Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel (1929-1978) was Belgium's most famous and influential singer. Together with Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré he is considered to be one of the Big Three of the French music genre Chanson. He is widely admired for his deeply human, passionate but also cynical and satirical songs. Several of his songs have been become classics: "Ne Me Quitte Pas", "Le Plat Pays", "Les Bourgeois", "Le Moribond", "Marieke", "Les Flamandes", "Le Chanson de Jacky", "La Valse A Mille Temps",...

Brel came from a Flemish bourgeoisie family. He had a dull youth in the shadow of the Catholic Church and narrow minded civilians. His early work was rather naive and preachy and in Paris people ridiculed his Belgian accent. Brel then changed his style by switching over to more mature subject matter and a standard French pronunciation. This made him a success both in his own country and soon in the entire world. Despite often referring to his fatherland Brel's music is both timeless and universal. He is probably the closest Belgium ever came to a masterful lyricist of international stature à la Bob Dylan. His native French tongue made his songs a bit more difficult to understand for other languages, but luckily his work has been Covered Up by artists as varied as Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Scott Walker and David Bowie. Most music fans in the English speaking world will known him from Terry Jacks' Translated Cover Version "Seasons in the Sun", which is a sappy English cover of Brel's powerful "Le Moribond".

Brel was full of energy. The singer gave wild concerts where he performed each number with both passionate drama as exaggerated comedy. After the show he never went home straight away, but instead stayed up in the local bars until the early morning light. Even during plane flights to concerts, when he claimed to be relaxing, he used the time to write new songs! Brel abruptly quit giving concerts in 1966 and then switched to new challenges. He played a part in a stage musical, starred and directed in a few films and for the remainder of his life he travelled over the ocean to Tahiti. In 1977 he unexpectedly returned to Belgium to record one final album. A year later the chain smoker died at the age of only 49.

Despite his wide acclaim the singer is still frowned upon in certain circles. He frequently used women, the Church, Flemings and the Bourgeoisie as Acceptable Targets. So people may either Love It or Hate It.

