No comment on or score for "Madeleine", @spondres ? Today, the live album Enregistrement Public Olympia 1961 AKA simply Olympia 61 Playlist of the whole album Orchestra of the Olympia, conducted by Daniel Janin. At two pianos : François Rauber and Gérard Jouannest. Accordion : Jean Corti. Recorded 27-29 October 1961 Side one Les prénoms de Paris Les bourgeois Les paumés du petit matin Les Flamandes La statue Zangra Marieke Les biches Side two Madeleine Les singes L’ivrogne La valse à mille temps Ne me quitte pas Le moribond Quand on n’a que l’amour Breakdown of tracks: besides the six new songs, there are five from 5 (Marieke), three from 4 (La valse à mille temps) and as a finale, the only pre-1959 song, "Quand on n'a que l'amour". Associated EP: Les bourgeois Les paumés du petit matin Madeleine Les singes
In 2021, the live album was bundled with a second disc with another 1961 live recording from Club Domino, Paris. This demonstrates that the setlist was not static, and contains an early performance of "Rosa". Full album here, Club Domino set starts at track 16 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX5E7wR2FsfW270hoOWQXQtMMef1VrWsT Les prénoms de Paris Les paumés du petit matin Rosa La dame patronesse Madeleine Les biches Les bourgeois L’ ivrogne Le moribond Les flamandes Ne me quitte pas La valse à mille temps
Also today, No. 6 Les bourgeois Les paumés du petit matin La statue L'aventure Madeleine Les biches Zangra Voir This is the six new songs from the live album (same recordings) combined with both sides of the Voir/L'aventure single from 1958, in the guise of a new album . This was released after Brel had left for Barclay. It was in direct competition with his new records for Barclay with some of the same songs. Tomorrow we'll start on the 1962 studio tracks we haven't covered yet, beginning with "Le plat pays".
Olympia 61 To put things in perspective. In October 1961 Jacques Brel (32 years old) was called in by Olympia director Bruno Coquatrix (who was not a fan), who was frantically searching for a last-minute replacement for Marlene Dietrich. The German film goddess and singer had cancelled her planned concerts at the venue. The official reason was that Dietrich was ill, but the real reason was that she didn't want to follow in the wake of legendary shows by another Belgian () singer, 18-year old Johnny Hallyday. Hallyday had performed for 21 consecutive nights in September and October with his audience (literally) tearing the place down. In fact, after similar "riots" the previous year the city of Paris apparently banned "rock music" for a few months. Hallyday, for the non-French speaking world "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" was already selling millions of records. Brel, though living a rock-and-roll lifestyle as good as anyone, would never sing yé-yé music.
I think there's something not quite right. That's the setlist from his ahow at the Marcanti events building in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on March 23, 1962. It was filmed for the AVRO programme Domino. Presentation: Denise Maes - Director: Thijs Chanowski Brel was accompanied by : Gérard Jouannest (piano), Jean Corti (accordeon), Jan Bleumers (violin), Louis Delachaux (alt violin), Jules de Jong (cello), Jan Sevenstem (flute), Ad Mater (hobo), Bep Rowold (sax), Wim Sanders (guitaar), Ger Daalhuisen (bass), Cor van den Berg (drums) It was shown on Flemish TV (BRT) as Club Domino. Then there's an earlier show that was shown on Flemish TV as Club Domino. This was filmed in The Kurhaus in Scheveningen, The Netherlands, on May 12, 1961. This was presented live on the radio by AVRO. This time Brel was acompanied by a smaller band: Cor van den Berg (drum), Jean Corti (accordeon), Ger Daalhuisen (bass), Gérard Jouannest (piano), Wim Sanders (guitar) Les prénoms de Paris Seul La dame patronesse Le moribond Brel en scènes Marieke Brel en scènes Quand on n'a que l'amour Le plat pays Brel en scènes Les singes Brel en scènes Le prochain amour Brel en scènes Les Flamandes Ne me quitte pas La valse a mille temps On June 10 1962, the first part of the concert is shown on Dutch TV. Due to a lot of request by telephone, the second part is added the same evening. In 1998 five of these recordings appeared on the cd Brel en scènes. The audio of both complete concerts are included in 2018 on a cd with the book Brel in Nederland.
The AVRO music TV programme was called Club Domino. Brel did a show for that programme in both 1962 and 1963. After the 1962 show he met Dutch translator Ernst van Altena which led to the second batch of Dutch recordings. After the 1963 show he wandered around the red-light district at night with Ernst van Altena and inspired by it he wrote the first lines of Amsterdam in café De Kuil. Video of both AVRO shows are available on the 3-DVD set Comme Quand On Était Beau (2003) and Brel in Nederland (2018) [only the Kurhaus 1961 show on cd in that set].
