Gare au Gorille! (Beware the Gorilla!)

Jean Pierre · May 17, 2024, 11:19:59 PM

A song with two chords is only as good as its lyrics...and this 1952 song by Georges Brassens with two chords D and A is particularly "crisp"...it was banned from radio in France because Brassens was denouncing the death penalty, which had not yet been abolished in France in 1952...

Here is the translation

BEWARE THE GORILLA!!!

Through wide gates
That the females of the canton
Behold a mighty gorilla
Without a care in the world
With impudence, these gossips
Even leered at a precise spot
Which, strictly speaking, my mother
forbade me to name here
Watch out for the gorilla!

All of a sudden the prison
Where the beautiful animal lived
Opened, for some reason, I suppose
It must have been locked wrong
The monkey, getting out of his cage
Said "I'm losing him today!
He was talking about his virginity
I hope you guessed it!
Watch out for the gorilla!

The boss of the menagerie
Shouted, distraught, "Holy mackerel!
It's boring, because the gorilla
Has never known a monkey!"
As soon as the females
Knew that the ape was a virgin
Instead of taking advantage of the chance
She fired both guns!
Watch out the gorilla!

The same women who once
Were watching him with a determined eye
Fled, proving that they had little
That they had little follow-through
All the more vain was their fear
That the gorilla is a luron
Superior to man in the embrace
Many a woman will tell you!
Watch out the gorilla!

Everybody rushes
Out of reach of the rutting monkey
Except a decrepit old woman
And a young wooden judge
Seeing that they all shrank back
The quadruman accelerated
His waddle towards the robes
Of the old woman and the magistrate!
Beware the gorilla!

"Bah! sighed the centenarian
That I should still be desired
That would be extraordinary
And, to say the least, unhoped for!"
The judge thought impassively
"That I should be taken for a monkey
It's completely impossible".
What followed proved him wrong!
Beware the gorilla!

Suppose that one of you could be
Like the ape, forced to
Violate a judge or an ancestress
Which would he choose?
That such a choice
One of these four days, befall me
It is, I am convinced, the old woman
Who will be the object of my choice!
Beware the gorilla!

But, by misfortune, if the gorilla
Is worth his price in the games of love
We know that on the other hand he shines
Neither in taste nor in wit
So instead of opting for the old lady
As anyone would have done
He grabbed the judge by the ear
And dragged him off into the bush!
Beware the gorilla!

The rest would be delectable
Unfortunately, I can't
I can't say, and that's a shame
It would have made us laugh a little
For the judge, at the supreme moment
Shouted "Mama!", cried a lot
Like the man whose neck
He had his neck cut off
Beware of the gorilla!

StephenM · May 18, 2024, 07:17:19 AM

If I were walking through a festival park or a fair and I heard this off to the side somewhere I would be drawn like metal to a magnet... I would not understand a word but I would certainly love this anyway.
that is a lot of words and so much great music JP! great track