Chanson

Georges Brassen (1921-1981)

My French isn't what it should be. Like most people, I get by. But it would have been nice to have mastered at least one foreign language; maybe this is what my dotage is really for. I guess if I hadn't been daydreaming through double French on Thursday mornings I'd be parlaising just like Monseuer et Madame Bertillon (if you know you know).

That said, my lack of conversational French has never stood in the way of me enjoying the songs of Georges Brassens who took Chanson to another level. And It's not hard to see the lineage between Brassens and our very own Jake Thackray. That they were friends and admirers of each others' work even less so. Their poetry, musical chops and acerbic wit complete with wry social observation join the dots between both language and culture perfectly. And any rudimentary translating I make in my head as I listen may or may not reflect what's actually going on in the lyric, but for me that only adds to the charm.

Georges Brassen - La non demande en mariage