Comments on: The Music of Jacques Brel

The Music of Jacques Brel

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:48:45 -0800

The Music of Jacques Brel is an article by music journalist Amy Hanson about the career of pop music legend Jacques Brel and his effect on popular music in the English language. A lot of songs and covers are mentioned in the article, below the cut are links to the songs that I could find videos of online.

Jacques Brel Amsterdam, 2 Au suivant Ce gens-là, 2, 3 Don Quichotte (cover of I, Don Quixote from Man of La Mancha) Fils de... Il peut pleuvoir Il nous faut regarder Il y a J'arrive Jef, 2 JoJo La chanson de Jacky, 2, 3 La chanson des vieux amants La colombe La dame patronesse La foire La mort La quête, 2 (cover of Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha) La statue La valse a mille temps, 2, 3 La ville s'endormait L'éclusier Le dernier repas, 2 Le diable (ca va), 2 Le lion Le gaz Le moribond, 2, 3 Le plat pays, 2, 3 Les biches Les bonbons, 2, 3 Les f... Les Marquises Les singes Les timides Les toros, 2 Les vieux, 2 L'homme dans la cité Litanie pour un retour Marieke, 2 Mathilde Mon enfance, 2 Ne me quitte pas, 2, 3 On n'oublie rien Quand on n'a que l'amour, 2 S'il te faut Tango Funèbre Voir un ami pleurer Marc Almond If You Go Away, 2 I'm Coming Jacky, 2 Litany for a Return My Death The Bulls The Devil (OK), 2 The Town Fell Asleep Scott Walker Amsterdam Funeral Tango If You Go Away Jackie Mathilde Next Sons of... Elly Stone Carousels Marieke My Childhood Old Folks Song of Old Lovers Rod McKuen If You Go Away In the Port of Amsterdam Seasons in the Sun The Statue The Women Mort Shuman In the Port of Amsterdam Jacky Mathilde Taxi Cab David Bowie In the Port of Amsterdam, 2 My Death, 2 Judy Collins La colombe (The Dove) Marieke Sons of... Momus Don't Leave Nicky See a Friend in Tears Lucie Dolène Ode à la nuit La chanson de Zorino Terry Jacks If You Go Away Seasons in the Sun Damita Jo If You Go Away Glen Campbell If You Go Away Frank Sinatra If You Go Away Juliette Greco La chanson des vieux amants Kingston Trio Seasons in the Sun Spell Seasons in the Sun The Bolshoi In the Port of Amsterdam The Dells If You Go Away/Love Story The Sensational Alex Harvey Band Next The Squirrels Seasons in the Sun/The Hustle

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:02:55 -0800

Oh, incidentally, the best entrypoint into Brel is probably his phenomenal live album Enregistrement public à l'Olympia 1961. I consider it one of the greatest live albums and one of my favorite albums of all time. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:29:42 -0800

Outstanding post Kattulus. Thanks for this. Brel is a performer. Watch the first link, Amsterdam. Just a guy on an unadorned stage, wearing his street clothes, and standing in front of a microphone. No gimmicks. Just his voice and an incredible passion for what he is singing. I love how he throws the microphone down at the end.

By: Sourisnoire

Sourisnoire — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:36:40 -0800

Fantastic post! If you like your Brel covers in german, Klaus Hoffmann's translations can't be beat. Musicwise they might be a bit slik, but damn, they make german sound good. Klaus Hoffmann Bitte geh nicht fort Wenn uns nur Liebe bleibt Amsterdam Mathilde Mein Flanderland His best Brel cover is probably his version of La Chanson des Vieux Amants, but that one doesn't seem googleable.

By: Grangousier

Grangousier — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:50:31 -0800

Velhos Amantes, Misia's Fado version of Le chanson des vieux amantes.

By: lapsangsouchong

lapsangsouchong — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:43:34 -0800

Wow. After reading the first couple of paragraphs of that article, I came in here to make a faintly snarky comment about how overwritten it is, and how liberally salted with misplaced semi-colons. Now I see that I can ignore it completely: the important bit of this post is on the inside. Such riches! Thank you--amazing.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:51:38 -0800

If you like Brel, by all means avoid the film version of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well..., which plays like a Francophone version of Hair. When I was six, my mom had the Off-Broadway Cast Album of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and liked it enough to make a shortened tape of it to play in the car. She had to take off all the songs about longshoremen and prostitutes. This left us with something like five songs. Still, the English translation of "Madeline" was a big singalong on long car rides.

