The gloomy melody at the very beginning might seem familiar as it is actually taken from Franz Liszt's "Totentanz/Dance of the Dead" (which is based on the Gregorian chant "Dies irae") (notably, it might have also been taken from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique which borrows the same melody), which presumably serves this song as a sort of musical epigraph, considering its theme being death.
In the original by Jacques Brel, the melody also appears at the start and furthermore re-appears in the vocal melody later on.
Brel's "La Mort/My Death" has been also commendably covered by David Bowie in various forms in concert.
The gloomy melody at the very beginning might seem familiar as it is actually taken from Franz Liszt's "Totentanz/Dance of the Dead" (which is based on the Gregorian chant "Dies irae") (notably, it might have also been taken from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique which borrows the same melody), which presumably serves this song as a sort of musical epigraph, considering its theme being death.
In the original by Jacques Brel, the melody also appears at the start and furthermore re-appears in the vocal melody later on.
Brel's "La Mort/My Death" has been also commendably covered by David Bowie in various forms in concert.