Jacques Brel - Amsterdam - 1964
Chanson.
Album: Olympia 64 (RYM: 3,66/5)
Artist Biography by William Ruhlmann (Allmusic)
Singer/songwriter Jacques Brel created and performed a catalog of literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that brought him a large, devoted following in France. His audience eventually extended internationally, making him a major influence on English-speaking writers and performers including Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, while translations of his songs were recorded by a wide range of performers from the Kingston Trio to Frank Sinatra.
Born in Brussels, Belgium, on April 8, 1929, Brel was the son of Romain Brel, who worked in an import-export firm, but later became co-director of a company that manufactured cardboard cartons, and Elisabeth (Lambertine) Brel. He began playing the guitar at the age of 15. After quitting school, he took a job in his father's plant in August 1947. During this period, he became increasingly interested in music, beginning to perform while a member of a church youth group and starting to write his own songs. In 1952, he first performed on local radio, and in February 1953 he was signed by Philips Records, which released his debut single, "La Foire"/"Il Y A," in March. Its modest success led to professional bookings locally and, soon, a move to Paris, where he built up a following in the clubs. In July 1954, he made his first appearance at the prestigious Olympia Theater in Paris, followed by his first French tour, and at the end of the year Philips released his debut album, a nine-song, 10" LP called Jacques Brel et Ses Chansons. More touring followed, and he achieved a commercial breakthrough in 1956 when his song "Quand On N'A Pas Que l'Amour" (later adapted into English as "If We Only Have Love"), released on an EP, became a hit, reaching number three in the French charts. His subsequent LP releases were Jacques Brel 2 (1957), Jacques Brel 3 (1958), and Jacques Brel 4 (1959).
In 1960, Brel earned a U.S. release with American Début on Columbia Records, a compilation of Philips tracks. In France, he switched from Philips to the recently formed Barclay Records in March 1962, his first LP release for the label being the live album A l'Olympia 1962, followed by his first studio album in four years, Jacques Brel Accompagne Pas François Rauber et Son Orchestra. After performing mainly in French-speaking territories, he was becoming a star worldwide and touring internationally much of the year. In February 1963, he made his U.S. performing debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. American poet and singer Rod McKuen began writing English lyrics to Brel's songs, and the Kingston Trio recorded "Seasons in the Sun," McKuen's version of a song Brel had titled "Le Moribond." That year in France, Jacques Brel 6 and another live album, Olympia 64, appeared.
In 1965, Reprise Records licensed tracks from Barclay for a U.S. release called Jacques Brel, and Brel returned to Carnegie Hall on December 4. In 1966, Damita Jo recorded "If You Go Away," McKuen's version of the Brel composition "Ne Me Quitte Pas," and it reached the charts. The wistful song, with its alternating happy and sad lyrics and lush melody, became a pop standard recorded by dozens of singers, including Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Neil Diamond. Also in 1966, Judy Collins put an English-language version of Brel's "La Colombe" ("The Dove") on her In My Life album (Joan Baez covered the same song the following year on her album Joan), and Glenn Yarbrough sang "The Women" ("Les Biches") on his LP The Lonely Things. Philips Records, meanwhile, weighed in with an American Brel compilation, The Poetic World of Jacques Brel.
Brel announced his retirement from concert work in 1966, giving a final series of shows in Paris at the Olympia in the fall, but after that he had six months of performances internationally to fulfill. These included appearances in the U.S., where Reprise issued Encore, another compilation drawn from Barclay, and Vanguard Records had Le Formidable Jacques Brel. His last concert came on May 16, 1967. He was not, however, retiring from other kinds of performing: he continued to record, his next LP appropriately being titled Jacques Brel '67 (though it turned out to be his last new studio album for a decade); he starred in his first feature film, the non-musical drama Les Risques du Metièr, before the end of the year (with nine more movies to follow through 1973, some featuring his music); and he also turned to the legitimate stage, translating and taking the leading role in a French production of the American musical Man of la Mancha that opened in Brussels on October 4, 1968, and moved to Paris, where it ran from December until June 1969. (A cast album was released.)
