Silvio Rodríguez

debajo

un ratón

había

un

colchón

Here's a New York Times article about Silvio Rodríguez so you can know something about him...

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A Cuban Folk Song Pioneer
By JON PARELES
Published: June 6, 2010


Outside Carnegie Hall on Friday night were knots of demonstrators, for and against the Cuban government. Inside was an uproar of adulation: repeated standing ovations, eagerly shouted requests, Cuban flags and banners unfurled, fervent singalongs, roses hurled onstage. The object of it all was a bespectacled, casually dressed man with a gentle voice and an acoustic guitar: Silvio Rodríguez, the 63-year-old Cuban songwriter who is making his first tour of the United States since 1980.


Richard Perry/The New York Times
Silvio Rodríguez: The Cuban singer at Carnegie Hall on his first United States tour in 30 years.

Mr. Rodríguez was a pioneer of Cuban nueva trova, which was part of the folky, literary, socially conscious songwriting movement that spread from South America (where it was called nueva canción, or new song) through the Caribbean in the 1960s. Nueva canción often drew on local traditions but emphasized lyrics over dance rhythms. On Friday Mr. Rodríguez sang “Carta a Violeta Parra” (“Letter to Violeta Parra”), a song from his most recent album, “Segunda Cita” (Sony/BMG Argent/Zoom), that praises Parra, a leader in Chilean nueva canción.

In some countries, like Argentina and Chile, nueva canción was a force of resistance from the left and was suppressed by right-wing governments. Although it sometimes hints at criticism, nueva trova drew support from the Cuban government. Mr. Rodríguez belonged to the Cuban Parliament for 15 years. In recent interviews he has said that he still believes in “the Revolution,” but that Cuba now also needs “evolution.”

Through the decades Mr. Rodríguez has become more poet than propagandist.

He sang about dreams, uncertainties, disillusionment, death, love and willful hope in lyrics that offered more ambiguities and yearnings than slogans. The music was lean and nearly transparent, arranged for guitars (including the Cuban tres), electric bass, flute or clarinet, and a drummer with a light touch.

Sometimes brisk, sometimes elegiac, the arrangements had undercurrents of Cuban bolero and guajira, with Mr. Rodríguez’s reedy high tenor always in the foreground. Through two dozen songs in a set that lasted nearly two and a half hours, the word “Cuba” was barely mentioned.

Mr. Rodríguez didn’t steer clear of politics. There was a stir when he dedicated “Canción del Elegido” (“Song of the Chosen One”), about an extraterrestrial transformed into a soldier, to the Cuban Five. They are Cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States for spying on right-wing Cuban-exile groups in Miami; in Cuba they are heroes.

Mr. Rodríguez also sang “Sinuhé,” a plaintive waltz that imagines legendary figures — Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin — wandering Baghdad after the United States bombings: “1,001 nights of fire and greed/1,001 nights without God or forgiveness.”

But more often the songs turned to the mythic and metaphorical: a lover’s kiss that brings the sunrise (“La Gota de Rocío,” or “Dewdrop”); being swallowed by a serpent that he destroys from within (“Sueño con Serpientes,” or “Dream With Serpents”); searching for a lost blue unicorn (“Unicornio”). His songs are full of seekers, trying to find inspiration, answers, love and causes worth fighting for.

Before encores he ended his set with “La Maza” (“The Mallet”). Over an insistent six-beat rhythm, an Argentine chacarera, Mr. Rodríguez sang about holding on to a sense of purpose. But it was phrased in conditionals and negatives: “If I did not believe in what I believe/If I did not believe in something pure.” The struggle was individual and internal, modest at its core.

silviando wrote:Mr. Rodríguez also sang “Sinuhé,” a plaintive waltz that imagines legendary figures — Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin — wandering Baghdad after the United States bombings: “1,001 nights of fire and greed/1,001 nights without God or forgiveness.”

Sounds very much like the Dylan of "Desolation Row", with even more moral outrage.

hehehe I like the idea but I don't think it's like Desolation Row... maybe the part in italics could remind a bit of it





Sinuhé


Tomando en cuenta la santa inocencia,
voy a cantarle a la vieja Bagdad,
donde mis sueños bebieron esencias
y donde en noches de luminiscencia
de niño zarpaba siguiendo a Simbad.

Algo debiera hechizar portaviones,
alguien debiera apretar un botón
que reciclara metralla en razones
y poderío en conmiseración.

Qué solo está Sinuhé
de amor y de fe.
Qué solo está Sinuhé,
¿qué tal sigue usted?

