October 26, 2005

Une partie de pétanque

Georges Brassens (1921-1981) was - and will always be - an icon in French music history. With simple but catchy melodies, and subtle lyrics, his songs are timeless. Some are crystal clear - at times critical - snapshots of France, its people and their mores.

Although he did not write it himself(*), he often performed this joyful song Une partie de pétanque (a 'round' of pétanque) which he remembered from his younger days in Sète, and made it famous thoughout France. Merci, Mr Brassens!
Listen to it here. Close your eyes, step in the time machine, and you will be transported to a boulodrome in Provence in the mid 1900's.
Like this one in Sanary-sur-Mer:












Close to 200 Brassens songs, sound clips, lyrics and streaming radio.
Petanque.org archive of over 1000 pétanque postcards.

(*) It was written in 1941 and originally performed by Darcelys, a popular singer in Marseille.
Here's the Darcelys version, with intro and accordeon!

2 comments:

Baby Nubbins said...

I'm going right now to purchase his CDs. It's fantastically whimsical French music - perfect!

Anonymous said...

Boudiou con, ça fait plaisir entendre ça!