Overseas, meanwhile, his name was given greater prominence by a New York stage production in which he did not appear, an off-Broadway revue of his songs that, keying off of speculation about his decision to stop touring, was called Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. It opened at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village on January 22, 1968. Songwriter Mort Shuman and playwright Eric Blau had translated Brel's lyrics more closely than McKuen, conveying in English the pathos and wit of his story-songs, and the effect was overwhelming -- the revue played nearly 2,000 performances, becoming one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows in history. Columbia Records released a double-LP box set of the complete show as an original cast album. The revue was revived on Broadway, in 1972 and 1981, and off-Broadway in 2006, and it was turned into a film in 1975, with Brel himself making a cameo appearance. The success of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris increased Brel's profile in English-speaking countries. In England, American expatriate Scott Walker's recording of "Jackie" (aka "La Chanson de Jacky") from the show hit the charts the month before the New York opening, reaching the Top 40. (Marc Almond's revival, drawn from his tribute album Jacques, made the British Top 20 in 1991.) "Jackie" was included on Walker's debut solo LP, Scott, which also featured Brel's "Mathilde," "Amsterdam," and "My Death" ("La Mort"), and Walker also put Brel songs on his subsequent albums Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969). Other British Brel fans included David Bowie, who released a version of "Amsterdam" as a B-side single in 1973 while also performing "My Death" in concert, and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, which titled an album after Brel's song "Next" ("Au Suivant") in 1973. In the U.S., Judy Collins recorded "Marieke" for her Whales & Nightingales album in 1970; Frank Sinatra put "I'm Not Afraid" (a McKuen lyric for "Fils De") on the B-side of a single in 1971; Dionne Warwick scored a chart entry with "If We Only Have Love" in 1972; and at the end of 1973 Terry Jacks released a revival of "Seasons in the Sun" that hit number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., followed by a chart entry with his version of "If You Go Away."
Brel himself, meanwhile, continued to appear in French films, making his screenwriting and directorial debut with Franz in 1972 and memorably taking his final starring role opposite stone-faced Lino Ventura in Edouard Molinaro's 1973 black comedy L'Emmerdeur (released in the U.S. with the title A Pain in the A-), which was remade in 1981 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as Buddy Buddy. In July 1974, having bought a yacht, Brel set off on what was intended to be a circumnavigation of the globe. But in October, while in the Canary Islands, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He went to Brussels for an operation to remove part of his left lung. After recovering, he returned to his boat and continued on his journey. In November 1975, he reached the Marquesas Islands, where he decided to stay. He returned to France in July 1977 to record a new album, Brel, issued in November. The LP became a massive hit, reportedly selling 650,000 copies on its first day of release and eventually topping two million copies. Suffering a recurrence of cancer, Brel again returned to France in July 1978 for treatment, but he died three months later at the age of 49. In France, Brel's reputation as one of the major singers and songwriters of the 20th century is secure. In the English-speaking world, his influence is limited by the language barrier and by his musical taste in traditional pop and cabaret, rather than the predominant style of the second half of the century, rock. Nevertheless, his lyrics, delving into personal, dark, and adult subjects, are in keeping with the trend toward frankness and seriousness of popular songwriting from Bob Dylan on and even anticipate that trend. As such, Brel is something of a French older brother to the likes of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and all the confessional singer/songwriters who followed them. At the same time, his work, as translated into often bowdlerized English (especially in the McKuen versions), has extended his influence as a songwriter across genres. In addition to those already mentioned, the list of performers who have recorded Brel's songs is an amazingly broad selection of rock, pop, jazz, and country artists, including Karen Akers, Shirley Bassey, Acker Bilk, Ray Bryant, Glen Campbell, Ray Conniff, John Denver, Dion, Celine Dion, the Fortunes, Robyn Hitchcock, Shirley Horn, Julio Iglesias, Jack Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Brenda Lee, Ute Lemper, Vera Lynn, Al Martino, Paul Mauriat, Helen Merrill, Ronnie Milsap, Nana Mouskouri, Olivia Newton-John, Freda Payne, Pearls Before Swine, Mitch Ryder, the Seekers, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Vinton, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson.
Wikipédia.
Jacques Brel used to sing his songs - which he composed on tour with his musicians - for the first time in public, as soon as he felt they were finished, before recording them in the studio. In the case of Amsterdam, he is not convinced by the song, which he considers to be of no importance. So much so that, intending to sing it for the first time during a series of concerts at the Olympia in Paris, he decided to use it as the "sacrificed" song of his concert, placing it at the very beginning, when it was still possible to make some final adjustments for the concert, and when the professionals knew that the audience was paying much more attention to the artists than to the songs anyway; "so that we would no longer talk about it," he says.
The first is scheduled for 16 October 1964. But, as usual for the Olympia, a performance as a dress rehearsal is given the day before, in a Versailles theatre also directed by Bruno Coquatrix (director of the Olympia). Noting that the song was seducing the audience, Jacques Brel finally decided to move it to third place in his next concert. At the premiere at the Olympia on October 16, the song was a huge success with the 2,000 spectators who stood up and applauded endlessly; to such an extent that the musicians, having started the introduction of the next song after a few moments, were forced to play it over and over again a number of times before the endless applause. In addition to these spectators, there are millions of Europe 1 listeners who broadcast the evening live, with whom the song is also a sensation.
