Jacques Brel - Olympia: 61 & 64
List Price:
Our Price: $11.73
You Save: $6.25 (35%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.96 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Jacques BrelEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Music Label: Drg
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Les Prenoms De Paris (Names For Paris)
- Les Bourgeois m(The Middle Class)
- Les Paumes De Petit Matin (The Lost Souls Of Early Morning)
- Les Flamandes (Flemish Women)
- La Statue (The Statue)
- Zangra
- Marieke
- Les Biches [argot: prostitutes] (The Does)
- Madeleine
- Les Singes (The Ape)
- L'Ivrogne (The Drunk)
- La Valse A Mille Temps (The Waltz A Thousand Times As Fast)
- Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don't Leave Me)
- Le Moribond (The Dying Man)
- Quand On N'a Que L'Amour (When We Have Only Love)
- Amsterdam
- Les Timides (The Timid People)
- Le Dernier Repas (The Last Supper)
- Les Jardins De Casino (The Casino Gardens)
- Les Vieux (The Old People)
- Les Toros (The Bulls)
- Le Tango Funebre (The Funeral Tango)
- Le Plat Pays (The Flat Lands)
- Les Bonbons (Candies)
- Mathilde
- Les Bigotes (The Bigoted Church Ladies)
- Les Bourgeois (Middle Class People)
- Jef
- Au Suirvant (Next)
- Madeleine
Music reviews of Olympia: 61 & 64
Music Review: 8 Brel Treasures among 30 songs sung Live at the Olympia, with English translations!
Rating: 5 Stars
Great English translations and liner notes courtesy of Amazon.com reviewer Thelma F. Blitz highlight this new release.
After performing in the cabarets of Paris and touring small town venues for 11 years, Brel finally got the chance to perform at the top venue of the concert tour world in France, the legendary Olympia Theatre in Paris. This live performance of 1961 was a smashing success and launched Brel as a major star to be reckoned with in the French speaking world. The demand for Brel concerts soared, and before long he was booking up to 300 performances a year. In 1964 he returned to the Olympia for another huge concert success, followed up the next year with an electrifying concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. We are indeed fortunate that the Brel Foundation with DRG Records have seen fit to remaster and re-release Brel's 1961 and 1964 live concerts at the Olympia for our enjoyment.
One can certainly hope that DRG Records will also release Brel's Carnegie Hall performance on CD or better yet on DVD in the next year or two!
These 2 CDs contains 30 songs total, of which 8 are among the greatest, most dramatic, poetic and beautiful chansons ever written by the fantastic Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel.
If you are using Jacques Brel songs to help you study French as I do, you might want to pick up a book of all his original French lyrics, such as "L'Oeuvre Integrale" (ISBN: 2221088492) or "Tout Brel" (ISBN: 2264033711). In addition, buy the Infiniment 2-CD set published by DRG Records (ASIN: B0002PUHGU) in 2004 to get wonderful (but abridged) translations into English of 40 Brel songs created by Amazon.com reviewer Thelma F. Blitz.
"Les Prenoms De Paris" (Names For Paris) is a terrific, light-hearted song about being young and in love in Paris. It is rarely included in Brel's other albums, so its presence here makes just one more good reason to buy this CD.
"Marieke" is a nostalgic song about a first love that played out on the beaches of Belgium one summer in his college years. It alternates charmingly between Flemish and French, the two national languages of Belgium.
"L'Ivrogne" (The Drunk) finds a man drinking in a bar while recounting all the sad stories that drove him to drink over the years. By the end of the song his manner has changed and the tempo speeds up as the alcohol takes effect, elevating his mood and rejuvenating his spirits.
"Ne Me Quitte Pas" (Don't Leave Me) is Brel's most famous torch song, in which he uses exquisite imagery to press his suit with a girl who has already left him, descending in the end into abject desperation as he struggles to maintain a link, any link at all, with the object of his love. Frank Sinatra was moved to sing an English version of this song ("If you go away"), which unfortunately doesn't do justice to the stunning poetry of the French original. This is my favorite song of the entire Jacques Brel repertoire because of the power and the haunting beauty of the lyrics, Brel's impassioned voice and the evocative music!
"Quand On N'a Que L'Amour" (When We Have Only Love) is Brel's quintessential theme song (circa 1960) for idealistic young lovers who believe that love conquers all, in stark contrast to Brel's later more jaded songs, ranging from "Le Prochain Amour" (not on this CD) in 1961 to "La Chanson des Vieux Amants" (Song of the Old Lovers, also not on this CD) in 1967. "Quand On N'a Que L'amour" strikes a similar tone of optimism as another Brel song, "Au Printemps", which is also not included in this collection.
