Jacques Brel and Jack L

Today, 8 April, would have been the birthday of Belgian-born singer-songwriter, actor/director Jacques Brel. He died in 1978 from lung cancer, aged 49.

French, or French language, vocalists tend to be an acquired taste for some of us - like anchovies. I'm not much of a Francophile myself, so I'm one who didn't acquire the taste, doesn't manage to access the right wavelength for Brel's own passionate, dark and rather ragged-sounding versions of his angry or sorrowful songs.....though I can understand what critics of English versions are getting at. If, as purists and snobs say, the songs lose something in translation, it doesn't matter, because in the hands of a gifted song translator they can, sung well, still shine in a different, more generally accessible way.

Mort Shuman and Eric Blau, two translators of Brel's work, were responsible for introducing Jacques Brel to audiences in the USA. They created a revue, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, comprising translations of his songs. It opened off-Broadway in January 1968. Poet Rod McKuen translated some of Brel's songs too. Artists too numerous to mention here have recorded English translations, most popular have been: Jacky, The Port of Amsterdam, If You Go Away, and Seasons in the Sun. English translation of the latter is particularly detested by Francophiles because it loses the original thrust of the song whose French title was Le Moribond.

A few vocalists seem to have felt special affinity to Brel, I've mentioned one of these in an archived post : Scott Walker (see HERE). Marc Almond discovered the Brel influence and recorded a full album of his songs. I came across another another Brel aficionado during my wander through YouTube: Irish vocalist Jack Lukeman also known as just "Jack L" (get it?) This was a new name to me, but he's a super vocalist - I'll be acquiring some of his CDs - he ought to be better known!

Jack L IS known to frequenters of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, the Glastonbury Festival in England, and has performed in the Royal Albert Hall in London. He has sung with some big name stars from both sides of the Atlantic yet somehow has slipped through the music industry's cracks in the USA. He has an enthusiastic bevy of fans in his native Ireland, with several CD and DVD releases to his name. According to commenters at YouTube his stage performances are something to behold; he is, apparently a born showman as well as a superb and emotional vocalist. In 2003 Lukeman performed a record breaking run of 35 shows in Dublin with the songs of Jacques Brel, "Chez Jack L".




Of Brel himself it was said that: "...to see Jacques Brel perform live was an extraordinary experience....it was indescribable. ........... What was it exactly about Brel that could have this effect on audiences? Apparently, it didn't even matter whether you understood his French lyrics or not. The music cast its spell and the truth of his performance took you somewhere. Songs with themes of love, cities, streets, smells, drugs, war, loss, death, broken dreams . . . all with raw human emotion. Songs with stories, wit, pathos, tragedy – and always, the human condition . . . but never forgetting that life, with all its complexities, shows us much humor."
(See HERE)

By the way, she said donning her amateur astrologer's hat, Jack Lukeman has Sun in Aquarius with Sun in exact trine to Uranus (born 11 February 1973). Jacques Brel, with Sun in Aries had Mercury conjunct Uranus (Aquarius's ruling planet), so there's a clear astrological link - perhaps reflecting Jack L's feelings of affinity with Jacques Brel's music?

Possibly best known of all Brel songs was Ne me quitte pas (literally translated: "Don't Leave Me"). Rod McKuen's English translation, titled If You Go Away is less angst-ridden than the original, lending itself to a more melodic but still emotional rendition. Ne me quitte pas was written in 1959 allegedly after Brel's mistress "Zizou" left him. She was pregnant with his child, but he refused to acknowledge he was the father. Zizou had the child aborted. Brel said, in interview years later, that the song is not a love song, but is about the cowardice of men.

First, a version by the composer himself, then Jack L's interpretation, which I think is is one of the best, if not THE best (even including Sinatra's - and for me to say that is very unusual!)





Just as a passing thought, having listened to many other versions of that song via YouTube, I wondered why there's none with a jazzy leaning. I could easily imagine a gorgeous Miles Davis or Johnny Hodges-type solo, mid-track, the melody seems to cry out for something like that. I found Helen Merrill's very nice rendition of the song with a solo by Stan Getz at the beginning. Other than that, there's a version by Acker Bilk, but not on You Tube. It can be heard HERE - by clicking on "play".



