October 23, 2007
Que Onda III
It has always struck me as funny that the genre of the Argentinian Tango was popularized and defined in many ways by a Frenchman, but there you have it. And as it was the "less cultured" choice at the time, I'm not so sure if Mr Gardel would actively dislike the commercialized pop that Latin has become. Somewhere inside me there's a music-snob lurking, working at the burger king, spitting on your onion rings, who hopes that he would indeed roll over in his grave at the thought of being lumped in with these contemporary "Latin" artists.
Either which way, the music of Carlos Gardel represents some of the oldest recordings I have in my posession. It's him, Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Benny Goodman and Bix Beiderbecke that represent the thirties in my collection. Like Robert Johnson he also died way before his recording career should have been over. He died in a plane crash in 1935, which is about as tragic as the death of Robert Johnson in 1938.
Although it must be said... I mean, we all know Stevie Wonder was a musical genius. With everything he did in the seventies in mind, the man should have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize somewhere along the line. But then the eighties hit him, and he started turning out shite like "I just called... " and such. With that in mind, it is maybe a good thing Gardel died when he did, because it enabled him to leave behind an expressive and immaculate set of recordings.
Now I hate to be a cliché-monger, but in his case the stand out track amongst the ones he left behind is Por una Cabeza. I love that tune. I first heard it on a Friend's compilation, the Luistervinken, but since then I've heard it pop up in TV-shows, or small parts of it here and there in the media. So I'm relatively sure some of you will recognize parts of it.
Enjoy!