About Georges Brassens
Georges Charles Brassens (French: [ʒɔʁʒ(ə) ʃaʁl bʁasɛ̃s]; Occitan: [ˈbɾasens]) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. George Brassens is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets. He achieved fame through his elegant songs, characterised by harmonically complex music for voice and guitar, as well as articulate and diverse lyrics. He also set to music poems by both relatively obscure poets and such well-known ones as Louis Aragon (Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux), Victor Hugo (La Légende de la Nonne, Gastibelza), Paul Verlaine, Jean Richepin, François Villon (La Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis), and Antoine Pol (Les Passantes). == Early life == Brassens was born in Sète, a commune in the department of Hérault in Occitania, to a French father and an Italian mother from the town of Marsico Nuovo, Potenza, southern Italy. Brassens grew up in the family home in Sète with his mother Elvira Dagrosa, father Jean-Louis, half-sister Simone (daughter of Elvira and her first husband, who was killed in World War I), and paternal grandfather Jules. His mother, whom Brassens labeled "militantly for songs" (militante de la chanson), had a love for music. == Career == He toured with Pierre Louki, who wrote a book of recollections entitled Avec Brassens (éditions Christian Pirot, 1999, ISBN 2-86808-129-0). After 1952, Brassens rarely left France. A few trips to Belgium and Switzerland; a month in Canada (1961, recording issued on CD in 2011) and another in North Africa were his only trips outside France – except for his concerts in Wales in 1970 and 1973 (Cardiff).
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