Taking Sides: Georges Brassens vs Mike Skinner

tho that may be a new accusation for Momus?

funny how that happens

I'm really digging this guy right now, having come to him via Jake Thackray.

Yes the lyrical plots can be hard to follow, even for Francophones, but as mentioned upthread it's the acoustic timbre of the guitar versus the syllabic ricochet of his voice that will make even étrangers listen up.

I like the unfamiliar territory these songs seem to inhabit - at once catchy and familiar, but also strangely awkward - they're designed and written around a French meter, so you couldn't comfortably sing in English over them.

I'm in particular adoration of possibly his most famous lines from La Mauvaise Reputation:

"Mais les braves gens n'aiment pas que/l'on suive une autre route qu'eux"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qldI6a8VZ0Q

The "que/qu'eux" words are finely clipped, whereas more orthodox English songs traditionally elongate the last vowel on each line. Hear how much he rolls his "R"s - more than is usually required in French, and far more than many other French singers, who often dampen rhotic syllables when performing in order ease pronunciation and possibly to appeal to Anglo-ears. In this way, if Brassens' tongue had laces, they'd be tied together. He performs this difficult one-legged trot in an inimitably sage and steady style - always knowing, never clever.

So no wonder - unlike many other French-language singers such as Brel, Trenet and Aznavour - that so many have tried and failed to reinterpret these songs into English. I guess this is also why Yorkshireman Jake Thackray's deformed, rolling style sounds so quaint upon first listen, Brassens having been his main stylistic reference point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG95f7euQOo

Jake did English versions of a few Brassens songs too, and tho my French isn't strong enough to judge by ear how close the translations are, he makes them work imo.

well fuck my hat, i didn't know that. which thackray songs were they, do you know?

"Brother Gorilla" for one

"Isabella", "Over to Isobel". Maybe more. I thought "One-Eyed Isaac" was but maybe not. It certainly sounds like a cover. The web sources aren't very clear tho.

It's not a cover, but it is especially dark and troubled

That "but after all ones heart's ones own" line sounds translated from French, and the tune is one his most Brassens-esque.

I've got the album, it's deffo a Jake song

Oh no I'm sure, I was just explaining why I was mistaken.

Right. What a great song.

And do you not think it's quite a French locution there, like his brain was thinking the lines thru in French first?

(It's frequently my favourite Jake song btw so I've been thinking about this for a bit)

I'd have thought "It Was Only A Gypsy" could have been - something strange about the story and meter.

Anyhoo, sorry, this thread has re-prompted me to listen to as much Brassens as poss.

xpost - actually looking at the lyrics, to "...gypsy" it couldn't be a translation. I don't get the final line "the house is full of clothes pegs"...?

My fave Georges Brassens, other than La Mauvaise Reputation, is Je Me Suis Fait Tout Petit, which has the best of meandering melody lines.

Gypsies sell clothes pegs... errrrrrrr, you must know that surely?

Traditionally sold by gypsies.

oops xpost

these days they normally try and sell me stolen tumble-dryers, but anyway... kick a ball in the street etc...

Well no need for clothes pegs if you've got a tumble dryer is there?

Dude we've got a tumble dryer but still peg out if it's possible, dryers cost a fortune to run.

How many trees cut down to make one clothes peg etc etc

Don't know, What tree does plastic come from?

je n'ai pas un jardin

:'-(

[le pleure]