Ne me quitte pas

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For the album, see Ne Me Quitte Pas (Jacques Brel album).

Jacques Brel

"Ne me quitte pas" ("Don't leave me") is a famous French song composed, written and sung by Jacques Brel in 1959, and published by Warner-Chappell Publishing. It has been covered in French by many artists, perhaps most famously by Nina Simone. It has also been translated into and performed in many other languages. The English translation is known as "If You Go Away".

It is considered by some as "Brel's ultimate classic".^[1] He would later say in an interview that the song is not a love song, but rather a song about the cowardice of men.^{[citation needed]}

1 History
2 Translation
3 Cover versions
4 References
5 External links
- 5.1 Lyrics

[edit] History

Jacques Brel first recorded this song on 11 September 1959, and it appears on his album La Valse à Mille Temps. In 1961, he recorded a Flemish version of the song, entitled "Laat Me Niet Alleen". Thirteen years after the original, Jacques Brel recorded another version as title track of his album Ne Me Quitte Pas. This version was recorded on 20th June 1972 and the album was released later the same year.

The lyrics "Moi, je t'offrirai des perles de pluies venues de pays où il ne pleut pas" ("Me, I'll give you pearls of rain from countries where it doesn't rain") quotes a theme from the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by the composer Franz Liszt. The lyrics "Le rouge et le noir" ("the red and the black") in the fourth verse might refer to the 19th century novel, The Red and the Black.

Odd as it may seem - it is not well known that Ne me quitte pas was written after Brel was thrown out of Zizou's (Suzanne Gabriello - his mistress at the time) life after casting shame and sadness upon her. Zizou was pregnant with Brel's child and had an abortion after Brel refused fatherhood.^{[citation needed]}

Nina Simone performed what is perhaps the best known cover of the song, in her 1965 album I Put A Spell On You. "Ne Me Quitte Pas" was also famously used by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar in his sixth film, Law of Desire. The version in the film is performed by the classical Brazilian singer Maysa Matarazzo.

[edit] Translation

What follows is a simple prose translation of the lyrics:

Don't leave me. We must forget, everything can be forgotten. It is already gone. Forget the time of misunderstandings, and the time wasted trying to understand how. Forget those hours that sometimes killed the heart of happiness by questioning why. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me.

Me, I'll give you pearls of rain from countries where it doesn't rain. I'll mine the earth until after my death to cover your body with gold and light. I'll make a land where love will be king, where love will be law, where you will be queen. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me.

Don't leave me. I'll make up for you foolish words that you will understand. I'll speak to you of those lovers who twice saw their hearts blaze up. I'll tell to you the story of the king who died because he couldn't meet you. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me.

We have often seen fire flash anew from an ancient volcano that was thought too old. It seems that these burned lands yield more corn than a superb April. And when the evening comes, don't red and black marry to set the sky ablaze? Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me.

Don't leave me. I won't cry any more, I won't talk any more. I'll hide myself here and watch you dance and smile, and listen to you sing and then laugh. Let me become the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me.

[edit] Cover versions

[edit] French

1959:

Simone Langlois (Possibly the very first recording: Brel would have passed it to her prior to recording his own version^[2])

1961:

Barbara chante Brel

1965:

Nina Simone in her June 1965 I Put A Spell On You album

1966:

Marianne Faithfull in Loveinamist

1970:

Vicky Leandros in Ne Me Quitte Pas - Brel asked Leandros to sing this song after they met in a French TV studio. The song was released on the album "Ich Bin" released January 1971 and on the French album "Je Suis Comme Je Suis" released in Canada (October 1971

1974:

Gigliola Cinquetti in Bonjour Paris (album CGD 65978)

1987:

Maysa Matarazzo in Law of Desire, Pedro Almodovar

1988:

Juliette Gréco in Gréco 88 : Hommage à Brel

1994:

Alison Moyet Appears as the B-side to "Getting Into Something"

1995:

Isabelle Aubret in her "Chante Brel" album

1998:

Hugues Aufray in "Hommage - Ils chantent Jacques Brel" CD

1999:

The late Frida Boccara in her posthumous Un jour, un enfant CD

2001:

Natacha Atlas in her album Ayeshteni
Maria Bill sings Jacques Brel

2002:

Paloma Berganza in the Avec le temps CD
Cirque du Soleil's 2002 production Varekai features a performance of the song.

2004:

In-Grid in her album La vie en rose
Angélique Beauvence in the Still...love you CD

2005:

Pierre Bachelet in the "Tu ne nous quittes pas" CD.

2006:

Estrella Morente, a flamenco singer, on her album Mujeres, whose arrangement and performance is based on Nina Simone's.

[edit] English

See the If You Go Away article. There is also another translation of the song by Nick Currie, aka Momus, called "Don't Leave". This is closer lyrically to the original song than "If You Go Away", and was released first in 1986 on the Jacques EP and later on an extended version of the album Circus Maximus.