Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs

In this episode we explore the opening theme song of David el Gnomo, an animated television series that was hugely popular in Spain during the mid-1980’s.

Throughout the episode we learn about David’s domestic life and the wider gnome world. Did you know that gnomes live for several centuries, and that Spaniards – both of the gnome and human variety - don’t mind aging? We will also find out the difference between saber and conocer, our two verbs for to know; and how to be careful and pay close attention in Spanish, among many other things.

Finally, we will hear one of the earliest instances of rapping in Spanish music. Straight outta David!

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In this episode we discuss Branquias bajo el agua (Gills underwater), a song by the Spanish group Derribos Arias. 

Ignacio Gasca, better known as simply Poch, was the leader of this band which helped to define the spirit of the Spanish movida in the early 1980's. Poch was by all accounts a colourful figure, with a taste for the surreal and the odd, much of which he brought to the music of Derribos Arias. Listen to this band's music and you will hear clear echoes of much American and British post-punk music of the late 1970’s such as Pere Ubu, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle and Suicide.

Their single Branquias bajo el agua, from 1982, has that sense of euphoria, with a touch of the sinister, that so often pervades New Wave pop music of this period. The song's opening line goes: Branquias bajo el agua, es el baile de actualidad (Gills underwater: it's the current dance craze!). It thus establishes itself as an ironic send up of all those dance craze songs that punctuate the history of pop music - whether it be the twist, the mash potato, the watusi, the macarena or the gangnam style. 

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In this episode we discuss Vámonos, a Mexican ranchera written by José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of the 20th Century.

One of many singers who helped to popularise the song was Chavela Vargas. She was close friends with Jiménez - it is well-known that they shared many a tequila together. On stage, Chavela had a truly iconic presence. Always clad in her poncho, her signature gesture was to slowly open her arms as she sang, in a warm embrace of every member of the audience. She said that her performances were big cathartic experiences, with the audience exiting the theatre feeling transformed and purified.

Vámonos tells us the story of a doomed romance. Two people long to be together, but they are from different worlds. One of the loveliest lines in the song goes yo no entiendo esas cosas de las clases sociales ("I don’t understand all that stuff about social classes”). There is a distinctly moral characterisation of the two characters in the words used to define how others see them: She is decente (decent, proper, a lady) and the man is un canalla (a raffish character, an outlaw maybe): this is a world of very defined gender roles, which Chavela Vargas' general disregard for traditional femininity did much to subvert. 

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Today we're discussing Tuyo, the opening theme of the television series Narcos, which tells the story of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The song, commissioned specifically for the show, was written and performed by Rodrigo Amarante, a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger.

Amarante was inspired by the type of music that Escobar’s mother would have been listening to while raising her ambitious young son, and also way back in her own teenage years: a time of innocence, naïve ideals and dreams of romance.

We will see how the choice of words in the lyrics is very revealing of the worldview slowly taking shape in the mind of young Pablito, sometime in the late 1950’s, in the small village of Rionegro, near Medelllín.

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In this episode we learn about la Movida, an exciting time of countercultural creativity that took place in Spain during the late 1970's and early 1980's, after nearly forty years of fascist dictatorship.

In this episode we learn about Spanish singer-songwriter Antonio Flores, who achieved commercial success in the mid 90's with his album Cosas Mías ('Stuff of Mine'). Sadly, this masterful work would also be his last: shortly after the album release, Flores went into deep depression, following the death of his mother, the legendary singer, dancer and actress Lola Flores. Only two weeks after she passed, he was found dead from a drug overdose.

The song we explore is track number 9 from Cosas Mías, called Mi habitación. It is a pop-rock number with a country sensibility and the sort of intimate, confessional lyrics that would characterise that whole album.

Mi habitación has very simple grammar. The song is for the most part an enumeration of nouns, preceded by either un or una or the possessive pronoun mi – as in the title itself. We will see that many of the nouns rhyme with habitación – like colchón, ilusión, prisión.... 

Being aware of the singer’s struggles with addiction, we will also find new layers of meaning emerging from the words. The privacy of his room, as he describes it in the song, would have been not only a space for intimacy, contemplation and creativity, but also the backdrop against which his deadly battle against substance abuse would take place – and so words like mi lucha, mi perdición, mi vida o mi muerte take on new resonances and add new poignant textures to this seemingly simple tune.

*****

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You can give us some love with a one-off donation at ⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee⁠⁠. Your support is much appreciated and will help me keep creating new episodes. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Check out also my ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ for comments, news and to see some of my artwork. (Yes, I do that too).

Finally, follow and rate us on Spotify or whichever platform you use to listen to the show.

In this episode we learn about la movida, an exciting time of countercultural creativity that took place in Spain during the late 1970's and early 1980's, after forty long years of fascist dictatorship.

One of the many punk-influenced acts to come out at this time was the duo Almodóvar y McNamara. The former would soon become Spain's most international film director, whilst Fabio McNamara was a punk-trash superstar in his own right and collaborated in many of his singing pal's early films.

One of their most infamous songs was Quiero ser mamá (I want to be a mum). In it, the two narrators list the many reasons why they want to become 'a mum', in what is ultimately an outrageous and darkly funny attack on anti-abortion laws.

As always, we explore the lyrics in detail and extract some useful lessons in vocabulary and grammar - particularly the form and use of the future tense in the first and third person. Enjoy!

In this episode we discuss a song by Chilean songwriter Víctor Jara, 'Cuando voy al trabajo'. In the 1960's and 1970's, Jara - admired by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others - became a powerful voice for social change and hope throughout Chile and beyond. His life was to end tragically under the bullets of a new, brutal military regime.

In our first episode we learn about Spanish singer-songwriter Kiko Veneno, and explore the language used in his song Me siento en la cama. We will hear some vocabulary related to daily routines and simple sentences in the first person of the present tense. So, a perfect song for beginners!