Two good articles on Jacques Brel are:
HERE and
HERE.
Jack Lukeman's official website is HERE.

Music Monday ~ Scott Walker ~ Jacques Brel ~"Cute in a stupid-ass way"

Who remembers Scott Walker, once of The (non-fraternal) Walker Brothers? Perhaps he's better known in the UK than in his native USA. My husband, who has usually heard of even the most obscure artists from the 1960s, doesn't recall this one, who is (or was) a household name in Britain.

Scott Walker, real name Scott Engel, is US-born, to German parents. His sensibilities do seem to be more in tune with those on the other side of the Atlantic. Much of his career, and all of his successes have been in Britain and Europe. He has lived in the UK for more than 40 years.








I remember him, and his gorgeous voice, very well.

Although he is of the same generation as the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and was in at the start of the whole rock and roll shindig, as well as the crazy psychedelic period, he seems never to have been bitten by either bug. He remained aloof from it all, following Thoreau's famous advice: If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Scott Walker seemed more like a throw-back to past decades, more akin to Sinatra, Jack Jones and other crooners than to his contemporary rockers.....yet he was different, even from the standard crooners.
He heard the sound of Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (right) early on, and was smitten.

In his "Brel-period" he recorded English translations of some of Brel's best songs, making them far more accessible to the English ear, and for me, doing a better job than the songs' originator. (I should run and hide from Brel fans for saying so.) To listen to Jacques Brel singing, for any length of time, I'd need to be in a dimly-lit, sleazy Paris bar... and "feeling no pain".

Most of Scott's albums indicate that he has been drawn to some rather odd and depressing subject matter, concentrating heavily on the darker side of life, and death. Melancholia and gloom pervade his atmosphere, yet still it's not unpleasant, in a cry-in-your-beer kind of way. His smooth voice WAS very moorish.

After British successes with The Walker Brothers and some solo success, life in the spotlight became too much for Scott. He found relief in a monastery at one point, later remaining a virtual recluse for many years. He re-appeared in the mid 1990s with some even odder material than before (detailed in Wikipedia's page), upon which I'll not linger, other than to note that his three most recent albums, Climate of the Hunter; Tilt; and Drift have been categorised as "art rock, experimental or Baroque pop". In 2006 a documentary film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man premiered.



My best memory of Scott Walker will always be his English version of Brel's Jackie (video below).



Does his natal chart indicate his somewhat enigmatic nature, his taste for the morbid, or downright strange, in music? Is there an astrological link to Jacques Brel perhaps?



What stands out for me: Grand trine in Air signs which he shares with many of his age group (including moi). In Scott's case the generational trine between Neptune and Uranus links to personal planets Mercury and Venus in Aquarius - connecting this Airy circuit of mavericky creativity to art and communication, so it becomes extra- specially relevant in his personality and in his music.

Sun in Capricorn reflects a serious nature, though not necessarily morbid, or reclusive. To pinpoint that side of Scott's nature we go back to the Grand Trine and note that Saturn lay conjunct Uranus as he was born, and Pluto lay in opposition to Mercury/Venus. The presence of these two potential dampers (Saturn and Pluto) on an otherwise positive configuration explains Scott's early retreat from the spotlight, and his draw to darker, melancholic themes. While Saturn/Uranus conjoined explains how Scott's music can be categorised by the opposing terms "experimental" and "Baroque" (as at Wikipedia). Saturn hooked up to Uranus -the old hooked up to the new!

Watery Pisces Moon and Cancer rising underscore a deeply emotional and sensitive character, which I think can be seen from his young face, and sensed from many of his vocals.

As for an astrological link to Jacques Brel, it can be found in Brel's ascendant - 9 degrees Aquarius, very close to Scott's Mercury/Venus; and in their common Pisces Moon.

Excerpt: (BBC originally banned the song due to these and other lyrics)

My name would then be handsome Jack
And I'd sell boats of opium
Whisky that came from Twickenham
Authentic queers
And phony virgins
If I had banks on every finger
A finger in every country
And every country ruled by me
I'd still know where I'd want to be
Locked up inside my opium den
Surrounded by some china men
I'd sing the song that I sang then
About the time they called me "Jacky"

If I could be for only an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
Cute in a stupid ass way

And Scott with another Jacques Brel song, Amsterdam