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:38:47 -0800

I just saw a production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Apparently they've made it significantly less flaky, but to me it still felt like An Extremely Earnest Revue of Jacques Brel Songs, Mostly in English! I think it was partly the translation that threw me off (I went not knowing much about the show, and thinking it would be a little more about Brel), but there was also almost no sense of the cynicism and darkness that you find in even his more sentimental songs. Nevertheless, I do love some Jacques Brel, and this is a fantastic post.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:58:32 -0800

very well done, thanks. Proudly admitting I'm a Rod McKuen fan (and, there aren't many of us willing to admit to that!), I found Brel through McKuen's covers. Port of Amsterdam is far and away my favorite.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:20:22 -0800

If you go away - Emiliana Torrini Non andare via - Musica Nuda

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:39:36 -0800

Amsterdam was on my last MeFi mix exchange, oddly enough. Le Moribond and Ne Me Quitte Pas are standards around my house -- love me some Brel. Thanks for this post!

By: ericthegardener

ericthegardener — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:00:30 -0800

I could watch that Sensational Alex Harvey Band cover of Next all day long! It's creepily perfect.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:19:44 -0800

I remember hearing Scott Walker's version of "Jackie" for the first time and later telling the guy at the record store that recommended it how wonderfully weird it was. He then insisted that I had to not only hear the Brel version, but also needed to hear the whole album. And then in a matter of seconds he had a list of five or six Brel albums that I MUST hear. He was right on all counts. It's sad to see that kind of face-to-face music enthusiasm and interaction between clerk and customer getting rarer and rarer.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:23:24 -0800

This is a fantastic post, Kattullus, and I'm looking forward to really digging through it. I didn't notice a like to Brel performing Madeleine but it's worth a link -- he's at his hangdog hopeful best on this one.

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:29:59 -0800

Also, Les Bourgeois.

By: Sourisnoire

Sourisnoire — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:31:01 -0800

I used to collect Brel covers in as many languages as possible, so here are a few more: Tommy Körberg made an album with Brel covers in swedish. A bit more of an aquired taste maybe, and some of the translations are a bit jarring, but he does do a good job of trying to match Brel's passion. Tommy Körberg Det doftar öl Amsterdam Mathilda Dutch is a bit of a special case. The artist most famous for his brel covers would be Herman van Veen Liefde van later Een Vriend Zien Huilen ...but the Brel himself also sang some of his repertoire in (a rather adorable accented) dutch. Kattullus linked to a few, here are some more: Laat me niet alleen Mijn vlakke land

By: jontyjago

jontyjago — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:37:23 -0800

Nice Post! He's buried in French Polynesia in the same cemetery as Paul Gauguin, fact fans.

By: quarsan

quarsan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:45:30 -0800

Truly, this is best of the web.

By: Locative

Locative — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:49:58 -0800

ANOTHER AMAZING POST, KATTULLUS!!

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:55:48 -0800

Yesss. I LOVE Jacques Brel. La Valse and Madeleine are amazing. Everyone needs to know about him.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:00:16 -0800

I discovered Brel the hard way, in the old, pre-web days. Here's how it worked. I was listening to the radio and heard the end of the song "Marieke," and the melody totally captivated me. I scribbled down the words I could identify, though of course I didn't know how to spell it, so I had to approximate: "Marique" is what I guessed, and i had caught the words "summer wind." I went to the music library at my college and spent a truly significant amount of time combing the card catalog and then the index of popular song to which it led me, finally finding the song title and artist under the proper spelling. I then requested the LP from the stacks ("Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris"), took it back to the phono listening room, and sat there for a couple hours playing through the album. I had no way to make a recording of it in that library, and I had no money to buy the record, so I just played the song over and over and over and over until I had memorized it and could play it in my head, at will. A vivid memory and I still love the song. Great post, thanks.

