Scott Walker - Sings Jacques Brel
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Artist: Scott WalkerEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2009-03-17
Music Label: Fontana Int'l
Soundtracks:
- Mathilde
- Amsterdam
- Jackie
- My Death
- Next
- The Girls And The Dogs
- If You Go Away
- Funeral Tango
- Sons Of
Music reviews of Sings Jacques Brel
Music Review: Some thoughts on Scott Walker and Jacques Brel
Rating: 5 Stars
After reading all the comments, I thought I'd add some, taking the other comments into consideration. I think the point about translations is well taken, but (since I do understand French), many of these songs could not be translated more closely to the French for an English speaking audience without, in some cases, a lot of confusion.
Some topics of the original songs would baffle or simply seem odd for English speaking audiences - best example is "We're Not Alone", (not on this album, but in the musical) which is, in the original French, basically a wino giving moral support and a pep talk to another wino by encouraging him with images of eating French fries and visiting whores. "Marathon" is about dancing Flemish and their lives. Hmmmm... I think it loses something in the translation. One of the few Brel songs that is virtually identical in English as in French (not on this recording, nor in the musical), is what I believe to be one of the most universally despised songs of all times: Seasons in the Sun. It is as annoying in French as it is in English. For those who do not speak French, don't believe that all of Brel's lyrics are transcendent. Some were definitely not.
I agree that some of the translations are a little bland, but you have to take into consideration the melody and rhythm changes in substituting English for French, the fluidity of French compared to the often more percussive sound of English, "oublie" vs "forget" for example, and just the obscurity of some of the original imagery. "If You Go Away" is simply "Don't leave me" in French, followed by a rather complex series of lyrics about forgetting all there is to forget of things that have come to pass and includes some images about kings and queens and covering your body in gold (yikes!), which I think would sound horribly corny and pretentious in English. By the way, "If You Go Away" was translated by Rod McCuen, not Shuman and Blau. It's a song that, in its simple manner, it does capture the plaintive, hopeless, desperate essence of the original. Maybe better translations could be made, but this is what we're stuck with. Some bad, some good.
The great exception to the translation problem is "Next", which I think is not only a great translation, but Scott Walker's version is the best I have heard - serious and powerful, not sardonic and self mocking as it's usually performed in the musical. And his "Jackie" has a humor to it without the silliness of the "Alive and Well..." original cast recording (which I think is pretty awful compared to other live performances of the musical that I have seen).
I've listened to all of the Brel songs on this recording, by Brel, and in some cases, a few different arrangements of those. Brel's recordings of his songs are more intimate and minimally orchestrated, more in keeping with a French cabaret style. I love them, partly because of their simplicity, but also the melodies and imagery. But, it doesn't necessarily follow that to LOVE Brel, one must reject anything other than that the "Real Thing".
As far as the arrangements on this recording, OK - they're not cabaret. It doesn't mean that the songs do not translate, musically, to more fully orchestrated pieces. It just moves some of these songs, as did the musical, into a different genre. I think the music is strong enough to survive the shift; more brittle songs could not handle this full orchestration.
I've been a fan of Scott Walker for almost his entire career. His voice can be subtle and huge at the same time and he has control that is absent in most contemporary singers. His recordings of Brel required a fairly radical move on the part of someone, who was, up to that point, mainly a pop singer. This compilation reflects a move away from the pop genre, but not yet the leap that he's now made. I'm just glad that his Brel works introduced me (at a relatively young age - 13 or 14) to an entire world of music that I would have not likely had access without his recordings.
Description of Sings Jacques Brel
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