Friday, January 30, 2015

Rod McKuen RIP



My favourite songwriter? Quite possibly Jacques Brel, due in no small part to the rather wonderful English translations of his songs (which were generally originally written and sung in French) done by Rod McKuen who’s sadly ‘gone away’ forever at the age of 81. There’s a chance you may not be familiar with too many McKuen/Brel tracks as they’re all too rarely played these days but at their best they're heart breakingly beautiful (or in Almond's version of Jacky gloriously, fabulously OTT). Here’s just a handful. Enjoy...





I'm not sure if McKuen had anything to do with translating this one but, hell, it's too good to leave out. 


And finally here's a McKuen original covered by t'Arctic Monkeys no less.


Plus the original sung by Rod himself.


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