Georges Brassens - Legacy

Legacy

In recent years, more than 50 doctoral dissertations have been written about Georges Brassens. Many artists from Japan, Israel, Russia, the United States (where there is a Georges Brassens fan club), Italy and Spain have made cover versions of his songs. His songs have been translated into 20 languages, including Esperanto.

Many singers have covered Georges Brassens' lyrics in other languages, for instance Pierre de Gaillande, who translates Brassens' songs and performs them in English, Koshiji Fubuki in Japanese, Fabrizio De André (in Italian), Alberto Patrucco (in Italian), and Nanni Svampa (in Italian and Milanese), Graeme Allwright and Jake Thackray (in English), Sam Alpha (in creole), Yossi Banai (in Hebrew), Jiří Dědeček (in Czech), Mark Freidkin (in Russian), Loquillo, Paco Ibáñez, Javier Krahe, Joaquín Carbonell and Eduardo Peralta (in Spanish), Jacques Ivart (in esperanto), Franz Josef Degenhardt and Ralf Tauchmann (in German), Zespół Reprezentacyjny (they released 2 CDs of Brassens' songs in Polish) and Piotr Machalica (in Polish), Cornelis Vreeswijk (Swedish) and Tuula Amberla (in Finnish). Dieter Kaiser, a Belgian-German singer who performs in public concerts with the French-German professional guitarist Stéphane Bazire under the name Stéphane & Didier has translated into German language and gathered in a brochure 19 Brassens songs. He also translated among others the poem "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" of the French contemporary poet Louis Aragon. Franco-Cameroonian singer Kristo Numpuby also released a cover-album with the original French lyrics but adapted the songs to various African rhythms.

An international association of Georges Brassens fans exists and there is also a fan club in Berlin-Basdorf which organizes a Brassens festival every year in September.

Brassens composed about 250 songs, of which 200 were recorded, the other 50 remaining unfinished.

Renée Claude, an important Québécois singer, dedicated a tribute-album to him, J'ai rendez-vous avec vous (1993).

His songs have a major influence on many French singers across several generations, including Maxime Le Forestier, Renaud, Bénabar and others.

In 2008, the English folk-singer Leon Rosselson included a tribute song to Brassens, entitled "The Ghost of Georges Brassens", on his album A Proper State.

The song "À Brassens" ("To Brassens") from Jean Ferrat's album Ferrat was dedicated to Brassens.