Les Copains d’abord

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Les Copains D’Abord, by Georges Brassens
Friends first
No, it wasn’t like the raft
Of the Medusa, this old craft
As they said down at the ports
Down at the ports
She sailed ever placidly
On the duck pond or the sea
She’s called Les Copains d’Abord
Les Copains d’Abord

They said “Fluctuat nec mergitur”
Was not only literature
To the prophets of doom
Prophets of doom
But the captain and his crew
Not a bastard ‘mong the few
First-rate shipmates port to port
Les Copains d’Abord

Our men weren’t yet chummy guys
Like the Brothers Gemini
Or those that lived in Sodom
And Gomorrah
They hadn’t fraternity
Like Montaigne and La Boetie
So they knocked-about aboard
Les Copains d’Abord

Well they weren’t much of angels
Not versed in the gospels
But their love did spread its sails
Did spread its sails
With John, Paul, and company
It was their litany
Their creed, their chorus
Les Copains d’Abord

No doubt headed for Trafalgar
With the bearing of old sailors
They leaned on their rapport
To find true north
Never chancing much distress
Their arms formed S.O.S.
In basic semaphore
Les Copains d’Abord

When the mates would rendez-vous
All hands joined their old crew
Except for those keeled over
Across the bar
They’d toast each watery grave
Lest it sink beneath the waves
‘Fore a hundred years or more
Les Copains d’Abord

I’ve sailed many a ship before
And the only to hold her course
Tacked true to the bitter end
To the bitter end
She sailed ever placidly
On the duck pond or the sea
She’s called Les Copains d’Abord
Les Copains d’Abord