« Arty French Film | Main | Captain's Bar Sat 8 Oct »
October 05, 2011
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Here's a video wherein I sing Jacques Brel's great song, probably one of the greatest songs of the 20th century, with Nelson Wright at our farewell Wright Brothers gig.
The song is better known in English as 'If You Go Away', translated by Rod McKuen. I say 'translated' but basically he took the title and wrote a different song to it. The version I sing was released by Momus (aka Nick Currie) in the 80s along with two other Brel songs. It's much closer to both the spirit and the letter of the original in its picture of sheer desperation and final resignation. According to a Brel interview ' the song is not a love song, but rather a song about the cowardice of men'.
I found it easier to sing 'Don't leave me now' than Momus's 'Don't go away'. The only other line I changed was where Momus sings at the end ' I'll get under the bed, and watch you from there ' which kind of fits Momus, but always seemed to stick out as detracting from the universality of the song. Brel says only 'Je me cacherai la' and I made it ' I'll go to the corner, watch you from there '. It could be the corner of the street, or if you want it more like Momus, the corner of the room.
Momus wisely and powerfully changed the 'punchline' from Brel's ' l'ombre de ton chien ' ( the shadow of your dog ) to ' the shadow of your man ' which seems more direct and hard-hitting. The lyrics are below the video.
Don't leave me now
If you can't forgive
Just to live
You must forget
Forget the times
You misunderstand
Let them slip through your hand
With the sand of time
Forget those hours
When 'maybes' died
At the hands of 'why'
And our lack of faith
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't leave
Me, I'll offer you pearls
Made out of the rain
That falls in a world
Where rain never falls
I'll ransack the earth
By day and by night
To cover your body
With gold and with light
I'll make a domain
Where love will be king
Love will be everything
You'll be the queen
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't go
Don't leave me now
I'll invent for you
Words just meant for you
And you'll know what's meant
And I'll tell you the truth
About how other lovers
Looked into each other
And how they were moved
Then I'll read to you
The story of kings
Who lived without meeting you
Died without knowing you
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't go
And just when you think
The volcano's expired
The craters turn pink
And the ash turns to fire
In a charred barren land
You can still be surprised
Wheat suddenly stands
Like a dream of Julys
When the sun sets
In a brilliant sky
The black and the red
Never touch as they die
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't go
Don't leave me now
I won't cry anymore
I won't talk anymore
I'll go to the corner
And I'll watch you from there
How you dance when you walk
And I'll listen to hear
How you laugh, when you talk it's enough
In the shadow of you shadow
In the shadow of your hand
The shadow of your man
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
Don't go
(Momus is an absolutely superb lyricist and songwriter himself, by the way, and one of the few with the sensitivity and intellect to really contribute something to a Jacques Brel song.)
October 5, 2011 in My music | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83454963a69e2015392180fc8970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Ne Me Quitte Pas:
