Hello my dear friends,

I have a note on music that I’d like to share with you. 
This year, I’ve really gotten into the music of Scott Walker. He was one of The Walker Brothers – the only musical group that managed to beat the Beatles’ popularity in the UK for a brief moment in the 60s. 

My enjoyment of Scott Walker’s music started off superficially with a handful of songs, but it has now reached the point where I’m digging into all of his albums and trying to uncover his history (my favourite album so far is Scott 2, I usually have the first 7 songs on repeat).

And guess what?

Of course he started his solo career by singing Jacques Brel songs!

It made me realise that I can’t escape Jacques Brel. All of my favourite artists are somehow related to this godfather of the European chanson. I’ve drawn a little chart below to illustrate this.

  1. David Bowie covered Amsterdam by Jacques Brel.
  2. The Last Shadow Puppets called the album ‘Scott Walker sings Jacques Brel’  their main influence for their first record.
  3. Scott Walker recorded an entire album of Jacques Brel songs.
  4. The Last Shadow Puppets covered both Moonage Daydream and In The Heat of The Morning by David Bowie.
  5. Lana del Rey referenced David Bowie in her song Terrence Loves You.
  6. The Last Shadow Puppets and Lana del Rey allegedly recorded an album together. The album didn’t work out, but the songs Dealer, Thunder, California, Loaded made it to various other releases.
  7. The Last Shadow Puppets covered Is This What You Wanted and Memories by Leonard Cohen.
  8. Lana del Rey covered Chelsea Hotel No. 2 by Leonard Cohen.
  9. The Last Shadow Puppets called the album ‘Scott Walker sings Jacques Brel’ as their main influence for their first record.
  10. David Bowie often paid tribute to Scott Walker and covered his song Nite Flights

But the beautiful thing is: everyone can make such a diagram of their own favourite artists and how they relate to Jacques Brel, because virtually everybody has at one point in their career done a Jacques Brel cover. Here’s a handful of them:

  1. Nirvana
  2. Nina Simone
  3. Frank Sinatra
  4. Sting
  5. Sam Cooke
  6. John Denver
  7. Neil Diamond
  8. Marlene Dietrich
  9. Blink-182
  10. Céline Dion
  11. Julio Iglesias
  12. Tom Jones
  13. Cyndi Lauper
  14. Olivia Newton-John
  15. Shirley Bassey

But Jacques Brel’s influence extends way beyond the realm of music. Also the worlds of film and theater are affected.

Becky and I went to the cinema recently to watch Joker 2; Folie à Deux(disappointing film) and of course this movie prominently featured a Jacques Brel song (If you go away / Ne me quitte te pas – Movie version). 

Now, even better: this week we watched a recording of Chekhov’s Vanya by the National Theater (featuring only Andrew Scott, brilliantly done). There’s only one song in the entire play, and yes, you guessed it: it’s a Jacques Brel song. If you go away / Ne me quitte te pas.  

Was it really all about Jacques Brel?

This email about Jacques Brel is really just an excuse to expose my desperate love for Scott Walker. I’ve shared his music with a handful of friends in private, but none of them shared my enthusiasm for his songs. So this email is also very much a plea for anyone who enjoys Scott Walker’s music to send me an email, so that I know I’m not alone here.

I’ve tried to convince Becky of Walker’s beauty. I took my chance three weeks ago when we were driving to Montenegro for a friend’s wedding. The context:

  • 13h in the car. 
  • No internet because outside of the EU.
  • My phone was connected to the car for GPS.
  • My phone only has a limited selection of downloaded songs.

Result? 13 hours of Scott Walker (and a bit of Leonard Cohen and Lana del Rey sprinkled into it).

During the first few hours of the ride Becky was begging me to stop playing it, but after 13 hours she did warm up to the sound.

‘You know, it’s not that bad actually. Let’s play Next again now.’

And of course, she took a liking to a Scott Walker song that is actually a cover of Jacques Brel song (Au Suivant). 

There is simply no escaping Jacques Brel. 

That’s the lesson here. 

But what a delicious threat to be pursued by. 

Post Scriptum

My last email – where I disclosed that I hadn’t been to the barber in over a year – garnered a bit of skepticism. I received some emails asking for photographic evidence – a very reasonable request. And thus here you’ll find a picture of Becky and me at the wedding in Montenegro.

I hope this will satisfy your curiosity about the quality of my DIY-haircuts. I’m also using this opportunity to flaunt the beauty of my girlfriend Becky. Isn’t she absolutely stunning?

Thanks for tuning in for this episode of my email series. I’ll be back soon with another update 🙂