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SILVIO RODRÍGUEZ AND THE CD ERASE QUE
SE ERA
New album by the author: intense
and real
• To Fidel, “everything that I can
give him, a little bit more than my music, even my
person”
BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA —Granma
International staff writer—
ON a
strange platform, behind an in style
table, a bit incongruent with the work and life
itself of this trova musician, Silvio
Rodríguez launched his newest CD Erase que se era
(Once Upon a Time).
The
press conference was for ICAP (Cuban Institute of
Friendship with the Peoples), and, perhaps because
of the threat of a summer rainstorm, table and
chairs were available under cover behind the
entranceway, creating an uncomfortable separation
into three parts.
All
for Silvio, the poet who marked a “dreaming,
contradictory and deep” generation, as he correctly
qualifies it in the CD’s dedication, and
whose songs are heard today, wonderfully, in the
voices of other young people as living, current and
contemporary.
Erase que se era
— as
poet Víctor Casaus said during the launch – is a
writer’s CD, intense and real, a fiesta for the
memory.
In
an exchange with reporters, Silvio said that the 25
songs on the CD have the same inspiration and some
“have never been recorded, like ‘El barquero.’”
The
25 include: “Oda a mi generación” (Ode to My
Generation), “No aparezcas más sin avisar” (Don’t
Show Up Again Without Warning), “Nunca he creido que
alguien me odia” (I Have Never Believed that Anyone
Hates Me), “Una mujer” (A Woman), “El papalote” (The
Kite), “Fusil contra fusil” (Gun Versus Gun), “Erase
que se era” (Once Upon a Time) and “Que levante la
mano la guitarra” (Raise Your Hand, Guitar).
The
justification for this CD, according to Silvio, is
precisely the fact that he has a large number of
songs that have yet to be recorded. “It was during
the early stage that I composed the most, from 1967
to 1972. Those five years were crucial. I think that
70 percent of my songs are from that period.”
By
the time he recorded his first CD, Días y flores
(Days and Flowers, 1975), “I had hundreds of
songs, and I included some from my boat trip, such
as “Playa Girón,” which I knew had to be on the
first album.”
Regarding those that have yet to be recorded, he
responded that “making other CDs like this one is
inevitable, if I’m healthy, because I owe a lot of
songs.”
In a
confessional tone, Silvio commented that he had to
reconstruct some of those songs. “For weeks, I
looked for harmony, sharing with friends from those
times. It was a difficult and interesting task, like
doing archeological work about yourself.”
INTERLUDE FOR POLITICS
Whether in Havana or abroad, the moment for another
line of questions always arrives. This time could
not be any different. Does he give his music as a
gift to President Fidel Castro?
“To
President Fidel Castro, everything I can I give him,
a little bit more than my music, even my person.”
Which of his songs does he think that the president
likes? He explained that he believes one is “El
necio” (The Stubborn One), and also – he said – you
could include “El mayor” (The Major) and, “as he has
said he likes band music,” probably “Girón: Preludio”
(Girón: Prelude).
And
more reflectively, Silvio noted: “Rabo de nube”
(Cloud Tail): “He may not have heard it, but it has
a lot to do with him.”
What
does he think about those people who are happy that
Fidel is sick?
“Yes, there have always been people with bad taste,
and more so if they have the means to be known. That
is paid for.”
About a transition? “Transition? To capitalism? If I
were interested in that, I would be on the other
side. I’m still on this side, and will continue to
be.”
The
validity of “Terezin” and other songs? “It was not
my purpose to create new readings, but all of the
songs that are on this CD seem to be valid to me; in
the end, none can be divorced from today’s reality.
FULFILLING REQUESTS
By
late August, Silvio will be on tour in Spain, where
he is giving 15 concerts, accompanied by flute
player Niurka González, the group Trovarroco and
Oliver Valdés on percussion.
“We
try to have the concerts in small theaters, because
we project an acoustic sound, warm, intimate, with a
trova-type spirit.”
The
big news is that he will then travel to London, at
the request of the great classical guitarist John
Williams. In the concert, “we will do two or three
songs together. I just asked not to play (guitar)
together with him, as you can understand.”
He
explained that the money raised is to go to a
British solidarity group project in Cuba, and noted
that Williams himself, every time he comes to Havana
(to the International Guitar Festival) always
“brings instruments and strings for the arts
schools.”
Other great expectations were caused by Silvio’s
announcement that he is putting together a
repertoire that he called new/old. “For the first
time, I want to give a concert of the songs I’m
always asked to sing and never do. I’ve decided to
please. A concert of the most well-known songs. I’m
going to do it at the end of the year, when I turn
60. I may call it ‘Fulfilling Requests.’”
Erase que se era
is a double CD, carefully presented, with design by
Eduardo Moltó and vignettes by none other than
Roberto Fabelo. It includes the video “Epistolario
del subdesarrollo” (Collected Letters of
Underdevelopment, from the song by that name),
directed by well-known actor Jorge Perugorría (is it
necessary to mention Fresa y chocolate – the
film Strawberry and Chocolate?) and the cover photo
is by Mario García Joya.
Erase que se era,
a real gem.
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