"Moi je t'offrirai/ Des perles de pluies/ Venues de pays/ Ou il ne pleut pas
 * Age Progression Song: "Zangra", "Mon Enfance", "Au Suivant", "Les Vieux", "Vieillir", "Les Bourgeois", "Rosa, Rosa, Rosa",...
 * Anti-Love Song: In some of Brel's songs ("Madeleine","Les Bonbons", "Mathilde",...) women are dangerous seducers or just ruthlessly take advantage of men. He cherished male friendships more than romances with females in his songs, even telling his depressed friend Jef in "Jef" to cheer up and go to a brothel with him, where new girls have just arrived.
 * Bilingual Bonus:
 * His song "Marieke" is part Dutch, part French. At his own request the Dutch part is left intact when other artists cover the song.
 * Brel also covered a few of his French language songs in Dutch.
 * In his scathing anti-Flemish nationalistic song "Les F..." Brel sings: "Et quand des Chinois cultivés me demande d' où que je suis, je réponds fatigués et avec des larmes sous dents: "Ik ben van Luxembourg". ("And when cultivated Chinese ask me from where I from, I respond tired and with tears between my teeth: "I am from Luxemburg".)
 * Badass Boast:
 * In "Les F..." Brel launches a scathing attack on the "flamingants" (Flemish-nationalists) and concludes his vitriolic comments with the declaration: "Et si mes frères se taisent et bien tant pis pour elles/Je chante persiste et signe je m'appelle Jacques Brel" ("And if my brothers remain silent, well, to hell with them/I stick to what I sing and sign "My name is Jacques Brel.")
 * Blasphemous Boast: Brel sang a lot of them
 * In "Le Dernier Repas" he sings that before he dies he wants to shout out "Dieu est mort!" ("God is dead!") one more time.
 * In "Le Chanson de Jacky" the final verse boasts that even when he is in Heaven with God and his angels he will still be doing what he wants to do, "beautiful and stupid" at the same time.
 * In "Dites" Brel talks about religious faith and summarizes many questionable elements with the expression "if it's true". He concludes the song with the stinger that "that all of it is beautiful if you believe... that it's true."
 * Boomerang Bigot: Brel was a Belgian who spoke French and would technically be considered a Walloon. Yet he always identified himself as Flemish, even though he seldom spoke Dutch in real life and always kept a love-hate relationship with the Flemish people. He sang three controversial songs in which the Flemish are brutally mocked and the song "Les F..." was even banned from radio airplay in Flanders back in 1978. In this song Brel even sings that when cultivated Chinese ask him his country of origin, he simply lies that he's from Luxembourg (albeit not without tears between his teeth).
 * Chanson One of the most famous examples of this genre.
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Brel hates school in the song "Rosa, Rosa, Rosa", but is very interested in the girl Rosa.
 * Coming of Age Story: "Mon Enfance"
 * Corrupt Church
 * Did Not Do the Research: In "Les F..." claims that Flemish nationalists were "Nazis during the wars and catholics in between". Even though a lot of Flemish nationalists collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, the Walloons collaborated as well. The Walloon Léon Degrelle of the REX party even lead the Belgian-German collaboration.
 * Double Entrendre: His lyrics sometimes had double meanings, which are sometimes overlooked by non-French speakers.
 * Example: "Nous étions deux amies et la Fanette m' amait" ("We were two lovers and La Fanette loved me") in the song "La Fanette" changes its meaning in the final part by only changing one letter in the entire sentence: "... la Fanette l' amait" ("... la Fanette loved him.")
 * Drunken Song:
 * "La Bière" is an Ode to Intoxication.
 * "Les Paumès Du Petit Main" sings about pathetic and lonely drunks late at night.
 * Dying Alone: "La Ville S' Endormait"
 * A Friend in Need: A lot of Brel's songs deal with strong male friendships and how he wants to help and comfort them thru bad times.
 * In "Voir Un Ami Pleurer" Brel sings how he can stand a lot of human dramas, but not a friend who is crying.
 * In "Jef" he tries to comfort a depressed friend called Jef.
 * "Jojo" is a passionate homage to a personal friend of Brel who had recently died.
 * Flashback Nightmare: In "Au Suivant" a former soldier is haunted by Recurring Dreams of a visit to a prostitute while he was doing his military service. He lost his virginity there and got the clap, but worst of all he was more or less forced to do it as quickly as possible while waiting in line with all the other soldiers.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * In "Au Suivant" Brel sings explicitly about a young soldier who is traumatized since he lost his virginity to a prostitute while waiting in line with other soldiers. Brel even states that he caught the clap!
 * In "Amsterdam" Brel sings about sailors in Amsterdam who visits prostitutes.
 * In "Jef" he tries to cheer up Jef by telling him that "at Madame Andrée they have new ones." Which is a thinly disguised reference to a brothel.
 * Grandparental Obliviousness: "Les Vieux"
 * Greatest Hits: Lots!
 * Grief Song: "Fernand", "Jojo"
 * Growing Up Sucks: Songs like "Mon Enfance", "Rosa" and "Il Neige Sur Liège" mourn over the end of all the dreams and illusions the protagonist once had as a kid.
 * Grow Old with Me: "Le Chanson des Vieux Amants"
 * Karmic Transformation: The three students in "Les Bourgeois" sing how they hate the bourgeoisie, but near the end of the song they have grown old and became part of the bourgeoisie themselves. In a case of Hypocritical Humour they now complain themselves that they are ridiculed by sassy college students.
 * Large Ham: If you thought that the only good edible things coming from Belgium were chocolates, beer and waffles, think again because Brel could ham it up magnificently whenever he wanted to. Like in this rendition of "Amsterdam".
 * Last Request: "Le Dernier Repas"
 * List Song: "Ces Gens-Là", "Je Suis Un Soir D'Eté", "Vésoul"
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: "Jef", "Marieke","Jojo", "Jacky", Germaine in "Les Bonbons", all the people in "Ces Gens-Là" en "Je Suis Un Soir D' Eté"''
 * In "Orly" Brel is at an airport surrounded by a crowd of people, but yet he only observes two young lovers, caught in their own personal tragedy.
 * Lonely Funeral: "Fernand", "Jojo", "La Ville s' Endormait"
 * Manly Tears:
 * In "Jef" Brel tries to cheer up his depressed friend and tells him to wipe away his tears.
 * In "Voir Un Ami Pleurer" Brel sings that he cannot stand the sight of a friend crying.
 * In "Les F..." Brel lies about being Flemish with tears between his teeth.
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: At the start of his career Brel was ridiculed for his Brussels accent by other Frenchmen. He took diction lessons until he spoke very clear standard French. Yet Brel never mastered the Dutch language and even when he recorded a few Dutch cover versions of his original French language songs his French accent is very clear. Brel was assisted by Dutch speech coach and translator Ernst Van Altena, but struggled so much thru certain Dutch words that he simply gave up.
 * Patter Song: The conclusion of the studio version of "Une Valse à Mille Temps", which has to be heard to be believed. Even during concerts he was unable to match the speed of this studio delivery.
 * Protest Song: Several, often a case of Take That !
 * Patriotic Fervor: "Le Plat Pays", a moving ballad about his "flat homecountry".
 * Please Don't Leave Me: The message of "Ne Me Quitte Pas".
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Les Flamandes", "Les F..., F..., F..." and "Les F...", all targeting the Flemish (nationalists) in Belgium. Brel thought he had a right to criticize his own people, even though he mostly spoke French instead of Dutch.
 * Romantic Hyperbole: "Ne me quitte pas" (Don't leave me) has a number of line about what the singer would do to keep their lover. Unlike other songs where this is considered completely romantic, this one is more about how the despair associated with losing love would make you do really desperate things. One example among many:

"I will bring you pearls of rain from countries where there is no rain.""


 * Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: In "Ces Gens-Là" Brel imitates a tragic family eating soup by making slurping sounds.
 * Take That!: The Church, the Bourgeoisie, the Flemish and women were his most prominent targets.
 * In "Orly" Brel sings that it is sad to be at the Orly airport, with or without Bécaud. This is a sarcastic jab at singer Gilbert Bécaud's romantic song "Dimanche à Orly" ("Sunday at Orly").
 * The White Prince: Sort-of. His family had the money, but his and his brother Pierre grew in a rather strict and austere environment.
 * Throwaway Country: In "Mon Père Disait" he sings how his father told him that London is just a piece of the town Bruges, Belgium that long ago floated away on sea and then got attached to England.
 * Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The song "Jaurés" asks the rhetoric question why the French socialist Jean Jaurés was murdered back in 1914, despite his good nature.
 * You Are What You Hate: Brel was often fiercely critical of the Flemish and especially Flemish-nationalists. Yet he always considered himself to be Flemish, since he was born in Menen and raised by Flemish parents, even though he spoke French and his knowledge of the Dutch language was always rusty.