Pierre de Gaillande sings George Brassens

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Pierre de Gaillande sings George Brassens

By The World ⋅ June 8, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

French singer-songwriter George Brassens was a cultural icon in his homeland. Brassens died almost 30 years ago but his songs are still going strong. Recently a musician undertook the painstaking work of translating Brassens’ songs into English in the US. It took two whole years for Pierre de Gaillande to put an album of Brassens’s songs together. De Gaillande was born in France and moved to California with his family when he was seven years old.

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6 comments for “Pierre de Gaillande sings George Brassens”

http://www.siliconvalleystock.com Michael Halberstadt

English speaking fans of Brassens might also look into the late Jake Thackray’s music. Thackray had several adaptations of Brassens songs in English, for example “Isabella” (based on Brassens’ “Marinette”) and “Over to Isobel” (based on “Je rejoindrai ma belle”)as well as “Le gorille” (“Brother Gorilla”.) Thackray enjoyed some success in Britain in the 1970′s and 80′s and I find to be some of the best crafted and humorous songs ever heard in English.
Blandine

It was such a pleasure to hear this story about Pierre de Gaillande and his adaptation of Georges Brassens extraordinary works. I was so impressed, knowing how difficult it must have been to “transadapt” keeping the rimes and the rythm. I always wanted to share these songs with my English speaking friends and students and now I have something perfect fo introduce Brassens to them. I even stayed in my car when at destination not to miss any of the story. Thank you!
kelli ann

This was an excellent moment, the tone of the interview was great and I enjoyed very much ‘discovering’ Pierre de Gaillande’s work. I agree; though I would never have thought a pretty literal translation of Brassens’ simply crafted music would work, amazingly, it turns out to be very endearing, just as touching as the original.
Jay Sirlano

I was fascinated by Brassens’ songs and lyrics, having never heard of them before. The vocal style and accompanying music reminded me a lot of Leonard Cohen with the slow deep voice and simple instramentation. I only recently learned of Leonard Cohen while watching public TV wttw Chicago. Thank you PRI and PBS.
Yvette

I just sent you an e-mail about Pierre de Gaillande’s translation of the word “croquant”. This word designates French peasant(s) who revolted under the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. It has nothing to do with biting into food. Later on, the meaning of “croquant” evolved into a derogatory term for peasants.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the translation and the interpretation of Pierre de Gaillande. As an Parisian fan of Brassens, I can only rejoice that his particular, unique art, will finally reach these shores.
http://www.-stephane-et-didier.com Kaiser, Dieter

Bonjour ami de Brassens,
J’ai découvert récemment que vous aussi vous traduisez des chansons de Brassens, vous en Anglais, moi en Allemand. J’en ai traduit une vingtaine à ce jour, parce que je ne connaissais pas celles qui existaient soit elle ne me plaisaient pas. Les textes sont souvent trop éloignés de l’original. En outre j’ai traduit plus de 80 chansons d’autres chansonniers, que je chante en Francais, en Allemand et en Anglais. Je les ai sortis dans une brochure franco-allemande. En tout il s’agit de chansons de Brel (27), Ferrat (17) Barbara (3), Bécaud (3), Trenet (2), Ferré et Aznavour (3).

Mes textes de Brel ont été sanctionnés par la Fondation Brel à Bruxelles lors d’une visite personnelle. Sur Internet vous trouverez sur “Answers.com” le jugement suivant: “Many critique the (existing) German translations as well. Notable faithful German translations have been made by Didier Caesar (alias Dieter Kaiser) of the duo Stéphane & Didier”.
J’ai traduit d’autres chansons comme de Marie-Paule Belle La Parisienne pour une chanteuse francaise à Berlin par Die Berlinerin et pour un chanteur Der Berliner.
Comme vous vous intéresséz également à la peinture je vous sginale que le peintre francais Robert Combas a fait 2 peintures selon le texte de Brassens Les amoureux des bancs publics et Brave Margot.
Je vous signale également que je suis en rapport avec Arnie Johnston de l’université de Kalamazoo West Michigan, où il était professeur de Francais et où il a fondé un Institut de recherche sur la chanson francaise. Il est également traducteur et chanteur de Brel.
Un autre fervent armirateur de chansons aux USA est Brian Thomson.
Notre dernier programme en date depuis 2009 est le programme “Rencontre chanson et pantomime”. A ma connaissance il s’agit d’une première mondiale.

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