Jacques Brel

Jaques Brel的代表作有Ne me quitte pas, Amsterdam, Quand on n"a que l"amour等，他的演唱生涯中有曾经有11年的中断，但这丝毫不影响他在人们心中的地位。 　　 Jacques Brel于1929年4月8日生在比利时，在法国扬名，他一生热爱冒险、挑战，个性开朗积极。Jacques Brel不能算是位是美男子，但在战后多是阴柔女歌星唱chanson的主流歌坛中，Jacques Brel和Serge Gainsbourg、Georges Brassens等可以算是当时少数走红的男歌手。 　　 1952年出道前一年，Jacques Brel刚刚才结婚，原本是在家族的纸板工厂工作，但一直想要离开工厂，去当个养鸡人或是补鞋匠（没错，养鸡、补鞋也是可以令人憧憬的工作），只是因为对歌唱有著浓烈的热情，终於还是踏入了歌坛，因著天赋的歌声，从此一鸣惊人，至少在1955年，Jacques Brel就已经是法国知名的流行歌手了。 　　 《Ne me quitte pas》是他在1959年灌的专辑中的一首歌，当时Jacques Brel挟著在法国的高人气，到美国发展歌唱事业，也是大受好评，甚至还有以他为名的舞台剧。1965年12月，Jacques Brel在美国著名的卡内基音乐厅演出。 Jacques Brel成名后，相当用力地去丰富自己的人生，他到南美玻利维亚、北非、加拿大、莫斯科等地巡回演唱，他不仅作曲、唱歌，还演戏、拍电影、学航海，甚至还去学开飞机。 　　 1974年，他45岁了，也许是因为前几年父亲、母亲、兄弟都相继过世，在演艺生涯正值巅峰的时刻，他选择急流勇退，去完成自己长久以来的梦想。Jacques Brel去买了艘19呎、42吨的二桅风力帆船，取了个名字叫“AskoyII”，想要花三年的时间航行环游全世界。 　　 1974年7月他欢欢喜喜的驾著AskoyII从安特卫普（Antwerp）出航，10月医生就宣布他得了肺癌。人生无常，不是吗？Jacques Brel没放弃梦想，他带著控制病情的药物，继续环游世界的旅程，还花了59天带著AskoyII横越太平洋。 　　 1976年，Jacques Brel终于回到布鲁塞尔接受癌症的治疗。 　　 1977年，他抱病发行最后一张专辑，离开歌坛多年，法国人没忘记他，专辑还未正式发售，预售的一万多片就被抢购一空，非常捧场。 1978年，Jacques Brel最后落脚在夏威夷与大溪地间的一个小岛——马克赛（Margesas）岛修养，虽然有碧海蓝天为伴，他病情还是持续恶化，变得越来越虚弱。10月9日，Jacques Brel终于走了，安静地回到上帝的脚边歇息了，他的墓园在马克萨斯群岛中的Hiva Oa岛。
著名诗人作曲家Jacques Brel，最著名的作品是1961年的Seasons In The Sun，1978年10月9日被病魔吞噬死于癌症。
by William Ruhlmann
Singer/songwriter Jacques Brel created and performed a catalog of literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that brought him a large, devoted following in France. His audience eventually extended internationally, making him a major influence on English-speaking writers and performers including Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, while translations of his songs were recorded by a wide range of performers from the Kingston Trio to Frank Sinatra.
Born in Brussels, Belgium, on April 8, 1929, Brel was the son of Romain Brel, who worked in an import-export firm, but later became co-director of a company that manufactured cardboard cartons, and Elisabeth (Lambertine) Brel. He began playing the guitar at the age of 15. After quitting school, he took a job in his fathers plant in August 1947. During this period, he became increasingly interested in music, beginning to perform while a member of a church youth group and starting to write his own songs. In 1952, he first performed on local radio, and in February 1953 he was signed by Philips Records, which released his debut single, La Foire/Il Y A, in March. Its modest success led to professional bookings locally and, soon, a move to Paris, where he built up a following in the clubs. In July 1954, he made his first appearance at the prestigious Olympia Theater in Paris, followed by his first French tour, and at the end of the year Philips released his debut album, a nine-song, 10 LP called Jacques Brel et Ses Chansons. More touring followed, and he achieved a commercial breakthrough in 1956 when his song Quand On NA Pas Que lAmour (later adapted into English as If We Only Have Love), released on an EP, became a hit, reaching number three in the French charts. His subsequent LP releases were Jacques Brel 2 (1957), Jacques Brel 3 (1958), and Jacques Brel 4 (1959).
In 1960, Brel earned a U.S. release with American Début on Columbia Records, a compilation of Philips tracks. In France, he switched from Philips to the recently formed Barclay Records in March 1962, his first LP release for the label being the live album A lOlympia 1962, followed by his first studio album in four years, Jacques Brel Accompagne Pas François Rauber et Son Orchestra. After performing mainly in French-speaking territories, he was becoming a star worldwide and touring internationally much of the year. In February 1963, he made his U.S. performing debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. American poet and singer Rod McKuen began writing English lyrics to Brels songs, and the Kingston Trio recorded Seasons in the Sun, McKuens version of a song Brel had titled Le Moribond, on their Time to Think LP in 1964. That year in France, Jacques Brel, Vol. 6 and another live album, Olympia 64, appeared.
