Jacques Brel - what's it all about?

Subject: RE: Jacques Brel - what's it all about?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:45 AM

Well Christine, if you don't get it, you don't get it.Personally speaking, for anyone interested in song as an art form and a way of expressing human feeling and thought Brel is just about the greatest ever.However, each to their own.

Subject: RE: Jacques Brel - what's it all about?
From: GUEST,Davy
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 03:32 AM

I just like them! They have an honesty that appeals.A correct translation of Seasons in the sun is refreshingly realist!

Subject: Jacques Brel - what's it all about?
From: GUEST,Christine Hanson
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 03:15 AM

What is it about Jacques Brel songs? I hear them sung in clubs in French and not speaking French they don't mean a thing to me and they sound ghastly anyway. I think it is oooh, so, pretentious to foist this kind of stuff on audiences in folk clubs, and despite being championed by singers like Robb Johnson and Barb Jungr, I really don't see what the appeal is, whether sung in English translation or in French. Any thoughts?