kasper salonen wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZFr2Fh66zs
>
Took me years to find the real Brel, if I have yet. Introduction via the
off-Broadway show in English back in 1968. Not awful but I found later
that the lyrics ruled the music in unbecoming ways. The late Mort
Shuman, however, I recall doing a fabulous job with "Amsterdam" even in
English.
I have a bunch of mp3's of this stuff, but seeing him sing them adds to
the drama in the voice.
When Brel sings HIS original of La Chanson des Vieux Amants, simply the
sound of the language and the vocal timbre are filled with love and
mortality. March 16 would have been my 40th anniversary, and even before
that, the song cut deep. This song I used as an audio background when I
had a website holding a whole series of divorce poems. Both a nasty and
beautiful gesture at once that may be back.
ken
--
Ken Wolman http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com/ http://www.petsit.com/content317832.html
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"All writers are hunters, and parents are the most available prey."--Francine du Plessix Gray
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