Amsterdam then became one of Brel's greatest hits, a song that was almost unavoidable in the following concerts, characterized by the "crescendo brelien" (dramatic progression in writing and performance). While Jacques Brel is used to never recall or weave a song in concert, according to Jean Corti, this one will be the only exception to this rule, Jacques Brel deciding to replay it at the request of the Muscovite public, during a tour of the Soviet Union in 1965. However, it is worth noting another song written by Jacques Brel, Les Flamandes, in 1960 during a concert given at the University of Louvain.
Despite this, Jacques Brel was never really convinced by this song, and it was never recorded in the studio; with Les timides and Les jardins du casino, recorded at the same time at the Olympia, they were the only three Brel songs to exist only in live version. Nevertheless, if we base ourselves on the book "Jacques Brel auteur: L'intégrale de ses textes commentés par France Brel" written by his daughter France, this song would have been recorded in studio with the musicians of the studio for a Polish television show in January 1966.
A long-standing unpublished version of Amsterdam recorded live at the Olympia in 1966 was released in 2016 on the double album Olympia 1964 - 1966.
Better sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p7RNVhHGbY
Olympia 66 (much less good for me):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkC7WCpJfYY
Bowie Cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPZIG5BHD4
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui chantent
Les rêves qui les hantent
Au large d’Amsterdam,
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui dorment
Comme des oriflammes
Le long des berges mornes,
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui meurent
Pleins de bière et de drames
Aux premières lueurs,
Mais dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui naissent
Dans la chaleur épaisse
Des langueurs océanes
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui mangent
Sur des nappes trop blanches
Des poissons ruisselants
Ils vous montrent des dents
À croquer la fortune
À décroiser la lune
À bouffer des haubans
Et ça sent la morue
Jusque dans le cœur des frites
Que leurs grosses mains invitent
À revenir en plus
Puis se lèvent en riant
Dans un bruit de tempête
Referment leur braguette
Et sortent en rotant
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui dansent
En se frottant la panse
Sur la panse des femmes
Et ils tournent et ils dansent
Comme des soleils crachés
Dans le son déchiré
D’un accordéon rance
Ils se tordent le cou
Pour mieux s’entendre rire
Jusqu’à ce que tout à coup
L’accordéon expire
Alors le geste grave
Alors le regard fier
Ils ramènent leur batave
Jusqu’en pleine lumière
Dans le port d’Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui boivent
Et qui boivent et reboivent
Et qui reboivent encore
Ils boivent à la santé
Des putains d’Amsterdam
De Hambourg ou d’ailleurs
Enfin ils boivent aux dames
Qui leur donnent leur joli corps
Qui leur donnent leur vertu
Pour une pièce en or
Et quand ils ont bien bu
Se plantent le nez au ciel
Se mouchent dans les étoiles
Et ils pissent comme je pleure
Sur les femmes infidèles
Dans le port d’Amsterdam,
Dans le port d’Amsterdam.
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who sing
Of the dreams that haunt them
Off the coast of Amsterdam
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who sleep
Like streamer flags
Draped along the dreary banks
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who die
Full of beer and dramas
In the early morning light
But in the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors born
In the thick heat
Of oceanic languor
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who eat
From over bleached tablecloths
Dripping wet fish
They bare their teeth
That could chew up fortune,
Take a bite out of the moon,
Gobble up a ship's rigging.
And it smells of cod,
Right through to the heart of the fries,
Which their big hands invite
To bring back even more
Then they get up laughing
With a noise like a tempest
Zip up their flies,
And leave belching
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who dance
Rubbing their bellies
Against women's bellies
They turn and they dance
Like suns spat out
To the torn up sound
Of a rancid accordion
They twist their necks
To better hear each other laugh
Until all of a sudden
The accordion dies,
So with a serious gesture
With a proud look,
They bring back their whores
Into the daylight
In the port of Amsterdam
There are sailors who drink
And they drink and drink again
And drink once more
They drink to the health
Of the whores of Amsterdam
Of Hamburg or elsewhere,
Well, let’s just say they drink to whores
Who give them their pretty bodies
Who give them their virtue
For a piece of gold
And when they're good and drunk,
They plant their noses in the sky,
Blow their noses in the stars,
And piss as I cry
Over unfaithful women
In the port of Amsterdam
In the port of Amsterdam
Thanks to passer-by on LyricsTranslate.