1629  Tango - Names and Lyrics

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 14:03:08 -0400
From: Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Tango - Names and Lyrics

Coplas (popular songs) were in use in Argentina before tango was born. Many
of the lyrics of those songs came from Spain.
They were sung in the streets, parks , as part of a musical theater show,
etc. They were funny, satiric and had for objective to tell a story and to
make people laugh. Many of them were used as lyrics for primitive tangos.

Improvised lyricists, musicians and clients of the bordellos created tangos
with ambiguous titles and sexually explicit lyrics.
We have to keep in mind whom such creations were written for: pips,
prostitutes and their clients.

I stumbled into this aspect of the history of tango very early in my
investigation.
I realize that it reflects facts, that it helps to understand the reason
"decent" people wanted nothing to do with tango, it supports the dismissal
of the incredulous ones that think that tango history is all fiction.

These aspect of tango is very well documented by records of the Federal
Police that date from times right after the independence from Spain in 1810.
There is an interesting book, somewhat difficult to read " Tango, social
witness" that is very explicative on this respect.

Primitive tangos were frequently extremely vulgar but the music was
excellent. Many of those tangos survived to nowadays with different lyrics.

I have covered many aspects of tango history in the past but avoided dealing
objectively with the subject we are discussing because I thought it was in
very poor taste. I found sufficient to mention that primitive tangos were
the way they were without being very explicit.

The subject came out anyways, with all its force. I had the choice not to
traduce it but after several requests to do so I decided that either I
translated it or somebody else would do it... perhaps with worse results.

I hope that no person has the idea to publish the lyrics of such tangos.
but... good or bad... history is history.

Best regards and many good tangos with or without "It". :))))

PS. "It" Freud's unconscious....double meaning me? No way! Ha! Ha!