Bajo las ruinas vagan inquilinos
de las leyendas que fueron maná.
Pasa la sombra infeliz de Aladino
sin una lámpara para el camino
y sin el secreto de Alí-Babá.

Algo debiera embrujar los misiles,
alguien debiera hacer estallar
el hongo de los derechos civiles
de los fantasmas que pueblan Bagdad.

Qué solo está Sinuhé
de amor y de fe.
Qué solo está Sinuhé,
¿qué tal sigue usted?

Ahora es escoria el papel sorprendente
de Sherezada en su lecho nupcial.
La orden de fuego la dio un disidente
de la cultura, la carne, la mente,
el sueño y la vida que no sea virtual.

Mil y una noches para la malicia,
mil y una noches de intimidación,
mil y una noches de fuego y codicia,
mil y una noches sin dios ni perdón.

Qué solo está Sinuhé
de amor y de fe.
Qué solo está Sinuhé,
¿qué tal sigue usted?

I thought of Lennon's song too

ouch

Sueño con serpientes / I dream of snakes

Sueño con serpientes, con serpientes de mar, / I dream of snakes, sea snakes,
con cierto mar, ay, de serpientes sueño yo. / of some sea, ay, sea of snakes.
Largas, transparentes, y en sus barrigas llevan / Long and transparent, in their bellies they carry
lo que puedan arrebatarle al amor. / all that snatched from love.

Oh, la mato y aparece una mayor. / Oh, I kill it and a bigger one appears
Oh, con mucho más infierno en digestión. / Oh, with much more hell in its digestion

No quepo en su boca. Me trata de tragar / I don't fit in its mouth. It tries to swallow me
pero se atora con un trébol de mi sien. / but it chokes on a clover from my temple.
Creo que está loca. Le doy de masticar / I believe it's mad. I give it a dove to chew
una paloma y la enveneno de mi bien. / and gets poisoned with my good

Ésta al fin me engulle, y mientras por su esófago / This one in the end bolts me. While
paseo, voy pensando en qué vendrá. / its esophagus I pass, I wonder what's to come
Pero se destruye cuando llego a su estómago / but it is destroyed when by the stomach
y planteo con un verso una verdad. / truth arises from my verse

Silvio can sound a bit corny sometimes... but still, sometimes it's good




Rabo de nube / Tail of a cloud

Si me dijeran "pide un deseo", / If they asked me "make a wish"
preferiría un rabo de nube, / I would prefer a tail of a cloud
un torbellino en el suelo / a whirlwind on the ground
y una gran ira que sube. / and big rage raising higher
Un barredor de tristezas, / A sorrow sweeper
un aguacero en venganza / downpour in revenge
que cuando escampe parezca / when it stops, it's our hope
nuestra esperanza. / we see

Si me dijeran pide un deseo, / If they asked me "make a wish"
preferiría un rabo de nube, / I would prefer a tail of a cloud
que se llevara lo feo / that would take that, unkind away
y nos dejara el querube. / leaving cherub for us instead
Un barredor de tristezas, / A sorrow sweeper
un aguacero en venganza / downpour in revenge
que cuando escampe parezca / when it stops, it's our hope
nuestra esperanza . / we see

Cuba Classics 1: Canciones Urgentes (Urgent Songs)
This is a compilation album produced by David Byrne of the Talking Heads.
You can preview it on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Cuba-Classics-1-Canciones-Urgentes/dp/B0000DB51Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1332445488&sr=8-4
A review in amazon says: "This cd is for marketing Silvio to the gringo"
The majority of his work is just guitar and vocals but I think this is a very nice compilation and recommend it if anyone is interested in knowing Silvio's music. Great songs.

"Includes liner notes by David Byrne, Silvio Rodriguez, Bernardo Palombo & Frank Fernandez. The lyrics are translated in the liner notes"

jade spinetta wrote:Cuba Classics 1: Canciones Urgentes

If anybody wants to give it a listen pming me should work...

I saw Silvio live once in Madrid. There is, or there used to be, a celebration of the communist party of Spain every year in Madrid and I used to go there when I was younger... there were concerts and activities. At midday, my friend and I were putting up the tent when we heard a guitar and a voice singing coming from the scenario place and my friend told me "that sounds like Silvio"... we went to see and he was there rehearsing, it was nice to see him in that "intimacy".

At night, at the concert I was to tired and irritable (haven't slept the night before) so I didn't enjoy it...