The tomb of Georges Brassens in Cimetière Le Py, in Sète.
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