The Old Acclaimed Music Forum
Go to the NEW FORUM
(atendiendo a una petición de Miguel; por cierto, tío, me encantan tus listas, no solo revelan un gran conocimiento del mejor pop y cantautores sino sobre todo un criterio realmente propio)
(as requested by Miguel; by the way, man, I like your lists a lot, they not only show a vast knowledge of the best pop and singer-songwriters material but especially a really own judgement)
It’s quite uncommon a 100% of coincidence of critic and audience acclaim, except maybe with The Beatles worldwide and with Joan Manuel Serrat (Barcelona 1943) in Spain. Two quite recent polls (one from critics -Rolling Stone- and one from audience -TVE’s “La mejor canción de nuestra vida”
chose “Mediterráneo” as the all-time best song in Spanish. But, despite being immensely popular in Spain (probably there was at least one album by Serrat in every Spanish home during the 70s), he’s absolutely unknown outside the Spanish-speaking countries. That’s not the case of the only Spanish singer that could rival in popularity with Serrat, Julio –ugh- Iglesias.
Aside from popularity, to mention Julio Iglesias is relevant here, because Serrat’s music can’t be considered cool by people like the AM forum posters, people with a vast knowledge of music but usually confined to Anglo-Saxon or Afro-American styles (of course, nothing wrong with that!!). Serrat’s music is not rock at all, it’s not strictly pop music, there’s no traces of black music on it, his roots are in popular Spanish music, Catalonian folk songs and some French chanson influences. He did music for the people and he was never afraid of not being cool. And, to make even less appealing to pop and rock audiences, the arrangers of many Serrat records dead-weighted the songs with cheesy and overblown orchestral arrangements in the easy-listening tradition.
But the fortunate ones that dare to surpass these barriers (I mean, accessibility, popularity and easy-listening are for sure barriers for music nerds like us) will find for sure a solid body of work in Serrat discography. He was (is) a master of song-writing, he succeeded telling stories with simple but poetic words, he expressed human feelings in a way that you can only connect and finally surrender. It’s more an experience about life than about music. Anyway I can’t be impartial judging Serrat. He has always been my mother favourite artist and I grew up listening constantly his music (well, and Beatles’ too). Thinking back I even got the feeling that his music was part of my education as a human being (and in a positive way).
Talking about “Mediterráneo” it could be interesting some kind of historical background. Spain was living under the yoke of Franco’s dictatorship, a ferocious regime that kept away basic freedoms (as freedom of speech for instance). Moreover the other languages apart of the Castilian were reduced to folklore expressions. Many young singers of Catalonia chose to sing in Catalan as opposition to Franco, with Serrat as the main figure of the “nova cançó” (“new song”
during the second part of the sixties.
In 1968 Joan Manuel Serrat was selected to represent Spain in Eurovision contest but he refused alleging that he wasn’t allowed to sing in Catalan. The answer of political instances was furious, they banned radio airplay and TV appearances and he became the bête noire of the fascist regime. But in 1969 he began to sing also in Castilian, releasing an album with poems of Antonio Machado (another “forbidden” poet) and alternating since then albums in Castilian and in Catalan. This decision aroused the angriness of the Catalonia radical leftists.
So in 1971, when Serrat was repudiated for both right and left extremes, he decided to make his own patriotic hymn, but not to Spain or Catalonia but to the Mediterranean Sea, not only a political or geographical notion “from Algeciras to Istambul” (South Europe but also North Africa and Middle East) but mainly a sentimental notion. This chant to the Mediterranean Sea supposed an “open” sense of patriotism, a chant of love for his native environment but more a nature term than a social term. This chant of love for nature and freedom conquered the heart of so many people, the cold heart of the critics and the warm heart of the audiences. The best Spanish song ever? Why not?
