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Conversation with Jacques Brel about his career

24 février 1963
03m 41s
Ref. 00021

Information

Summary :

Jacques Brel talks about his career and how the themes of his songs have evolved between 1956 and 1963. He sings part of the following songs: Quand on n'a que l'Amour , La Valse à Mille Temps, Le Moribond, and Les Bigotes.

Media type :
Vidéo
Broadcast date :
24 février 1963
Source :
ORTF (Collection: JT 20H )
Personnalité(s) :
Jacques Brel / Lise Elina
Themes :
Places :

Context

Born on 8 April 1929 in Schaebeek in Belgium, Jacques Brel started his author-composer-interpreter career in 1952 in tiny second zone Brussels cabarets. His style, which is lyrical, baroque and satirical, disconcerts, but Jacques Canetti notices him and brings him to Paris. A few hard years followed, during which Brel met François Rauber and Gérard Jouannest, who will remain his main collaborators throughout his career. He released his first album in 1955, and his second one, released in 1957, won the Académie Charles-Cros's Grand Prix du Disque and exposed him to the masses. His success had arrived and could not be denied. La Valse à Mille Temps, Ne me Quitte Pas (1959), Les Vieux (1963), Les Bonbons, Mathilde, Amsterdam (1964): Brel accumulates the hits, and being a true stage animal, his endless and triumphant tours wear him out.

In 1966, he decides to give up music and gives his last recital in Roubaix on 16 May 1967. He then turns to cinema as an actor (Les Risques du Métier in 1967, My Uncle Benjamin in 1968, L'Aventure c'est l'Aventure in 1974) and as a director (Franz in 1971). In 1974, he retired to the Marquesas Islands. Suffering from lung cancer, he decided to record one final album, (Brel in 1977), before his death at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny on 9 October 1978.

Stéphane Ollivier

Transcription

(Music)
Jacques Brel
That was in 1957, and I believe it was the first song that was lucky enough to more or less get hold of audiences.
Lise Elina
In which way has your style evolved since 1957?
Jacques Brel
It has slightly evolved in all directions, first of all because we grow older, we search, we search. So there have been modifications. First, I rarely use the guitar. As a result, I hardly use a stool, and I try to relax, to also play a bit, musically speaking, and it gave results such as the Valse à Mille Temps.
(Music)
Jacques Brel
Afterwards, after this evolution, I remembered that I actually came from somewhere. We all come from somewhere, we all need to know, for some reason or another, that we have dirt under our shoes, and I actually remembered that I was a son of the Flandres, so it gave results that came from old colours that I remembered, colours of words, colours of music as well. It resulted in songs such as Les Flamandes, Le Plat and perhaps even like Le Moribond.
(Music)
Lise Elina
You just gave us, right now, a panorama of your songs of recent years, 6 or 7 years I believe. How are things coming along today?
Jacques Brel
Well, I'm searching, still searching. We're never done searching. So it sometimes gives strange results, moreover, rather irreverent results such as, for example, Les Bigotes.
(Music)