"Amsterdam" is one of Brel's most famous songs. It's about the sailors who disembark in this Dutch port and how they deal with the vicissitudes of their lonely lives and the dreams that haunt them once they reach the shore.
"Les Vieux" (The Old People), evokes a ticking clock as a metaphor for the passage of time. It paints a grim portrait of life in the twilight years, set to the beat of a grandfather clock, a triangle and a small orchestra.
"Le Plat Pays" (The Flat Country) is Brel's nostalgic homage to his home country of Belgium, sung with great affection in French and Flemish, the two national languages of Belgium. Although he grew up in Belgium, he spent nearly his entire musical career in Paris, France.
Other highly recommended Jacques Brel CDs you can find on Amazon.com include:
Title (ASIN#) No. of Songs
Infiniment (B0002PUHGU) 40 songs with wonderful English translations
Quand on N'a Que L'amour (B00000IYC9) 49 songs
Ne Me Quitte Pas (B0000AKOLJ) 11 songs
Vol. 1-Special Edition (ASIN: B000042OFF) 16 songs
Les Flamandes (B000006UOA) 21 songs
Les Bonbons (B0000AKOLD) 14 songs
Ballades Et Mots D'amour (B00003Q56T) 30 songs
Master Series: Jacques Brel (B0000046O5) 16 songs
Volume 1 - Grand Jacques (B00000DXQY) 15 songs including "Sur La Place"
Grand Jacques Integrale 172 Titres (B000025BD8) 172 songs (10-CD set)
What's even more fabulous than the CDs, however, is the 3 volume DVD set released in 2003: Jacques Brel: Comme quand on etait beau. (ASIN: B0000AQJPR). The set includes 7.5 hours of live and staged performances as well as interviews and home video footage. Everything that the heart of a Jacques Brel fan desires to capture the essence of this very theatrical artist in a way that an audio-only recording can not.
Also of great interest: the VHS video "Jacques Brel" (ASIN: B0001P1XG4), a video biography on the life and music of Jacques Brel. This full length documentary features extensive live footage and interviews with Brel himself as well as his daughter and associates. It is also available on DVD, but only from Films Media Group.
Broadway & Vocalists CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Broadway & Vocalists CDs
George Shearing, Mel Torme - Elegant EveningSHEARING,G/TORME,M; Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $6.39
Price in other shops:
Stan Getz - Spring Is HereRelease date: 1993-01-11; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Rosemary Clooney - Girl SingerRelease date: 1999-04-01; Music CD
Best price: $8.97
Price in other shops:
The Blenders - NogRelease date: 1998-10-20; Music CD
Best price: $8.77
Price in other shops:
Brave Combo, Tiny Tim - GirlTIM,TINY/BRAVE COMB; Release date: 1996-03-19; Music CD
Best price: $15.06
Price in other shops:
Belleville a Cappella Choir - Southern Journey, Vol. 11: Honor The Lamb - The Belleville A Cappella ChoirRelease date: 1998-02-10; Music CD
Best price: $84.05
Diane Schuur - Love SongsRelease date: 1993-05-11; Music CD
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
![Love Is the Thing [Vinyl] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
Nat King Cole - Love Is the Thing [Vinyl]Release date: 1996-11-19; Music CD
Best price: $169.99
Linda Ronstadt - Linda Ronstadt: Greatest HitsRelease date: 1998-01-13; Music CD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
Buddy Rich, Sammy Davis Jr - Sounds of 66Release date: 1996-09-17; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
James Brown - Live at the Apollo 1962Release date: 2004-03-23; Music CD
Best price: $2.63
Price in other shops:
Faust - Faust IVFAUST; Release date: 2007-09-18; Music CD
Best price: $9.71
Price in other shops:
Joan Baez - Joan BaezBAEZ,JOAN; Release date: 2001-08-14; Music CD
Best price: $10.43
Price in other shops:
Madeleine Peyroux - Careless LovePEYROUX,MADELEINE; Release date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $10.74
Price in other shops:
Call of the ValleyRelease date: 1995-08-01; Music CD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
Jacques Brel: Adieux a l'Olympia, Vol. 1Release date: 2006-02-13; DVD
Best price: $10.46
Price in other shops:
Tito Puente - Dance ManiaRelease date: 1991-08-22; Music CD
Best price: $3.10
Price in other shops:
Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960WATERS,MUDDY; Release date: 2001-02-27; Music CD
Best price: $2.80
Price in other shops:
Elly Stone, Mort Shuman - Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1966 Original Off-Broadway Cast)Release date: 2002-05-28; Music CD
Best price: $6.29
Price in other shops:
Jacques Brel - Infiniment (Reis)Release date: 2004-09-21; Music CD
Best price: $12.83
Price in other shops: