Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Original Cast Recording

I was in high school when I first encountered Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in a production at a nearby college. I was immediately drawn to it, probably more for musical reasons than for the lyrics, most of which were probably over my head at the time. Maybe a lot still are.

The cast recording contains 23 songs (the show contained some others that were not recorded) which opine on love, war, selfworth, death, and a whole lot of other timeless topics. Perhaps the timelessness of the human condition is the point of this revue. As the opening song "Marathon" states: We're always dancing through the nights and days.

The cast of four is uniformly good, capable of styles ranging from music hall bawdy to cabaret to legato singing. "If We Only Have Love" which concludes the show is a beautiful song about how together we can overcome any obstacle.

Mort Shuman, who performs in this cast, was instrumental in bringing this revue to life and, along with Eric Blau, is credited with providing the English lyrics. They are generally excellent, at times playful, at times poetic. I've never heard the songs in French, so I can't speak as to how closely the English follows Brel's original.

The interesting liner notes to this CD reissue discuss Brel's history, the creation of the show, and the effects it had on the songwriting community. I was shocked to learn that Brel died in 1978 at only the age of 49. That means he was 39 years of age when his songs were collected into this revue.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Music and Lyrics by Jacques Brel
English Lyrics by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman
Original Cast Recording released in 1968 by Columbia Broadway Masterworks
CD reissue 2002 Sony Music Entertainment
Cast: Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, Shawn Elliot, Alice Whitfield