“La chanson des vieux amants”
​(The song of old lovers)

Jacques Brel turns his sociological microscope and scalpel to “les vieux amants” (the old lovers), having previously raked through the debris of the Bourgeoisie, the Flemish, the Bigots, Those Folks (“ces gens-là”) and other targets of his sarcastic wit. This time, it’s the “tendre guerre” (tender war) between "vieux amants" that consists of probes, threats, secrets, tantrums, and infidelities, somewhat akin to WWII’s “phoney war” ("drôle de guerre"). The consumate achievement is to “grow old without becoming adult,” aided by time’s flow that smoothes the rough edges of habits and expectations. [If not yet done, here’s a good time to bookmark Florent Pagny’s 1997 song “Savoir aimer” as a (“how to”) companion piece for “les vieux amants”].

Jacques Brel wrote “La chanson des vieux amants” in collaboration with his close collaborator and pianist Gérard Jouannest. He released it in 1967 on his 9th studio album "Jacques Brel 67," ten years before his final album Les Marquises. He spent those 10 years in retirement acting, sailing, and flying before he died in 1978.

Brel announced his retirement in 1966 and this was one of his last songs. It represented an appropriate closure to his lifelong sociological exploration of the various demographic categories enumerated above. The song appeared too late for inclusion in the 1968 opening of the off-Broadway show “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” Brel released a second version of the song in 1973 as a single.

This song has precious lyrics for the translator. It is full of turns of phrase and expressions that are worth noting, especially in the last stanza. The rhyme pattern is complex but its delicacy makes it all the more enjoyable. Brel denied that he was a poet, but textual evidence like this suggests the contrary. After his death, some of his belongings were contested and auctioned off. These materials indicate that “his songs did start as poems, written in cheap spiral-bound exercise books, and worked on again and again. The music was added later…” It’s a critical insight into his creative process.

​It is a song about “vieux amants” (old lovers) that provides an unvarnished look inside a relationship. There is no mention of marriage, but they are obviously a childless couple, which itself may have been a burr under the saddle. They have had ups and downs, infidelities and secrets. As time goes on it’s an armistice or “tender war” that survives thanks to peace-keeping accommodations.

This song has 6 Verses punctuated by 3 Refrains in a thrice-repeated VVR pattern. In each VV sequence, the first Verse is 4 lines with an ABAB rhyme. The second Verse in each sequence is 6 lines and the rhyme sequence varies among them but there is clear rhyming. Such rigor is not happenstance.

Besides Brel’s original version, there have been “covers” of the song in French, including one by Judy Collins, Juliette Greco, Maxime Leforestier, and many others.

JACQUES BREL
Verse
Bien sur nous eûmes des orages
Vingt ans d’amour c’est l’amour folle
Mille fois tu pris ton bagages,
Mille fois je pris mon envole
 
Verse
Et chaque meuble se souvient
Dans cette chambre sans berceau
Des éclat de vieilles tempêtes
Plus rien ne ressemblait à rien,
Tu avais perdu le goût de l’eau
et, moi, celui de la conquête.
 
Refrain
Mais, mon amour, mon doux, mon tendre,
Mon merveilleux amour,
De l’aube claire jusqu’à la fin du jour
Je t’aime encore, tu sais, je t’aime.
 
Verse
Moi, je sais tous tes sortilèges
Tu sais tous mes envôutements
Tu m’as gardé de pièges en pièges
Je t’ai perdu de temps en temps.
 
Verse
Bien sûr tu pris quelques amants;
Il fallait bien passer le temps
Il faut bien que le corps exulte
Finalement, finalement,
Il nous fallu bien du talent
Pour être vieux sans être adulte!
 
Refrain
Oh, mon amour, mon doux, mon tendre,
Mon merveilleux amour,
De l’aube claire jusqu’à la fin du jour
Je t’aime encore, tu sais, je t’aime.
 
Verse
Et plus le temps nous fait cortège,
Et plus le temps nous fait tourment
Mais n’est ce pas le pire piège
Que vivre en paix pour des amants
 
Verse
Bien sûr tu pleures un peu moins tôt,
Je me déchire un peu plus tard
Nous protégeons moins nos mystères
On laisse moins faire le hasard,
On se méfie du fil de l’eau
Mais c’est toujours la tendre guerre
​
Refrain
Mais, mon amour, mon doux, mon tendre,
Mon merveilleux amour,
De l’aube claire jusqu’à la fin du jour
Je t’aime encore, tu sais, je t’aime.

​TRANSLATION
Verse
Sure, we had thunder storms,
Twenty years of love is crazy love
A thousand times you took your bags,
A thousand times I fled

Verse
And all the furniture remembers,
In this room without cradle,
The bursts of old tempests
Nothing resembled anything,
You lost the taste for water
And, I, the one for conquest.

Refrain
But, my love, my sweet, my tender,
My wonderful love,
From the clear dawn ‘til the end of the day,
I love you still, you know, I love you.

Verse
I know all your charms,
You know all my spells,
You saved me from trap after trap,
I lost you now and again.

Verse
Of course, you took some lovers;
You had to pass the time,
The body needs to exult,
Finally, finally,
We needed much talent
To grow old without becoming adults.

Refrain
But, my love, my sweet, my tender,
My wonderful love,
From the clear dawn ‘til the end of the day,
I love you still, you know, I love you.

Verse
And the more time marches on,
And the more time torments us.
But isn't it the worst trap
For lovers to live in peace.

Verse
Of course, you weep a little less early,
I tear myself apart a little later
We protect less our secrets,
We leave less to chance,
We mistrust going with the flow,
But it's still the tender war.
 
Refrain
But, my love, my sweet, my tender,
My wonderful love,
From the clear dawn ‘til the end of the day,
I love you still, you know, I love you.

NB:

1. nous eûmes: the “passé simple” form of the verb “avoir,” which is used in formal writing and literature but seldom in speaking, where the “passé composé” is common.
2. pris mon envole: to “take off” or “split” or “spread my wings.”
3. Orages and tempêtes refer to different weather events. An “orage” brings thunder and lightning. A tempête brings wind-driven rain, snow or sleet.
4. Plus rien ne: this is a double negative since it is followed by the “ne” before the verb; means “nothing more”
5. faire cortège means to make a procession; in this case, to pass by or file past.
6. laisse moins faire le hasard: “laissez-faire” means to “leave alone.” “Laissez moins faire le hasard” means to leave less to chance.
7. fil de l’eau literally means “the flow of water,” in this case it is a synonym for “au fur et à mesure” or “bit by bit,” “gradually,” “drift with the flow.”

​Adaptations

The “adaptation” process for this song is murky. "La Chanson des vieux amants" was not yet available for the 1968 musical revue “Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” The producers of that show were Mort Shuman and Eric Blau. Both Shuman and Blau’s wife Elly Stone were players in the show and in the later history of the song.

Brel first released the song as "La Chanson des vieux amants" in November 1967 on his 9th studio album “Jacques Brel 67.” Mort Shuman and Eric Blau then included an adaptation named “Song For Old Lovers” on Shuman’s 1969 album named “My Death: For Those Who Listen and Not Just Hear.” That album seems to be the only appearance of that particular version, but other versions also substitute “for” instead of “of” in the title. Shuman’s adapted lyrics provide a reasonable representation of Brel’s original meaning and his performance at times matches Brel’s intensity. 

Mort Shuman & Doc Pomus

Shuman was a legendary singer/songwriter during the 1950s and 60s who partnered with Doc Pomus as a songwriting team working for Hill & Range in New York's Brill Building. Together, they wrote over 500 songs with Pomus composing music and Shuman writing lyrics. In 1966, Shuman went to London and France where he met Jacques Brel and plunged into translating and promoting his music. He teamed up with Eric Blau in New York, who worked in public relations and wrote poetry. Blau had learned about Brel from his singer/actress wife Elly Stone who became one of the 4 singers in the Jacques Brel musical revue.