In 1965, Reprise Records licensed tracks from Barclay for a U.S. release called Jacques Brel, and Brel returned to Carnegie Hall on December 4. In 1966, Damita Jo recorded If You Go Away, McKuens version of the Brel composition Ne Me Quitte Pas, and it reached the charts. The wistful song, with its alternating happy and sad lyrics and lush melody, became a pop standard recorded by dozens of singers, including Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Neil Diamond. Also in 1966, Judy Collins put an English-language version of Brels La Colombe (The Dove) on her In My Life album (Joan Baez covered the same song the following year on her album Joan), and Glenn Yarbrough sang The Women (Les Biches) on his LP The Lonely Things. Philips Records, meanwhile, weighed in with an American Brel compilation, The Poetic World of Jacques Brel.
Brel announced his retirement from concert work in 1966, giving a final series of shows in Paris at the Olympia in the fall, but after that he had six months of performances internationally to fulfill. These included appearances in the U.S., where Reprise issued Encore, another compilation drawn from Barclay, and Vanguard Records had Le Formidable Jacques Brel. His last concert came on May 16, 1967. He was not, however, retiring from other kinds of performing: he continued to record, his next LP appropriately being titled Jacques Brel 67 (though it turned out to be his last new studio album for a decade); he starred in his first feature film, the non-musical drama Les Risques du Metièr, before the end of the year (with nine more movies to follow through 1973, some featuring his music); and he also turned to the legitimate stage, translating and taking the leading role in a French production of the American musical Man of la Mancha that opened in Brussels on October 4, 1968, and moved to Paris, where it ran from December until June 1969. (A cast album was released.)
Overseas, meanwhile, his name was given greater prominence by a New York stage production in which he did not appear, an off-Broadway revue of his songs that, keying off of speculation about his decision to stop touring, was called Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. It opened at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village on January 22, 1968. Songwriter Mort Shuman and playwright Eric Blau had translated Brels lyrics more closely than McKuen, conveying in English the pathos and wit of his story-songs, and the effect was overwhelming — the revue played nearly 2,000 performances, becoming one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows in history. Columbia Records released a double-LP box set of the complete show as an original cast album. The revue was revived on Broadway, in 1972 and 1981, and off-Broadway in 2006, and it was turned into a film in 1975, with Brel himself making a cameo appearance. The success of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris increased Brels profile in English-speaking countries. In England, American expatriate Scott Walkers recording of Jackie (aka La Chanson de Jacky) from the show hit the charts the month before the New York opening, reaching the Top 40. (Marc Almonds revival, drawn from his tribute album Jacques, made the British Top 20 in 1991.) Jackie was included on Walkers debut solo LP, Scott, which also featured Brels Mathilde, Amsterdam, and My Death (La Mort), and Walker also put Brel songs on his subsequent albums Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969). Other British Brel fans included David Bowie, who released a version of Amsterdam as a B-side single in 1973 while also performing My Death in concert, and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, which titled an album after Brels song Next (Au Suivant) in 1973. In the U.S., Judy Collins recorded Marieke for her Whales & Nightingales album in 1970; Frank Sinatra put Im Not Afraid (a McKuen lyric for Fils De) on the B-side of a single in 1971; Dionne Warwick scored a chart entry with If We Only Have Love in 1972; and at the end of 1973 Terry Jacks released a revival of Seasons in the Sun that hit number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., followed by a chart entry with his version of If You Go Away.
Brel himself, meanwhile, continued to appear in French films, making his screenwriting and directorial debut with Franz in 1972 and memorably taking his final starring role opposite stone-faced Lino Ventura in Edouard Molinaros 1973 black comedy LEmmerdeur (released in the U.S. with the title A Pain in the A-), which was remade in 1981 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as Buddy Buddy. In July 1974, having bought a yacht, Brel set off on what was intended to be a circumnavigation of the globe. But in October, while in the Canary Islands, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He went to Brussels for an operation to remove part of his left lung. After recovering, he returned to his boat and continued on his journey. In November 1975, he reached the Marquesas Islands, where he decided to stay. He returned to France in July 1977 to record a new album, Brel, issued in November. The LP became a massive hit, reportedly selling 650,000 copies on its first day of release and eventually topping two million copies. Suffering a recurrence of cancer, Brel again returned to France in July 1978 for treatment, but he died three months later at the age of 49. In France, Brels reputation as one of the major singers and songwriters of the 20th century is secure. In the English-speaking world, his influence is limited by the language barrier and by his musical taste in traditional pop and cabaret, rather than the predominant style of the second half of the century, rock. Nevertheless, his lyrics, delving into personal, dark, and adult subjects, are in keeping with the trend toward frankness and seriousness of popular songwriting from Bob Dylan on and even anticipate that trend. As such, Brel is something of a French older brother to the likes of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and all the confessional singer/songwriters who followed them. At the same time, his work, as translated into often bowdlerized English (especially in the McKuen versions), has extended his influence as a songwriter across genres. In addition to those already mentioned, the list of performers who have recorded Brels songs is an amazingly broad selection of rock, pop, jazz, and country artists, including Karen Akers, Shirley Bassey, Acker Bilk, Ray Bryant, Glen Campbell, Ray Conniff, John Denver, Dion, Celine Dion, the Fortunes, Robyn Hitchcock, Shirley Horn, Julio Iglesias, Jack Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Brenda Lee, Ute Lemper, Vera Lynn, Al Martino, Paul Mauriat, Helen Merrill, Ronnie Milsap, Nana Mouskouri, Olivia Newton-John, Freda Payne, Pearls Before Swine, Mitch Ryder, the Seekers, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Vinton, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson.