Desde que te perdí

Folks seem to be going through a Kevin Johansen phase. Argentine music tends to Yankee-hating-up-Manu-Chao’s-arse bollocks, but “el Hugh Hefner Aragonés” is interesting and amusing:

Cádiz y sus cantes

It’s been done before, but here’s soundman, producer, director Luis Jimenez (if he really was any of these, and not a mere video-ripper) in footage of Maria La Sabina:

Spanish Pavarotti anecdote

Tutto Pavarotti was the title of the great man’s best-selling album, but even this proved a linguistic step too far for Spanish audiences. At concerts on the tour he was alarmed to see them rise en masse and chant “Tutto! Tutto!” in the belief that this was his first name.

Noise abatement on Spanish trains

A young Latino with a moderately loud blaster gets on at Sant Andreu. I’m trying to talk to people, so I’m grateful when a Latino security guard comes through the carriage just after Torre de Baró. He walks over to the young guy, taps him on the shoulder, motions him to turn UP the sound,…

Why I came to Spain

To get away from British Spanish music would be a plausible explanation. Here two famous examples, a cover of George Formby’s Lancashire toreador and of Mike Read’s The Spaniard wot blighted my life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwUy735pnhU I actually love them, but don’t tell.

Don’t shoot that hare

El Niño de Tetuán singing fandangos (MP3s or him and a superb selection of others). We’re probably talking early 1930s, but I don’t know where–Seville or Jerez seems more likely than Tetuan :-): A esa liebre no tirarle cazaores de la sierra a esa liebra no tirarle porque está haciendo en la tierra madriguera pa…

Fiesta popular

Don’t try singing ¡Adelante los de Cuenca! at home or anywhere else, even if you can find the lyrics. Troubled companies hold their Christmas parties in May and small villages hold their St John parties on June 24. This cuts the band budget and indicates a broadness of spirit rather than any critique of religion…

Gunplay

Thanks to MM (with a little help from BB) for news of the English musician who used to play bugle calls on his rifle using a mouthpiece inserted into the barrel. The photograph recalls the following Spanish joke: Two hippies from Gracia are shrooming in the woods when they find a shotgun. “Hey man, get…