Jacques Brel

J'adore Jacques Brel. Ik hou van Jacques Brel.

Ever heard Dusty Springfield sing If You Go Away? Or Nina Simone sing The Desperate Ones? Or Bowie sing Amsterdam? Or Seasons in the Sun? They’re all songs by the greatest Belgian singer and songwriter there is: Jacques Brel. Half the big names of twentieth century have covered his songs, and you will know a great many of them.

He was a French-speaking Flemish, a poet in both languages as much as a musician. Thus we have great classics like Marieke, about a Flemish girl who lives between the tours of Bruges and Ghent, and written in both languages:

Ay Marieke Marieke je t'aimais tant
Entre les tours de Bruges et Gand
Ay Marieke Marieke il y a longtemps
Entre les tours de Bruges et Gand

Zonder liefde warme liefde
Waait de wind de stomme wind
Zonder liefde warme liefde
Weent de zee de grijze zee

The French is beautiful, the Dutch like a magic spell.

He makes the French language shimmer. Take this for instance:

Quand on n'a que l'amour
Pour vivre nos promesses
Sans nulle autre richesse
Que d'y croire toujours

Quand on n'a que l'amour
Pour meubler de merveilles
Et couvrir de soleil
La laideur des faubourgs

My translation: when all we have is love to live out our promises, and no other reward than to believe in them; when all we have is love to furnish with marvels and cover with sunlight, the drudgery of the suburbs.

The man was a literary and musical genius. When his death was announced, the American artist Rodney McKuen who had covered a load of his songs, said he locked himself in his bedroom and drank for a week. I can understand. Brel’s songs taught me French in a way that A Levels and a French law degree could never have.

I think my favourite songs - bordering on sentimental but exquisitely written - are Voir un Ami Pleurer, La Chanson des Vieux Amants and Orly. Perhaps I ought also to mention La Chanson de Jacky (which was covered by Scott Walker in an awkward translation and by Marc Almond), reminding me as it does my my late, great best friend Jackie taken from us, as the song predicts, too early but with great fanfare.

Jacques Brel. I love / j’adore / ik hou van Jacques Brel.