Sings Jacques Brel

While Brel was most well known in America thanks to the revue Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris, in the UK a key interpreter was Walker, who covered Brel regularly on his early solo albums, scoring a hit with “Jackie” and taking inspiration from Brel’s portrayal of society’s shadowy corners and angrier emotions. This 1981 compilation shows the impact not only on Walker but two of his fans in turn, David Bowie and Marc Almond, who would draw on Walker’s covers for their own remakes such as, respectively, “My Death” and “If You Go Away.”