Summary
Ne Me Quitte Pas is a song about begging someone not to go - and of promising the world to them, if they'll only stay.
From Haiti to New York, Provence to Glasgow - in versions by Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield and Scott Walker - we hear stories of what Jacques Brel's song has meant to people around the world.
With contributions from France Brel, Johane Celestin, Alastair Campbell, Brendan McGeever, Peter Hawkins and Malaika Kegode.
Producer: Mair Bosworth
A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in June 2022.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:40.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:44.3 | My name's Alastair Campbell. I am a writer, communicator, strategist, and used to hang around in politics. And I'm a Francophile. And I love |
| 0:59.0 | Jack Brell. I first became consciously aware of Brell in a lorry. I was a student in France. I was busking with my bagpipes. I'd been playing |
| 1:15.7 | down in Exxon-Provence kind of area. And I had a flat back in Nice where I was an assistant |
| 1:22.9 | in a school. And I was hitchhiking back. and I got picked up by this Belgian lorry driver |
| 1:29.9 | and as we were driving along he was listening to a Belgian radio station and there was a newsflash |
| 1:37.7 | Jacques Brel has died and the station went into all-day tribute mode, |
| 1:47.3 | playing his music, talking to people. |
| 1:50.4 | And when they played Nama Kitapa, |
| 1:54.0 | I just looked across at this lawyer drive, |
| 1:55.8 | and I noticed he was crying. |
| 1:58.3 | And I thought, my God, this is incredible. |
| 2:00.5 | This guy's got to be something really, really special. |
... |
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