By: governale

governale — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:28:32 -0800

Years ago, I borrowed the album "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" from a friend without asking. I meant to return it. Never did. I regret to this day having stolen the album. Perhaps my friend, wherever she is, is reading this and will finally know what happened to her Brel. Thanks, Kattullus, for this excellent post.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:12:02 -0800

I've been listening to this all afternoon and I just want to say again that this is a tremendous post. Thanks Kattullus.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:13:47 -0800

Wow, killer post, K.

By: stet

stet — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:47:07 -0800

Amsterdam - AJ Roach If it were possible to get a tattoo of a particular version of a song, I would get this one. I discovered Brel when AJ performed Amsterdam at the Sunset in Seattle. Blew my fucking mind. Brel's songwriting holds up for me both in translation and in French, which I do not speak. I don't understand quite how that works. How had I not heard of this guy before? My wife, with whom I attended that show and who had spent a year in Belgium, was aghast at my ignorance. Bonus AJ: Ghost by NMH

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:47:36 -0800

I first heard Ne me quitte pas during a clown act in Cirque du Soleil's Varekai (although they used Nina Simone's cover of the song I think). That led me to discover Jaques Brel, and now I love this post.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:04:00 -0800

lapsangsouchang: After reading the first couple of paragraphs of that article, I came in here to make a faintly snarky comment If you continue you'll find a good overview of Brel's career and how his music was taken up by Anglophone artists in the UK and the US. I was fairly well acquainted with the story of Jacques Brel but there were things in there, especially when it comes to his influence on English-language pop music, that I didn't know. But I did link to that article partly to give myself a frame for building a Brel post. I could collect links to Brel originals and cover versions for weeks without reaching bottom.

By: cRamsay

cRamsay — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:41:27 -0800

If you go away - Neil Diamond Like others above, I mostly know Brel through Scott Walker. I've been meaning to go back to the originals - guess I know what I'm listening to today.

By: dame

dame — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:53:40 -0800

If you like Jacques Brel, I cannot recommend Cali enough. That is all.

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:26:03 -0800

Love, love, love the Scott Walker versions of his songs. I first heard 'Next' on WFMU years ago and freaked out. I really enjoy the originals as well, but my French is rarely up to the task. Plus, I love Scott Walker, so it's kind of like a perfect storm for me. If you've ever been a fan of Nick Cave, I highly recommend 'Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel'. It's like a warm bath.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:31:22 -0800

I'm trying to figure out what quality Brel has that makes him such an enthralling performer. While it doesn't hurt that he was one of century's greatest songwriters, he was also the supreme interpreter of his own songs. He somehow combines immense projection with looking like he's singing to himself in the mirror.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:39:40 -0800

lumpenprole: I really enjoy the originals as well, but my French is rarely up to the task. I linked to versions subtitled in English when the audio was up to snuff. Here, for example, are Le moribond, La statue, La chanson de Jacky, Marieke and La dame patronesse.

By: severiina

severiina — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:49:44 -0800

I love Brel. I especially love watching him perform his own songs. He's so intense and expressive and awkwardly sincere. He looks into to the camera and it's almost too much sometimes. The emotion is so raw and unpolished. And this is also the problem I have with most Brel covers. They are so beautiful and polished and full of grand emotions, but lack the humanity of the original. I'm not saying that there aren't good covers of his songs out there, I just haven't heard many. (I did enjoy the AJ Roach cover of Amsterdam linked above.)

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:03:33 -0800

I linked to versions subtitled in English when the audio was up to snuff. Dude, you're awesome.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:06:03 -0800

severiina: I'm not saying that there aren't good covers of his songs out there, I just haven't heard many. I generally agree, but constructing this post showed me different. Marc Almond, who I'd say was the best Anglophone Brel interpreter, does a great Jacky. Kingston Trio go a long way towards rescuing Seasons in the Sun. Judy Collins pulls a Pete Seeger on La colombe. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's Next is phenomental. And Bowie has a bazillion versions of My Death and they're all great (here's one I didn't link to above).

By: omegar

omegar — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:47:50 -0800

Mathilde est revenue! Thanks for this, really.

By: bearwife

bearwife — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:54:09 -0800

Long, long ago, when I was still a kid, I saw Jacques Brel is Alive and Well on stage in Boston, after listening to the LP over and over again with my best friend. I can still sing most of the songs by heart. And one of the best presents my fabulous husband has ever given me was the cassette tape (!! awhile back!!) he made for me of the cast recording. Thanks so much for this post.

