After catching rock doc Scott Walker: 30th Century Man at the Nuart a while back, and more recently reading this article on the always illuminating A.V. Club site, I now find myself in the middle of a total Jacques Brel phase. Not exactly healthy. At this point, I’m maybe one or two chansons away from quitting my job and moving to Paris, where I’ll spend days dissatisfiedly chain-smoking in a cafe by the Seine and nights drinking wine in squalid hotels, possibly with prostitutes. Ah, c’est la vie.
Such is the lifestyle implied in Brel’s bittersweet existential musings, expressed in a world-weary baritone and accompanied by exquisitely florid orchestration. Even if your French, like mine, doesn’t extend past oui and non and voulez-vous couchez avec moi, the music will draw you in with its…je ne sais quois. And if you absolutely have to find out what Brel’s songs are all about, you can always listen to Scott Walker’s equally broody English-language interpretations. Here’s Brel vs. Walker with “Jackie” (“La Chanson De Jacky”):
Love it. It’s like the two of them are competing in a Melodramatic-Off. Who wins? Everyone.
