Just ...

... saw something on TV that was ... well, amusing.

They (whoever they are) rifled through their (or whoever's) archives and came up with some old music from old concerts. One was by Sammy Davis jr. and another couple of songs were taken from a concert by Jaques Brel.

The amazing thing was that these two gentlemen knew how to engage a room completely with nothing but a good song and maybe some comedy. Very minimal to our modern eyes. Brel was just ... standing there. Microphone. Accoustic guitar on his knee. Leg up on a normal wooden chair. Just belting out 'Les Flamands'. It was wonderful.

Now, I like Brel. He was ... brilliant, I suppose. The other guy, Sammy davis jr. he never ever really appears on my radar. Not my thing. But it was a thing of beauty, the way he played with an audience. He had a band with him. And he sang. And he danced a little. And he told some short jokes. But it was very intense and funny.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I guess what I like to say is: if you cannot do it beneath a bare lightbulb then you cannot do it. Also: it's very impressive that these gentlemen dared doing stuff like this. I'd be shitting my pants. Also: maybe we depend too much on the trappings of modern technology in music and concerts.

Maybe that's why I appreciate the new Nirvana DVD, unplugged. (That and it's basically a wake for Kurt).

Maybe these days it's all too easy to hide behind electronics like auto-tuners and effects and super production. But I'm convinced that the truth will out, that true genius and talent wil reveal itself.

But maybe only when the electricity fails ...

Buy some Brel, he's excellent. there's some power there in music and lyrics ...

On to something else. We have a christmas tree. It's huge. We have decorated the house. We are in a christmassy sort of mood. I like this time of the year and I'm happy that it's here again. Also happy that the insane month of december is almost gone. Too many parties, people. We cram things into that final weeks simply because we're afraid of things ending I suspect. Here's a newsflash: life goes on past the 31st of december. Spread the wealth, people .... dump some stuff in january. If there's ever a boring month it's january. Truly boring, boring, boring ...

EDIT!

Talking about Brel I decided to do some YouTubing:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Rag_HHqevpg&feature=related

His most famous song ever and I guess one of the best songs ever recorded ever. The only tiny problem i have is that Nina Simone (whom we adore as well even if she was madder than a hat full of bees) did a version too:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=SFWs5kWP-us&feature=related

... and I can't for the life of me decide which version I like better. I like them both. It's ... a fairly painful tune. Enjoy.

And tell me which you like better.

EDIT ... again.

There's loads of them. Really. People should not be covering this ... I wouldn't dare. Here's another one with the french subtitles. For those who want to see what he's singing.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=WBefxhs76pA