---

Elly Stone sang this song on her 1969 album “Elly Stone” but it had an entirely different set of lyrics than Shuman's. She also sang those same lyrics in the 1975 movie that the American Film Theater produced and released. She, Mort Shuman and Jacques Brel appeared in that movie. The song also appeared with that same version in the 2006 Off-Broadway Revival (sung by Robert Cuccioli) at the Zipper Theater. It is not clear who authored this version, but it was clearly different from Shuman’s. Besides those two adaptations, one can find several other apparently homemade versions online.

Both Shuman and Cuccioli versions are presented below. Shuman’s, because he was so heavily embedded with Brel and his version has a vocal and musical edge to it. Cuccioli, because that version seems to have been most widely used in the official show productions. The two are sufficiently different to make an interesting comparison.

Brel died of lung cancer in 1978. Mort Shuman moved to France in 1971, became a pop star, married and died of liver cancer in London in 1991. His remains were later transferred to a cemetery in Bordeaux, France where his wife lived. Eric Blau died in 2009 and Elly Stone in 2020.

Shuman’s adaptation mirrors Brel’s song structure with the VVR sequence repeated 3 times. In each sequence, the first Verse is 4 lines (ABAB) and the second Verse is 6 lines (ABCABC except the second sequence). In each sequence, the pace and volume of the vocals and instrumentation augment between the first and the second Verses, suggesting that the "lovers" had a bi-polar relationship. The instrumental composition is somewhat honky-tonk or circus-like. The lyric for Cuccioli’s version also repeats the VVR song structure but is lax about rhyming. His vocals and instrumentation are mellow and haunting.

Mort Shuman

Mort Shuman & Jacques Brel

​SECTION ONE
​Verse
We had our storms and heard them blowing
Twenty years of love it’s mad I know
A thousand times you said you’re going
A thousand times I had to go
 
Verse
And every chair can still recall
The tempests in our little place
That never heard a baby crying
We don’t resemble us at all
You’ve lost the springtime on your face
And me I’ve lost the art of trying
 
Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my wonderful, my only love
From morning light till there’s no light above
I still love you, you know,
I love you….
 
Verse
I know each spell you cast around me
You know each wall you make me climb
You kept me here with chains that bound me
And I lost you from time to time
 
Verse
You took some lovers for a day
One has to pass the time some way
Sometimes, the body needs exulting
But finally, yes finally
We had some talent, you and me
To become old and not adult

SECTION TWO
​Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my wonderful my only love
From morning light til there’s no light above
I still love you, you know, I love you….
 
Instrumental Interlude
 
Verse
And more and more time walks around us
And more and more the battles rage
But there must be no peace for lovers
Or else they’re living in a cage
 
Verse
You save your crying for the night
And I destroy myself at dawn
Our mysteries we now surrender
Yes, time has clipped our wings of flight
We’re more afraid as it goes on
But we still fight our war so tender
 
Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my wonderful my only love
From morning light till there’s no light above
I still love you, you know, I love you….
 
Instrumental Interlude

Robert Cuccioli

Robert Cuccioli

SECTION ONE
​Verse
In spite of all we're still together
So many years of smiles and tears
How many times we'd part forever
And I would leave for parts unknown
 
Verse
A day a week and I'd feel terror
And crumble on the telephone
And then in bed we'd play confessions
We’d tell the truth, what truth we knew
That's how it's been with me and you
Then we’d start upon a new digression
 
Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my old, my gentle love
From year to year as all the seasons fall
I love you more you know, I love you
 
Verse
In spite of all we're still together
So many years of smiles and tears
How many times I found another
But you loved others too, my dear
 
Verse
A day a week and I'd need pardon
And fumble out the keys for home
And take a wound that went unhealing
For you'd forgive without forgiving
But, of course we went on living
Our sorrows locked in Christmas seals

​SECTION TWO
​Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my old, my gentle love
From year to year as all the seasons fall
I love you more you know I love you
 
Verse
And sometimes we were almost open
And sometimes we would almost touch
I think we wanted very little
But that always seemed too much
 
Verse
And did we say we wanted children
I really cannot quite recall
What we wanted was our freedom
To dance through life
I think that's all
You can’t let chances pass you by
The tender war goes on forever
 
Refrain
Oh, my love, my sweet, my old, my gentle love
From year to year as all the seasons fall
I love you more I love you… still…

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