Ne me quitte pas: A Song by Jacques Brel and Interpreted by Nina Simone and Others

by Maya Angela Smith

Overview

In 1959, Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel wrote and performed “Ne me quitte pas” (Don’t leave me), a visceral and haunting plea for his lover to come back. As a teenager, Maya Angela Smith was so captivated by Nina Simone’s powerful 1965 cover of the song that it inspired her to be a French professor. In Ne me quitte pas, Smith follows the classic song’s long and varied journey, from Brel’s iconic 1966 performance on French television to Simone’s cover to Shirley Bassey’s English-language version (“If You Go Away”) to its contemporary manifestations in popular culture. Throughout, Smith shows that as the song travels across languages, geographies, genres, and generations, it accumulates shifting artistic and cultural significance as each listener creates their own meaning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478060444
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	01/24/2025
Series:	Singles
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Maya Angela Smith is Professor of French in the French and Italian Studies Department at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction  1
1. “Ne me quitte pas”: Jacques Brel Composes the Ultimate Breakup Song
2. “Sorry about the Words, Y’all”: Nina Simone Covers Brel
3. “We’ll Sail on the Sun”: Rod McKuen and Shirley Bassey Translate Hope in a Song about Despair
4. From “Ne me quitte pas” to “If You Go Away”: Adapting Iconic Songs to Film and Stage
Outre
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Maya Angela Smith makes a persuasive case for ‘Ne me quitte pas’ as a cultural artifact that survives, travels, perpetuates itself across versions, languages, and audiences—one that is regularly translated and in turn translates its performers and audiences, so that each version has its own autonomy in difference. This insightful book is for anyone who has needed music as a source for transformation.”—Joshua Clover, author of, 1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About

“Ne me quitte pas takes the reader on an exciting and beautifully researched journey through the varied afterlives of Jacques Brel’s classic about lost love and despair. Maya Angela Smith’s compelling autobiographical narrative illuminates the song’s enduring relevance as it moves across the often impenetrable borders of race, gender, language, and nation.”—Kimberly Mack, author of, Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White

"Melding memoir, literary analysis, and cultural criticism, Smith creates a meditation on translation, adaptation, and appropriation. . . .  Incorporating literary and cultural theory, Smith considers how race and gender have factored into the performance and reception of the piece, as well as how its meaning has been changed by renditions in film, theater, drag performance, and even a Cirque du Soleil show. A discerning analysis."—Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating study of language, race, gender and the subtleties that can change completely the meaning of a song, all analysed meticulously. . . . In an age of virality when music seems to stream out of people’s phones as easily as water from a tap, Brel’s 'Ne me quitte pas'—and Maya Angela Smith’s book—are a testament to the power that a single song can still have."—Jeremy Allen, Times Literary Supplement

"This splendid book is a love letter and a dissertation, almost a song in itself."—Jim Kates, The Arts Fuse

From the Publisher

"Melding memoir, literary analysis, and cultural criticism, Smith creates a meditation on translation, adaptation, and appropriation. . . .  Incorporating literary and cultural theory, Smith considers how race and gender have factored into the performance and reception of the piece, as well as how its meaning has been changed by renditions in film, theater, drag performance, and even a Cirque du Soleil show. A discerning analysis."

Kirkus Reviews

Ne me quitte pas takes the reader on an exciting and beautifully researched journey through the varied afterlives of Jacques Brel’s classic about lost love and despair. Maya Angela Smith’s compelling autobiographical narrative illuminates the song’s enduring relevance as it moves across the often impenetrable borders of race, gender, language, and nation.

Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White - Kimberly Mack

"A fascinating study of language, race, gender and the subtleties that can change completely the meaning of a song, all analysed meticulously. . . . In an age of virality when music seems to stream out of people’s phones as easily as water from a tap, Brel’s 'Ne me quitte pas'—and Maya Angela Smith’s book—are a testament to the power that a single song can still have."

Times Literary Supplement - Jeremy Allen

Maya Angela Smith makes a persuasive case for ‘Ne me quitte pas’ as a cultural artifact that survives, travels, perpetuates itself across versions, languages, and audiences—one that is regularly translated and in turn translates its performers and audiences, so that each version has its own autonomy in difference. This insightful book is for anyone who has needed music as a source for transformation.

1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About - Joshua Clover