By: Trochanter

Trochanter — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:01:06 -0800

My family grew up with the cast recording of "Alive and Well." I will forward this thread to my mom. Thanks.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:05:33 -0800

Oh, and if any of the English-subtitled videos is truly essential-to-a-life-well-lived viewing, it's Amsterdam.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:14:31 -0800

Terry Jacks' #1 Hit version of "Seasons in the Sun" in 1974 (one of the WORST records of the '70s, and that's saying a lot) ruined Jacques Brel for me, and I have been trying to recover ever since. Still, for the last three decades, I can't think of "If You Go Away" without thinking of "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?" which, while absolutely NOT a great song, is so perfectly silly that it never wears out its welcome for me. Does that make me a musical cretin? Of course it does.

By: severiina

severiina — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:04:10 -0800

Kattullus, thank you for the links. The original selection was very large and it was nice get some of the better ones highlighted. I think my problem is, that I've heard the originals many times and any cover version is going to get (often unfavourably) compared to the original. I find that I'm most likely to enjoy covers that do something new with the songs, because no-one is going to out-Brel Jacques Brel (and those who try end up sounding silly and melodramatic, where Brel himself appears open and honest.) I agree that the Alex Harvey Band's Next is great. It's very theatrical, but has an honest edge to it that I enjoy. Marc Almond's Jacky is an interesting take on the song, not bad, just a bit too 90's pop symphony-ish for my taste. I was suprised to like Almond's If you go away quite a bit. It had a cool sophistication that took it sufficiently far from the original. Brel's Ne me quitte pas is so intense, it's a bit hard to watch. He's begging and pleading and almost crying there. Almond is more wistfull and civilized about the whole thing. Kingston Trio's Seasons in the Sun, on the other hand, is an abomination. They sing it like it's a bad ABBA cover or a campfire song. Le moribond is so good and the English covers of it are so bad that it's a bit diffucult for me to reconcile that it's even the same song.

By: Monday, stony Monday

Monday, stony Monday — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:05:29 -0800

My favourite of Brel is Ces gens-là. I also quite like Noir désir version.

By: BozoBurgerBonanza

BozoBurgerBonanza — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:38:37 -0800

Excellent post, many thanks.

By: Vibrissae

Vibrissae — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:40:24 -0800

Excellent. I "discovered" Brel several years ago, on youtube, by accident. Once exposed, he became one of my all time favorites. His ability to bring convincing theatricality and passion to his songs is almost unparalleled. Simply one of the most moving voices, ever.

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:28:59 -0800

French Song Pedantry ahoy! Seasons in the Sun is NOT a cover of Le Moribond, dammit -- or at least no more than Jet Boy Jet Girl is a cover of Ca Plane Pour Moi -- same tune, yeah, but really not the same song. Le Moribond is kickass: scathing, sarcastic, funny, and successfully touching in that you can't help but sympathize for the narrator, who is nasty and bitter and really human. Seasons in the Sun is a treacly mess that sounds like the last scene of whatever the hell movie-within-a-movie they were shooting in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure with Jason Hervey, shot through a gauze filter in a field of wilting daffodils.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 09:12:59 -0800

While I agree about the terribleness of Seasons in the Sun, I do have a soft spot for Kingston Trio's version. They do their very best with terrible source material. And yeah, it isn't a cover, so much a translation. A bad, bad translation. Well, most translations of Brel songs aren't all that great, but Seasons in the Sun is not so much a poor translation as a moral failure.

By: mvuijlst

mvuijlst — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:51:53 -0800

Brel is number two out of four great singer-songwriters that died in the late 1970s & early 80s to get featured here recently. Only Dassin and Brassens to go. :)

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:24:43 -0800

The Claude François post sent me off on a big Brel kick, the results of which was this post. One of these days, unless someone beats me to it, I'll do a Brassens post. Dassin I know only perfunctorily.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:26:56 -0800

Oh hey! You've already made a Dassin post. Excellent!

By: lapsangsouchong

lapsangsouchong — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:56:59 -0800

Oh, hey, translations--Tom Robinson's version of Les Bourgeois, as Yuppie Scum, is actually really good. Can't find it a video just now, though, because YouTube is banned here in Turkey. Look it up, it's on Living in a Boom Time.