Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel – Jacques Brel

Barclay, 1966

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007

Price: $4



I don’t really know why I think Jacques Brel is so handsome. He looks kind of like a Neanderthal, but when he has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth he looks like Humphrey Bogart or something. That and he sings like some sort of French angel. I can tell that this is a French copy of the record by the way the spine label is upside down, because for some reason (with books and records) the French think it is funny to do that. It took me forever to find when this record came out, and I found it as I was listening to If You Go Away, which I thought came first, but I was wrong. So, my Jacques Brel story is in the next entry. The story is every time I see a Jacques Brel record for under $6 I buy it because I have a weird obsession with French pop that stems back to about ten years ago. I actually really don’t like this record that much, not as much as Jacques Brel is Alive and Singing in Paris. It’s a very strange, almost frantic record. At times it sounds like he’s scream-singing, which makes me think of the birth of French screamo or something, which is totally inappropriate. He refrences Garcia-Lorca in “Les Toros,” and I kind of wish I could read the lyrics to this because that seems odd.

1 comment:

  1. Just to make something clear : Brel wasn't french, but belgian.
    But he was kind of handsome, yes you can say it, one of the greatest singer ever to me. Scott Walker and David Bowie did great covers.

    But one, less famous, and maybe not even declared, is that one you might know, by Black Box Recorder of the song "Le Moribond".
    Here's brel's one : http://www.deezer.com/track/1147227 -there's a kind of pop version too.
    Here is a Beirut's one live : http://www.deezer.com/track/936468
    but the BBR's one is my favortie (of the covers) because it is really different (even the lyrics, not all) : http://www.deezer.com/track/2927508

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