Georges Brassens - Le Gorille (buy) (1953)
Georges Brassens - Le Bistrot (buy) (1960)
Sorry guys i haven't got much time these days due to my work with Acclaimed Music's album poll, in which you can still take part (more details here. )
While I'm knee-deep (and soon chest-deep) into lists of favorite albums, here's an artist who will have at least 3 or 4 albums in my top 200.
Brassens is the first thing I remember, musically speaking.
My grandfather used to play these 10-inch (25 cm) LPs, I was 3 or 4 years old and soon I knew some songs by heart and sang them in my grandparents' garden.
My father played these records too, singing along. I listened to them with my sisters and grew up with this music. That's probably why I love folk music today.
And Brassens still rules : he's folky, and sometimes jazzy à la Django (most of the time just a double bass and two accoustic guitars), he's the hell of a songwriter, he's an exquisite poet (much better than Brel to me, much more literate), he's fun, go to his biography on wiki or AMG if you don't know him.
The songs ? about God (the hilarious "Le Mécréant"), death and murder ("Le gorille"), love ("Je m'suis fait tout petit", two of his very best songs), and of course, booze ("Le Bistrot", about a bartender's wife).
"Le Gorille", one of his very first songs, was banned from airplay because of its lyrics. It even caused Brassens' mother, a devout Catholic to boycott his concerts.
You'll find English subtitles in this video to learn why. Brassens is old and sick in the video so the performance is not as good as in the record.
1 comment:
Le Bistrot was his best album. He was a fabulous composer and all his albums were spectacular, however that one had something special that make me considerate as my favorite.
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