This thread aims to cover, song by song, day by day, starting January 1 2024, the songs of the Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1929-1978). In the run up I will post a short series of introductory posts. Brel’s songs came from an idealistic worldview. Gradually this took a turn to the cynical, even jaded, and occasionally vituperative. Behind the vitriol, a generous and warm-hearted spirit of empathy is always evident. Audiences responded to his very intense and dramatic stage appearances. Some of his songs tell stories, other are pen-portraits of a scene or a character, others are philosophic treaties. Often there is a progression in the point of view of the narrator through the course of the song. He may start out happy, for example, become sad, and end by being angry. Death, love and women (he is often accused of misogyny) are frequent subjects, but there is no shortage of other themes tackled in his oeuvre. There is also a lot of humour. Though he denied being a poet, there are certainly poetical qualities to his lyrics that make them very hard to translate faithfully or well. Indeed, his reputation in the Anglosphere has arguably been tainted by some very poor English language adaptations. (I will be posting brief English paraphrases of my own in prose for each song, for the inaccuracies of which I apologise in advance). Newcomers to Brel and fans alike are welcome; please feel free to share the link to this thread to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks to others who have shown me the way forward with previous excellent song-by-song threads, notably @Lance LaSalle, @LivingForever, @prymel, @mark winstanley, @Komakino___ and @lemonade kid. Forgive me if I steal freely from conventions you have established.
What will be covered in this thread: -All Brel’s self-penned records released under his own name in his lifetime -Posthumously released recordings -Original songs written by Brel for other artists -Live albums (one day per album, with exclusive songs getting their own days in addition to this) -The Original cast recording of L’homme de la Mancha will have one day devoted to it, plus separate days for songs on it I consider important (I can think of two obvious ones). -The 1972 album of re-recordings will be treated as a regular album and given a song per day. -Rauber and Brel’s “Jean de Bruges” suite (one day for the whole thing) What will not be covered, except in passing: -The films -Brel’s film music that is not freely available to buy or stream -The narrations of Peter and the Wolf and Babar - Any material that is still unreleased - Compilations
I think discussion about the early LP compilations might be interesting. In the US Reprise picked up the Barclay era while Philips US packaged up the existing Philips Fr material. A couple of those are important comps as they first broke Brel into the international market and, of course, there are songs that cross both catalogues like Marieke.
OK, thanks, I'll consider it! Maybe they could be up for discussion when they come up chronologically without having a whole day set aside for them.
Note on chronology To attempt to clarify Brel’s confusing and complicated discography, songs that were released in his lifetime will be discussed by release date, regardless of format (7” EP, 10” album, 12” album). Posthumously released material will be included by approximate date of recording, where known. An exception is all the 1953 Belgian radio recordings: they’re going to have to wait till the end, as putting them at the start would make for far too inauspicious a start to the thread. I realise not everyone will want to participate in the early years; if you want to join in later when things start to get really good, here are some dates for your diary: On Wednesday, January 17th, we are scheduled to discuss Brel’s first hit, and the first of his songs that will be familiar to casual listeners, “Quand on n’a que l’amour”. On Friday, February 9th, we reach another milestone, “La valse à mille temps”. This is the first of the tracks from the watershed year 1959, by which point the Brel team had reached its familiar shape, with François Rauber (arranger/conductor) and Gérard Jouannest (pianist/co-writer) fully on board, and Brel himself having found his unique voice as a writer. Brel’s most famous song, “Ne me quitte pas”, will follow a few days later, on February the 13th.
Thanks, being familiar with some of Brel's catalogue, I'll keep half an eye on this. Are you posting translations of all the words? It wasn't quite clear from your original post.
A song-by-song thread is probably going to be too much Brel for me but I could see this building into a great reference resource, even if I don’t find much to contribute. Thank you for undertaking this and good luck with it, @Vagabone
I will try and post a condensed prose English version of the lyrics in each case, though I can foresee days when I will be completely stumped about what certain passages or phrases mean (I understand he can on occasion be a little obscure even for native speakers). I am erring on the side of caution because I believe his estate are, or were, very protective of his legacy and might frown on unauthorised adaptations/translations of the lyrics. Each day I will link to the lyrics on an external site (if those sites are defying copyright, that's their affair) and nowadays a rough automated translation of any website in French is yours at the touch of a button.
This thread comes in handy: I've been on a Brel binge lately, getting the mono albums to search for differences with the stereo mixes. A few days ago I bought 3 1984 CDs on Barclay (Le plat pays/Ces gens-là/J'arrive), and the first "En concert Olympia 1964" CD with 8 tracks on it, only to find that they are of no particular interest.
