Ne Me Quitte Pas

Ne Me Quitte Pas – an arrangement of a song written in the late 1950s by Jacques Brel, the famous French speaking Belgian song writer/performer. It is a song that is loved as much in its original French as it is in the over 28 languages that the original lyrics have been translated into. Rod McKuen also created an English language song based on the same melody called “If You Go Away”. McKuen’s lyrics, while similar to Brel’s, are, however, not a literal translation.

Two of the best French performances were given by Brel himself and by the great French singer Johnny Hallyday in 1984. There are too many other performances by a variety of artists including American singer Nina Simone and even Sting during one of his tours. Cirque du Soleil has even used this song in Varekai.

The McKuen English language version has also been performed by a wide variety of artists, including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Cyndi Lauper, Barbra Streisand, Storm Large – and many more.

The two version are quite different. The McKuen is more about the singer explaining to his or her lover what would happen if he or she left and also stating what would happen if he or she would stay. The original French is far, far more powerful in message and imagery. In the French lyrics, the singer is asking – really begging – his or her lover to give their relationship another chance and to put aside differences, thoughtless words, etc. Brel stated that for him it was not a love song (which McKuen’s version definitely is) but rather a song about how far a man is willing to go in terms of humiliation.

For me, the McKuen version is more of a “Hollywood” version of the much stronger and open-ended original French song. It is much lighter in nature without the power of Brel’s lyrics. But then, I also have a different view of the song from both Brel and McKuen:

I arranged the piece for solo piano not as it is typically sung.

Brel and Hallyday sing this song from the point of view of agony, loss and an almost hopeless fate they hope to avoid but apparently do not believe they will avoid.

My arrangement is more upbeat. It still has the same melody themes (including the second melody theme that Brel “borrowed” from Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6) and all the longing captured in the melody. Yet, to me, this music is about the dance of life that we all experience: coming together, sometimes closer, sometimes not, but, with patience and awareness of each other, always able to move forward and, given a true love, able to return to the warmth and togetherness that couples can and do achieve. To me both sides of the relationship are singing this song to each other – sometimes sequentially and sometimes together.

I have attempted to reflect that in the video segment. It centers around the relationship between a couple obviously deep in discussion with each other and yet obviously deeply committed to each other. Their story is interspersed with other couples literally dancing in their joy and pleasure together.

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This performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas was recorded in Seattle on a Nord Piano 3 with Ableton Live 10 used for post processing and the final mix. At some time in the future it will be released for streaming.

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