ABSTRACT
The trio Jacques Brel-Georges Brassens-Leo Ferre has been considered, at least since the 1960s, as a symbol of French chanson, of poetic song, and of resistance to yy music and to the negative effects of the music industry. This chapter examines how through their songs, their public and their own identity, Brel, Brassens and Ferre embody the image of the common intellectual. It argues that despite constantly having been associated and isolated as a trio and in particular towards the popularisation of poetry. The nature of the singers art itself is a genre which creates a link between two levels of culture, for song and chanson in particular has inherited both from formal poetry and popular song. This double legacy is reflected in the composition of the singer's audience and Brel, Brassens and Ferre in particular, manage to bring together a public from very different social and cultural backgrounds.