I owe my interest in Brel to Marc Almond who recorded a series of Brel covers starting with "If You Go Away" and continuing with "The Bulls", "Alone" and a (disappointing) album of covers called Jacques. I bought the original cast recording of Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well and then bought the big Suivre L'Étoile boxed set back in 2003. Here's my Amazon review of that set: Spoiler: A Treasury of Song By the time that he made protracted farewell to the stage amid scenes of high emotion in 1966-7 Brel was already one of the most celebrated chanteurs of his day, yet he was still short of his 40th birthday and about to embark on a successful film career. The seventeen hours of music on these 21 discs tell the story of a man who would become regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters yet whose extraordinary achievements are still far too little known outside French-speaking countries. This is not the "complete" Brel: the soundtracks to his television appearances are not here (you must seek them out separately on the fine 3-DVD set Comme Quand on Etait Beau) and one suspects that there must be more live material yet to be issued. Nevertheless, it is much the most complete Brel ever compiled and offers the complete studio albums (with bonus tracks) on the first 13 discs. The remaining eight discs are all live and include three new concerts including Brel's final concert at Roubaix from 1967. Naturally there is a lot of repetition within the set (six versions, for example, of "Le Moribond" and seven of "Madeleine") but the repetition is less onerous than you might expect. Songs vary significantly in their arrangements, performances and recording, even when they were recorded at much the same time. One striking example of this is the two versions of "Vivre Debout": one with Spanish guitar & maracas and the other featuring a flamenco singer & two declamatory trumpets. It is fascinating to hear songs transition from their studio versions to the rather triumphant style of performance that Brel gave in concert during the zenith of his popularity and then to the heavy sentimentality of his farewell tour. For example, "La Valse A Mille Temps", which begins life as fairly untroubled piece ornamented with flute, accordion and piano becomes more barbed in the stripped down performance at Lausanne in 1960. By Olympia '61 this version has become more of a party piece, its force emphasized by exuberant brass. By the time Brel recorded a second studio version with a completely different orchestration in 1972, however, the song had become less about the velocity with which its tongue-twisting lyric could be sung than the nostalgia of the lyric, which looks back on a life lived at an accelerated pace, rather like Brel's own. Unlike most large boxed sets it is difficult to identify a weak disc here. The final concert is so close in setlist to Olympia 1966 that it is here mainly for its historical significance, but the fact that it uses more spare arrangements makes a further case for its inclusion. At quarter of an hour, the intimate live recording from Trois Baudets in 1957 is very short but fills a gap in the story, providing the only live versions on the set of "La Bourrée Du Célibataire" & "L'Air De La Bêtise" as well as a fascinating glimpse of Brel only two albums into his career. The fact that the entire set has been remastered from the original masters ensures that these are probably the "cleanest" versions of this material available, but unfortunately the discs have been mastered very loud, ensuring that the dynamic range has been somewhat compressed and, more seriously, introducing occasional distortion where none was heard previously. For the overwhelming majority of listeners, these will be the best-sounding versions. In terms of physical presentation, this set has great pride of ownership with both the folder that houses the discs and the large-format book being very well designed and seemingly sturdy. Discs cannot fall out (I even held the set upside down and shook it ... though only for the purposes of this review, not because it's a hobby!) and the spine allows the book to either lie open or flat on its front, which is helpful. If you're hovering on purchasing this because 21 discs of Brel sounds like too many by far, you might be pleasantly surprised, and this set seems to add about sixty tracks never previously available on CD or vinyl. Overall - for anyone with more than a passing interest in French song - this would seem to be an immensely desirable purchase.
Thanks for the review, and thanks for bringing the set to my attention. I was not familiar with it and it looks like there's a lot on it I haven't heard, and a few songs that I may need to add to my schedule. (I have the 2003 velvet 16-disc box set, and a couple of live DVDs, otherwise I rely on streaming services.) I also was introduced to Brel by Almond! As a boy I saw his version of "Jacky" on TV, and my parents told me it was a Brel song, and by good fortune they had the original LP with that song on it in their collection. So I listened to that, and never looked back.
Excellent! Looking forward to it - I've been buying up 24 bit files of his albums from Qobuz recently and have the Suivre l'Étoile box set for any rarities. Some of his best songs (Sur la place and Je ne sais pas, to name but two) also have very different multiple versions (not including the 1972 remakes).
One can buy the mono albums, singles and 10" EPs as 24 bit digital files from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (e.g. via Qobuz). I think they may be needle drops. They go as far as Les bourgeois and Olympia 1961.
It was the Scott Walker versions that got Marc Almond into Brel so it's all connected. I should have mentioned Walker as well because I've heard his versions.
I've heard some of these, and they're not from master tapes, that's for sure. Les Bourgeois in mono is a different take from the stereo version. I think all the rest are identical. I think he was recording in mono and stereo at the same time.
My earliest flirtation with Brel acame in the early 70's when Bowie covered "Amsterdam" and "My Death" and Terry Jacks" covered both "Seasons In the Sun" and "If You Go Away". But I really became aware of Brel thanks to Marc Almond first with Marc and the Mambas and then as a solo artist. I'm amazed the post above mentions a disappointing album "Jacques" - in my opinion it is a masterpiece especially Marc's versions of "The Devil Okay", "Alone", "I'm Coming", "Litany For A Return", "The Town fell Asleep"and "My Death".
I wouldn't say a "masterpiece" compared with Brel himself, but I'm glad you enjoy it! Your mention of "Amsterdam" does remind me, though, that strictly my first exposure to that song was John Denver's version on Live In London. A very odd choice of cover for Denver!
