Manu Chao is a fascinating personality in the spanish music world. He was born in Paris in 1961 from a family of Spanish immigrants, refugees of the Spanish Civil War. Started his career as a street musician, playing in the underground. He even joined some bands such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos while still being very young. At a certain point, besides his brother Antoine and a few friends of him, he founded the Hip Hop band, Mano Negra. They finally obtained a noticeable success, especially when they signed with Virgin Records to make the album called “Puta’s Fever” which included their widely recognized global hit, “King Kong Five.”

After quite different vicissitudes, once he already left the band, he publishes his second solo album, “Próxima Estación, Esperanza (Next Stop, Hopeness)” which gains him a lot of prestige. The album includes excellent songs, such as “Mr. Bobby,” dedicated to Bob Marley, “Me Gustas Tú” or the one I’m sharing here, which is a favorite of mine, “Mi Vida.” This is a live version at The Henry Rollins Show:

Mi Vida

Mi vida, lucerito sin vela
Mi sangre de la herida
No me hagas sufrir más
Mi vida, bala perdida
Por la Gran Vía,
Charquito de arrabal
No quiero que te vayas
No quiero que te alejes
Cada día más y más

Mi vida, lucerito sin vela
Mi sangre de la herida
No me hagas sufrir más
Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh [bis]

Mi vida, charquito d’agua turbia
Burbuja de jabón
Mi último refugio,
Mi última ilusión
No quiero que te vayas
Cada día más y más

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh (“sube mi puebloo!”)

Mi vida, lucerito sin vela
Mi sangre de la herida
No me hagas sufrir más
Mi vida, bala perdida
Por la gran vía,
Charquito de arrabal

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh [bis]

My Life’s Love

My life’s love, small bright flame without a candle
Blood from my bleeding wound
Don’t make me suffer anymore
My life’s love, lost bullet
on Main Street (1)*,
Small puddle of suburban neighborhood
Don’t want you to walk away
I don’t want you to walk away from me
More and more each day

My life’s love, small bright flame without a candle
Blood from my bleeding wound
Don’t make me suffer anymore
Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh [bis]

My life’s love, small muddy water’s puddle (2)*
Soap bubble (3)*
My last refuge,
My last illusion
I don’t want you to walk away
More and more each day

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh (“come up my people!”)

My life’s love, small bright flame without a candle
Blood from my bleeding wound
Don’t make me suffer anymore
My life’s love, lost bullet
on Main Street (1)*,
Small puddle of suburban neighborhood.

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh [bis]

(*) Translator notes:

• (1) he says she’s a lost soul making the streets in Gran Via de Madrid.
• (2) he says she’s like a small puddle of muddy water.
• (3) I guess he means she’s as soft and fragil as a bubble, beautiful and unstable, something you may love but can not touch, because it becomes instantly broken or lost.

Here you can find an acoustic version of the same song; much slower than the TV show version shown above. I love the way he does it here, so slow, so heartbreaking:

The song talks about broken dreams; the kind of loss one can feel when the last hour comes. It is for me about something you know you are missing that you will never have a chance to retrieve anymore.

I also want to share another acoustic version of this song, performed live in Radio Nikosia, Barcelona, on March 13, 2013. Quite intimate:

Still oddly stirring the album version, in which we can listen to a repetitive voiceover telling “Aqui no pegamos a los ojos (We don’t hit to the eyes here).” This is doubtlessly evocative, suggesting something bigger, as if the character were facing an oppressive situation, torture or something similar, while reminding the one he loves:

A song about missing that lost soul that you thought was your twin. It might have nothing to do with it, but for some reason it reminds me of a Bob Dylan line that says: “I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down;” Maybe because it makes reference to that moment in life in which one realizes that you can not go ahead with a suitcase full of broken dreams.

The Hypnotist Collector

 

 

 

 

The other day, on July 7th, an acrobat died after plunging 100ft to his death in front of the crowd at MAD COOL music festival in Madrid, Spain.

