In 1952, when Georges Brassens recorded his first records, Bad reputation and Beware of the gorilla clashed head-on with the morals of the bigots of the time. So much so that the impresario Jacques Canetti will have the recording made under the Polydor label instead of Philips, which did not want it. This will not prevent the radios from boycotting these songs, or from authorizing them only after midnight, until the creation of the channel Europe no 1 in 1955.
While France commemorates the centenary of the “prank of the song”, born October 22, 1921 in Sète, would it be otherwise today? Nothing is less certain, according to the bookseller Bernard Lonjon, who has published several books on the most famous of Sétois, including Brassens the Enchanting (The Archipelago) and I could have turned dishonest (Editions du Moment). “In his time, it was already complicated, because he was censored many times. But, today, it would be almost impossible. If the censorship of that time no longer exists, today it is practically in all media. There is something to be afraid of. “
A cantor of patriarchy?
Other times, other manners. Blacklisted for his swear words (The round of curses), his anticlericalism (The nun) and its attack on good morals (Hecatomb), the one who described himself as a “phonograph pornographer” would be so today for other reasons. A clear sign that in every era “good people do not like that / One follows another road than them”.
Today, Brassens is pinned down for having vituperated “the annoying, the pain in the ass and the piss off”, sung “the rut, the rut, the rut” or even joked about “the luxury friends / Little Castors and Pollux / People of Sodom and Gomorrah ”. There is no doubt that, if he went on stage for the first time today, as he did at Patachou in 1952, he would have trouble with neofeminists and LGBT associations. Anyone who dared to write “If like everyone else I was a little fagot” would risk ending up in court. From NTM to Orelsan, we can no longer count the French artists to whom it happened, even if they did not all have the poetry of Brassens.
In an article published this summer, the Mediapart site did not hesitate to denounce behind the troubadour of modern times a misogynist guilty of “phallocratic concupiscence”, “beaufitude” and “caressing the patriarchy in the direction of the hair” . And Antoine Perraud to conclude that Brassens “defies extenuating circumstances”. Others, like the Berthine.fr site, did not hesitate to sniff out the “culture of rape” in Hélène’s hooves, when Brassens writes: “I took the trouble / To take them off / Helene’s hooves / I, who am not a captain / And I saw my pain / Well rewarded”.
It matters little that in “those muddy clogs” the minstrel “found the love of a queen”. “Before carrying out a trial for misogyny and homophobia in Brassens, it is important to put oneself back in the context of the time,” says Bernard Lonjon. Between the wars, it was quite common to laugh at homosexuals. Maurice Chevalier even swayed on stage to imitate homosexuals. If we put it in the context of the time, we cannot say that Brassens was particularly homophobic. “
In 1979, in an interview with Philippe Nemo on France Culture, Brassens already deplored that “today, we are still obliged to please everyone”. Which has never been his business. Then, he confessed, laughing, to have practiced the “song of the guard […] to shock some people from [son] entourage ”. Because Brassens is part of a long French tradition, that of the bawdy song, which dates back to the Middle Ages.
At the school of Rabelais
“Brassens is quite Rabelaisian,” said Lonjon. His first songs, especially those of the 1940s, are in this register. In the beginning, it was mostly pochades to shock the bourgeoisie. Brassens was very funny. The very goal is transgression. Unfortunately, today, we take everything at face value. No offense in our time, Brassens was gendered! “
If Léo Ferré dreamed of being on the banks of the Seine with Verlaine, Brassens said he was born five centuries late: “Ah! what the hell have I not experienced! Between fourteen and fifteen hundred / I would have found my friends at the Hole of the pine cone ”(The medieval). The young poet does not only set to music The ballad of the ladies of yesteryear and recite The lais, he sometimes takes himself for François Villon, even trying to rewrite his poems.
Brassens’ first novel is Rabelaisian. The moon listens at the doors shouldn’t he be called Lali Kakamou ? It is about the “president of the obscure sect of frenzied masturbators”. But, as Brassens said, “when I say shit, there are flowers around”.
For the record, let us remember that the anarchist novelist refused by all publishers will push the provocation to the point of publishing the book on behalf of the author in a fake Gallimard edition. Without forgetting to write to Gaston Gallimard himself to tell him that he acted in this way in order to “save time”. He did not believe he said it so well, his song lyrics being in the Folio collection today.
“The bawdy songs only represent a part of Brassens’ repertoire,” says Renaud Nattiez, author of Georges Brassens dictionary (Honoré Champion editions). He said himself that, if they had made him successful, they were not the ones he preferred. […] Brassens was not a songwriter. He wanted to be out of fashion. That is why he used deliberately old-fashioned language. He wanted to be timeless. “
“I made myself very small”
That didn’t stop him from writing some of the most beautiful love songs in the French language, says Bernard Lonjon. Of Coat of arms To Non-marriage proposal, from Lovers of public benches To I have an appointment with you, his odes to love and to women can no longer be counted. It is no coincidence that Brassens has been translated into more than 80 languages.
“When we call him misogyny, we forget his love for women,” says Lonjon. And that includes prostitutes as well (The lament of the maidens) that the women who are humiliated at the Liberation (Mowed). From the love of his life, the Lithuanian Joha Heiman, nicknamed Püppchen (doll), he writes: “I was badass… She converted me / The fine fly / And I fell, all hot, all roasted against his mouth. “Because, among all, Brassens often chooses” the ugliest “, the one that has been put aside. Women will be grateful to him since, from Patachou to Juliette Gréco, from Barbara to Renée Claude, his best performers have been women.
Who could believe it? Despite his sour words against the police, one of Brassens’ best friends was Honoré Gévaudan from Sétois, deputy central director of the judicial police. Even the priests whom he slaughtered with tir-larigot found favor in his eyes since, in his 15th century housee district, there was a “room of the priest” reserved for his childhood friend Father Robert Barrès.
In the Espace Georges-Brassens in Sète, where an entire room is devoted to the women of his life, we can read: “Me, misogynist? If there is anyone who made women goddesses, it’s me! The women ? I love them all or almost. »And we suddenly see that mischievous smile that concluded each of his songs.