MEDITERRÁNEO
Composer and performer: JOAN MANUEL SERRAT
First release: 1971 (“Mediterráneo” album)
Length: 3’24”
Quizá porque mi niñez
sigue jugando en tu playa
y escondido tras las cañas
duerme mi primer amor,
llevo tu luz y tu olor
por dondequiera que vaya.
Y amontonado en tu arena
guardo amor, juegos y penas.
Yo, que en la piel tengo el sabor
amargo del llanto eterno
que han vertido en ti cien pueblos
de Algeciras a Estambul
para que pintes de azul
sus largas noches de invierno.
A fuerza de desventuras,
tu alma es profunda y oscura.
A tus atardeceres rojos
se acostumbraron mis ojos
como el recodo al camino.
Soy cantor, soy embustero,
me gusta el juego y el vino,
tengo alma de marinero.
Qué le voy a hacer, si yo
nací en el Mediterráneo.
Nací en el Mediterráneo.
Y te acercas, y te vas
después de besar mi aldea.
Jugando con la marea
te vas, pensando en volver.
Eres como una mujer
perfumadita de brea
que se añora y que se quiere,
que se conoce y se teme.
Ay, si un día para mi mal
viene a buscarme la parca,
empujad al mar mi barca
con un levante otoñal
y dejad que el temporal
desguace sus alas blancas.
Y a mi enterradme sin duelo
entre la playa y el cielo.
En la ladera de un monte,
más alto que el horizonte.
Quiero tener buena vista.
Mi cuerpo será camino,
le daré verde a los pinos
y amarillo a la genista.
Cerca del mar. Porque yo
nací en el Mediterráneo.
Nací en el Mediterráneo.
Nací en el Mediterráneo.
Ay, lai, la, la, lai, la, la
Lai, la, la, lai, la, la
Lai, la, la, lai, la, la
Lai, la, la, lai, la, la
Lai, la, la, lai, la, la
Lai, la, la, lai, la, lai, laa.
MEDITERRANEAN (it’s the first time that I find other translations on the net, here and there, but mine is better 
)
Maybe it’s because my childhood
is still playing at your beach
and hidden behind the reeds
my first love lays sleeping
I wear your light and your smell
wherever I go.
And piled up on your sand
I keep love, games and sorrows.
Me, I’ve got in my skin the bitter taste
of the eternal crying
that poured on you a hundred countries
from Algeciras to Istanbul
for you to paint in blue
its long winter nights.
Because of misfortunes
your soul is dark and deep.
My eyes got used
to your red sunsets
as a path to its bends.
I’m a singer, I’m a liar
I like gambling, I like wine,
I’ve got a sailor soul.
What can I do if I
was born by the Mediterranean.
Was born by the Mediterranean
And you come, and then you go
after kissing my village
Playing with the tide
you leave, thinking of coming back.
You’re like a woman
perfumed with tar
who is missed and loved
who is known and feared.
Ah, if one bad day
the Grim Reaper comes to take me,
push my boat into the sea
with an autumnal eastern wind
and let the storm
break up its white doves
And bury me with no mourning
between the beach and the sky.
In a mountain slope,
higher than the horizon.
I want to have a good view.
My body will be a path,
I’ll give green to the pine trees
and yellow to the brooms.
Close to the sea. Because I
was born by the Mediterranean.
Was born by the Mediterranean.
Was born by the Mediterranean.
I, li, la, la, li, la, la
Li, la, la, li, la, la
Li, la, la, li, la, la
Li, la, la, li, la, la
Li, la, la, li, la, la
Li, la, la, li, la, li, laa.
The studio version:
And a 1974 live version from the very first TV appearance after a 5 years period of ban. But it was transitory: in 1975 he exiled in Mexico after Franco’s government dictated an arrest warrant because of his statements against death penalty.
I always appreciate your learn-about-my-country-and-culture contributions, Honorio, but this one is more than essential. Thanks a lot.
As a footnote: still living with the impression that Serrat and Chico Buarque are actually monozygotic twins... artistically AND politically, but somehow brazilian portuguese sounds romanticingly smoother... 