Gotta Hear This, #4
- 7 Nov 07, 10:02 AM
Loads of artists have been drawn to the lyrics of Jacques Brel. His fierce words have attracted Scott Walker, David Bowie, Nina Simone, Alex Harvey and Marc Almond. But my favourite homage to the Belgian singer comes from Nicholas Currie, a Scottish guy who records under the name of .
In 1986 he released the ΅®Nicky΅― EP, cheaply recorded with voice and guitar. As a kid, Momus had watched a performance of ΅®Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris and had become enchanted with the work. But when he came to record three of the songs, he reckoned that he could translate from the French better than anyone.
And thus he changed Brel΅―s ΅®Jackie΅―, into ΅®Nicky΅―, a discussion about fame΅―s cheap allure. He name-checked Bowie, the Dalai Lama and Barry Manilow. It was funny. There was a polar change for ΅®Don΅―t Leave΅―, unrequited and desperate. But it was the third of the tracks that grabbed my heart. Brel had recorded ΅®Voir Un Ami Pleurer΅― in 1977, just a year before the cancer took him. So Momus added sinister electronic effects on his version, imagining the cancer cells dividing. 'See A Friend In Tears' is a song about the death of Europe and the rise of the American Empire, but it΅―s also about the loss of the body and the endurance of the soul. And Momus got it, completely.
The opening lyrics still intrigues:
΅°So men are still at war in Ireland
For certain songs and certain dates
The tender gave way to the firebrand
And Europe gave way to the States.΅±
I wasn΅―t the only one to be moved by this song. The Momus lyrics were revived by James Dean Bradfield during his sabbatical year out of the Manic Street Preachers. He had lost some dear friends to cancer and he was also able to articulate this sense of creeping agony on his album 'The Great Western'. You wouldn΅―t want to hear either version too often, but at the right time, it΅―s hugely pertinent.
Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight. See his playlist here.
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Spot on! Deeply moving lyrics and sentiments. If only more artists were recognised for their soul and passion, and not for the fact that they sound like everyone else who's making money for the majors.
I think the world is indeed in need of more poets.
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Dearest Stuart,
I love the Nicky Epee very much, but it is the elpees that surround it that I love the most.
Of course, Mr. Currie has been producing more difficult glitchy-chanson records of late, but they have their moments too.
Have been keeping up to date with him at all? Music is now but a side-line for him as he has moved into the overlapping worlds of performance art, design and journalism.
Your humble savant,
RC-K.
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