The frightening accident happened just few minutes before headliners Green Day were due to come on stage. The organizers, however, chose to go on with the show and not suspend the event. A statement later issued by Mad Cool Festival organizers alleged security reasons to make such an arguable decision. This is the NOTE from the organization:

“Mad Cool Festival regrets the terrible accident that the aerial dancer suffered during the second day of the festival.
For security reasons, the festival decided to continue with its programming.
We send our most sincere condolences to all his family.
Tomorrow Saturday 8, during the festival, we will render a heartfelt tribute to the artist.”

The band has also been largely criticized for performing after the tragic incident. The leader of the band, Billy Joe Armstrong, declared they didn’t know what have happened before they began playing. A tweet from the band’s official account later implied the same. This is what can be read there:

8 Jul

Green Day
✔
@GreenDay
We just got off stage at Mad Cool Festival to disturbing news. A very brave artist named Pedro lost his life tonight in a tragic accident
*Follow*

Green Day
✔
@GreenDay
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends
3:17 AM – 8 Jul 2017
2,256
2,256 Retweets
7,764
7,764 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

So they fully apologized for playing shortly after the horrific death of the acrobat, Pedro Aunion Monroy; and stated they were completely ignorant of the facts until after their performance, when they left the stage.

Green Day defends performance following acrobat’s death at Madrid music festival:

Green Day, as many would know, is an excellent punk rock band of deserved cult. They were always faithful to their own style and artistic commitment, and I always respected them for what they do. Not in vain did they worthily cover the immortal song by Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone:

 

Here you can hear and watch them performing live. This is their remarkable hit, “Holiday,” sadly bathed in pain now by the last week events in Madrid Mad Cool Festival:

 

Holiday

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (hey!)
A shame
The ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howlin’ out of key
To a hymn called faith and misery (hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (hey!)
To find, the money’s on the other side
Can I get another Amen (Amen!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (hey!)
A gag, A plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

“The representative from California has the floor”
Sieg Heil to the president gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause
Just cause
Because we’re outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on Holiday

Songwriters
MICHAEL PRITCHARD, FRANK E., III WRIGHT, BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., IMAGEM MUSIC INC

Read more: Green Day – Holiday Lyrics | MetroLyrics

The Hypnotist Collector

Today they celebrated Independence Day in the USA, and that’s a good thing, so I wish a happy 4th of July to everyone of my American friends and followers. Nevertheless, sadly for me, it is the 4th Anniversary of one of my best friends passing away. In fact I should say, most likely the best one ever. My stirring feeling here, regarding such a loss, is comparable to the one the performer could feel while singing this song that I was wishing I could be bringing up to you now. I believe it is one of the most stirring performances I have ever seen, so I wanted to share it here with you all in memory of my beloved friend, who will always be missed.

The show was live recorded and broadcast for MTV in Sony Music studios in New York, on November 18th 1993. Kurt Cobain destilling all the life that was inside of him. That happened not even five months before they found him dead at his home in Seattle, three days after his suicide. Apparently he took his life shooting himself in the head. The show was released as a live album later in 1994, after his death in early April.

The way Kurt Cobain performed this show was certainly a premonition of what would happen in a few months.

He was probably feeling down, unable to overcome his loss. The grief is painfuly evident in the version of “Pennyroyal Tea” that I wanted to post here. Pitifully the MTV Unplugged version was not available anymore in YouTube due to copyright issues, so I thought I had to replace it by another one called “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” But I could find it in Vimeo at last. There was doubtlessly a heartbreaking grief and an emotional breakdown, specially in “Pennyroyal Tea;” But one can still feel the sorrow in this other performance:

https://youtu.be/aquRSR_Vo64

He most likely felt like he had lost everything, might be his faith in the human kind or maybe in himself. But, as Bob Dylan wrote, “when you think you have lost everything, you’ll find that you can always lose a little more.” And it’s true, he found it, unfortunately, and he lost his life.

The Hypnotist Collector