The 20th Century produced many great characters...from the warriors, such as Rommell and Eisenhower, to the Politicians Stalin, Hitler, Churchill and Thatcher. But also very importantly in the arts... and none more so than Jacques Brel.
My first personal introduction to Jacques Brel came some 8 years after his death, but to me at that time he was alive as any singer. Brel was a one and only... he still lives on in his records and even in translation his works (I nearly typed words there) have a power that most modern writers would die to achieve. When I realised that he was dead long beofre I knew of him my sorrow was real...this was a man who had made French a real language to me and as a 16 year old his ideas were somewhat beyond me...
BBC carried a profile of him a couple of nights ago, and thanks to the marvels of the Internet I am listening to the end of that documentary as I type...
His music is as alive now as it was when he was alive... and he still ranks among the top artists of all time in my opinion... True he lacks the mass appeal of the Spice Girls and Robbie Williams, ad the artificiality of the winners of Pop Idol, but Brel has a reality that will transcend all these, and his songs will be sung (in French as well as in translation) long after the modern "stars" have left the stage for good.
Jacques, tu ne me quittes pas, et je suis fier de dire que tu m'as toucher pandant ma jeunesse. J'espere bien que les jeunes de demain comprennent aussi bien que moi ce que tu as essayé de dire. Je te salute!
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