He calls himself Die Songs, the volume about the French chansonnier Georges Brassens (1921-1981) published by Mandelbaum Verlag. 600 pages of text, hundreds of songs in the original and translated into German by Gisbert Haefs, suggest meticulousness and a desire for documentation, two qualities that one would not necessarily attribute to the anarchic, domineering, sensitive and rabid singer. But is it not precisely these virtues that are required to convey stubbornness, or is it the spirit of contradiction itself that reveals itself to the listener through listening?
Readers can engage in this experiment when reading Georges Brassens’ lyrics. The advantage here is that a chanson characterizes the triad of poet, composer and interpreter. It follows on from the French tradition of sung poetry that began with the troubadours. François Villon is considered to be the most prominent representative in this country since Klaus Kinski caused a sensation with his Villon recitations. Priority is given to the word, which takes shape and form through the expressiveness of the interpreter. The melody recedes. Curtain up for the chansonnier!
Georges Brassens was born in the port city of Sète as the son of an anarchist bricklayer and a devout Catholic mother from a southern Italian immigrant family. Despite this tension, Brassens’ childhood was surprisingly harmonious. The family was shaped by music and singing. In addition, the boy knew how to react in a variety of ways: swimming, sports, fights and tussles inspired the little Brassens a little beyond measure. He was lucky that his teacher, Alphonse Bonnafé, known as “the boxer”, himself had a weakness for fistfighting and knew how to channel the excess energy of his students and get them excited about poetry and chansons.
Member of a youth gang
Nevertheless, Brassens got on the wrong track for a while. He committed minor thefts with his youth gang and even received a suspended prison sentence. School time was herewith over. Brassens left for Paris with the firm intention of becoming a poet and musician. He stayed with his aunt, improvised on her piano, worked as a worker in the Renault works and published his texts at his own expense. Brassens was a pioneer in self-publishing. This more or less idyllic artistic existence, precarious without a doubt, ended with a blow when the Vichy regime sent him to Germany for labor service. In Basdorf, north of Berlin, Brassens carried out the “Service du travail obligatoire” for the Brandenburg Motor Works.
He used a home leave to run away. In Paris he went into hiding with Jeanne, a friend of his aunt, and her husband Marcel. Later, when it was successful, Brassens would buy the house and live there until the 1960s. He dedicated one of his songs to Jeanne, his mother’s friend. Also in Jeanne there is an echo of a central theme for Brassens: “mère universelle” is what Brassens calls Jeanne, a universal mother, a mother for everyone. Gisbert Haefs calls her “Great Mother”, but Brassens’ relationship between the universal and the special is lost as a result. The translator Louis-Jean Calvet also emphasizes the universal in Brassens’ texts: It is not a contradiction in terms that Brassens was deeply French and at the same time universal. Ultimately, the universal has its roots in particular. Brassens, who, with his rebellious esprit, represented a central figure of identification for many people in France, especially in the 1960s and 70s, was clearly political to the core, but always characterized by introversion and shyness. When he sang in the cabaret of the actress and singer Patachou in 1952, the performance was an instant success, but it was tortured. Brassens suffered from terrible stage fright throughout his life. In 1954 he said in an interview for the Parisian Channel: “I lived like a snail in my shell. (…) I had a very intense inner life. ”He also felt like an outsider:“ I felt abnormal because I didn’t share the other’s ideas (…) like a monster. Only later did I realize that the others were the monsters. ”Patachou said of him that he had“ undeniable authenticity ”, that he was“ a baby and a solid castle at the same time ”.
Brassens rebelled against the existing political and social order and whistled for state honors. Above all, however, was his aversion to dogmas of all kinds. In several songs he emphasizes that it is crazy to lose your life for an idea. In The old Norman it says: “Left, right, in the middle or to the side, I can’t tell you where you’re going, because Ariadne’s thread scares me a little, I only use it as cheese wire.” Apart from that The fact that Brassens cuts butter with a thread in French makes one thing clear: the chansonnier prefers to listen to flowers than people, because the language of flowers has never before cost anyone their lives. For Brassens, poetry remained a refuge from barbarism until he died of kidney cancer in 1981.
The band too Die Songs is a retreat that offers shelter through the power and poetry of words, a lyrical dwelling in which one can take refuge in order to nourish the fighting spirit and to feed it poetically. A successful experiment – Brassens can be heard in every line.
Die Songs Georges brassens From the French by Gisbert Haefs, Mandelbaum Verlag 2021, 640 p., 48 €
.