I've read that story about the red-light district too, but there's another version of what happened that evening. It's from a biography from Ernst van Altena, published in 2009: Rob van Altena ‘Ik, die maandenlang Villon ben gewéést’ Ernst van Altena tussen autobiografie en pseudologia fantastica, De Parelduiker. Jaargang 14 - DBNL "Brel was therefore already familiar with Ernst's work as a translator by then, but did not seek personal contact with him until February 1963, when he did come to the Netherlands for a recording in the avro-television programme Club Domino, ahead of a tour of the Netherlands that spring, in which he would also sing in the Concertgebouw. It came to a cosy dinner at the Van Altena couple's home with Brel, his manager Jojo Pasquier and Ernst's family friends Ronnie Potsdammer and Hans Boskamp. Shortly afterwards, Brel commissioned the translation of some of his latest songs for that upcoming tour and for recordings in Brussels. Preparations and discussions on those translations took place exclusively in Brussels and Liège in the following weeks." From the article it appears that van Altena was not always careful with the truth. According to van Altena, Brel was so satisfied with his translations that, around 1967, the singer gave him the exclusive right to publish Dutch translations of his songs. Thus he got the copyright of all existing and future translations of his songs in Dutch, even if those translations had not been or would not be made by Ernst van Altena at all, but by third parties. The translator himself received only a making fee. This contract is unique in the history of copyright. No other example of such an exclusivity clause seems to be known, nor has anyone (not even an interested party) ever seen it, and the Brel Foundation in Brussels has maintained for years that no one there knew anything about such a contract.
Someone (van Altena, biographers Marc Robine, René Seghers, Mohamed El-Fers etc.) has his dates mixed up and I can't tell who/what is correct. Brel and Altena meeting end of February 1963 iso end of March 1962 makes the recording & release timeline described in my earlier post just as unlikely, given a March 1963 release of the Dutch language singles.
That's correct. I was writing from memory. I have both concerts on Jacques Brel in het Nederlands JEA 002. It contains a 10" LP with the eight Dutch versions, plus 1 cd and 2 DVD's with every performance of Brel in Holland of which audio and/or images stil excist.
Sorry for the mistake and thanks for all the information. I think that's the most personnel information we've had on the thread so far. So what I wrote about that second 1961 set was incorrect inasmuch as I said it was recorded in Paris not the Netherlands. And also it had been previously released in 2018. I must admit I haven't been keeping track of posthumous live releases. When I got the box set I played to death the Olympia '61 and (extended) Olympia '64 live albums. It helped that the setlists were so different. Every Brel live album or DVD I've streamed or watched since then hasn't interested me in the same way. They seem to differ too little from what's already on the two canonical live albums (or in the case of the fifties material, seems to be of inferior quality).
I suppose the nearest he got was "Le Moribond 1972". Olympia '61 I love this album so much, it's definitely my favourite Brel live recording. The setlist is perfect, with each song following the previous one perfectly. I love the fact that there are no real gaps between the tracks. We have the definitive version here IMHO of "La statue" and "Les prénoms de Paris". I would probably also opt for the live versions of "Le moribond", "L'ivrogne" and "Les singes" over the studio versions too, though I can't tell how much is due to the atmosphere the audience provides. The audience does a lot of work here. I love their ecstatic reactions to the songs, especially when, as well as applauding a lot of the first lines of songs, they break convention and applaud the first chorus of "Les bourgeois" and the interpolation of the parody lyrics in "La valse à mille temps". You feel the excitement as the audience realises a star is not so much being born as ascending to the next celestial level. The abundance of new songs brings ot mind Pulp's similarly career-defining Glastonbury '95 set. It's a pity Williamson has gone AWOL as he mentioned he particuarly loves this album. I also would (and probably have done) recommend it to someone as a Brel primer if I had to choose one of his actual albums rather than a greatest hits or a playlist. Song for song, it surely has the best selection of all the fifteen discs in my box set, rivalled only by the re-recordings album. And "Quand on n'a que l'amour" at the end, though great, sounds like it comes from a bygone age. 5/5
Hey that's pretty cool, we need one of those around here! They didn't make the teeth big enough though lol
One of the more lighthearted and humorous songs from the revue, although there is a dark undercurrent if you listen carefully.
Couldn't help but notice that in the last few songs the English lyrics are starting to resemble the original ones more than before, at least in structure and meaning. I can almost picture Mort Shuman singing the translated French lyrics to "Madeleine", "Middle Class" and "Statue" as posted to the same music as the show.
Today's song is Le plat pays (The Flat Country) Words and Music by Jacques Brel Arranged by François Rauber Recorded on the 6th March 1962 at the Barclay-Hoche studios, Paris with François Rauber and his orchestra It featured on both the 10" ("Madeleine") and 12" ("Les bourgeois") versions of the 1962 Barclay album. It was also the lead track of an EP. It got to #15 in the French chart Charts singles Top 50 en France: 30 Septembre 1962 It reached #33 in the Wallonia chart. It was prompted by Jean Villard's poem "La Venoge" about a Swiss river. «Si quelqu'un arrive à parler aussi bien de son pays, je peux aussi parler du mien.» "If someone can talk so well about their country, I can also talk about mine" This and "Quand on n'a que l'amour" are the only songs Brel sang on stage solo with his guitar in the 1960s. It is such a famous song it has been quoted in an Astérix book: (Astérix chez les Belges/Asterix in Belgium) It is also taught in schools, I believe, as a work of literature.
Unsurprisingly, a Dutch language version, "Mijn vlakke land" was recorded (vocal only) March 1962. It was re-recorded February 1965. Apparently the 1962 version was released at the time but the 1965 version has appeared on some releases from 1976 onwards. All versions use the original backing track. Translation by Ernst van Altena.