I first wet my beak with the Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel LP in 1981. Around that time I also heard Judy Collin’s version of ‘Marieke’ and Dusty Springfield’s ‘If You Go Away’ which drove me to start picking up any Brel I could find. But as a kid I’d had a fascination with Terry Jacks ‘Season In The Sun’ that was a big hit in the UK when I was at school and only made the Brel connection many years later.
Biographical background Brel was born in 1929 in Shaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Belgium is a country divided between two demographic groups: the Flemish who speak Dutch, and the Walloons who speak French. They each have their own region of Belgium, but there is also a third region: the Brussels capital region. This was where the Brels were from, and it goes some way to explain how Brel was Flemish, and yet spoke French as his first language. At the time there was a sizable group of French-speaking Flemings in Brussels. It’s important to remember Brel was not French, nor even Walloon, but Flemish. It’s important because when he makes fun of the Flemish in his songs, as he often does, he’s talking about his own people. (Just as when he insults the “Bourgeois”, that’s his own people too. His family was as middle class as you can get). He had a love-hate relationship with his homeland. In 1940, when Brel was eleven, the Nazis occupied Belgium. In his late song “Mai ‘40” he sings how this formative event first made him aware of his “Belgitude”. In other words, he saw himself not merely as Flemish, or of Brussels, but at one with his whole country in the face of this common enemy from outside. Brel did not achieve great grades at school and on leaving was given a position in the family cardboard factory Vanneste-Brel. He was heavily involved in a Catholic youth movement, La Franche Cordée, whose ethos strongly influenced his early songs, and through which he met his wife Miche (Thérèse Michielsen). They married in 1950. The same year he started performing his songs with his guitar in Brussels cabarets, while still working his day job. In 1952 a relative put him in touch with Angèle Guller, a journalist whose husband worked for the Brussels branch of Philips records. (Guller later penned sleevenotes for Brel’s first album.) Through them, Brel’s debut recording was made, “Il y a”/”La foire”, and put out as a 78rpm shellac record on Philips, a copy of which was sent to Jacques Canetti in Paris (of the French wing of Philips and the “Trois Baudets” cabaret), who encouraged Brel to move to Paris. Brel accepted his offer and quit his job at the factory. He moved to Paris on his own in Autumn 1953 to become a hard-working full-time cabaret performer, leaving his wife and two young daughters behind in Brussels (with his wife’s full support).
Scoring Thread participants are welcome to score the songs on a scale of 1-5, (1 the lowest, 5 the highest). This is completely optional and people can use whatever criteria or rationale they wish. If I get enough ratings to make it worthwhile, I will tabulate them. Decimals are allowed. Everyone has their own system for grading, and that’s fine. You can grade, as it suits you, in the context of: -all music that exists -all music in one’s own collection -just the music of this particular artist -just this particular period of this artist’s career My own system applies whichever thread I’m posting in, it’s always the same: 1: I detest it 2: I can tolerate it 3: I like it 4: I really like it 5: It’s a classic. (I personally don’t use decimals).
For some reason I missed your tag. I'll chime in as often as I can! I am mainly familiar with the musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. I had some friends who were in a production of that (back thirty years ago) and I loved the music so much I saw every single performance of it, had a tape made of it. It was truly special and featured Nedra Dixon, who is a great Kansas City area jazz singer who one of my professors was married to. I loved the lyrics. If they are poorly translated, I didn't know!
Surely doing it on a site like this, for educational purposes, where nobody is really making money from it would be OK.
Today’s song is Il y a (“There Is”), written by Jacques Brel and Lou Logist Credits (from Discogs.com): Accompanied By Lou Logist and his Orchestra Accordion – Lou Logist Bass – Julien Maclot Guitar – Marcel Mortier Vocals – Jacques Brel In the CD booklet of my 2003 box set the arrangement is credited to Glen Powell (real name Félix-Robert Faecq). Recorded on the 7th of February 1953 Issued in Belgium in March 1953 by Philips on 78 rpm only, only 250 copies pressed. This record is an elusive collector’s item, the only Jacques Brel record released prior to his move to Paris. The song and its other side “La foire” were not re-released in any form until 1988, when the first “Intégrale” (Complete Works) CD box set was released. It did not survive for long in his repertoire. Paraphrase: There’s so much fog in the ports in the morning that there aren’t any girls in the sailors’ hearts. There are so many clouds that there aren’t any birds. There’s so much work that there isn’t any joy. There are so many streams and rivers that there aren’t any graveyards. There are so many lights in the streets that there are no scared children. There are so many stained glass windows, so many church towers that there are no voices telling us to love. There are so many canals crossing the ground that there aren’t any wrinkles on the faces of mothers. (chorus) But there is so much blue in the eyes of my love, there is so much life in her eyes. There is a little eternity in her hair and so much joy on her lip.
Il y a A pretty song, which gives no hint whatever of what is to come. But Brel is already singing well. I enjoy the odd (seeming) non sequitur* amid the clichés. I am happy to live at a time when this recording is freely available to hear rather than a secret treasure for fortunate collectors. 3/5 *The “non sequitur” might be a failure of my translation.
