At first glance, tango seems to be extremely serious music in all its sadness and a big part of the lyrics is, indeed, focused on dramatic themes. However, sometimes this drama can be so over-the-top that the result is either intentionally or unintentionally hilarious.

In my opinion, this ambiguous nature manifests itself above all in the singer Alberto Echagüe, who has left us more or less three categories of songs, namely: rather serious songs (No mientas, Indiferencia, Ansiedad…. to name just a few), ironic, tragicomic or simply silly songs (Yo me quedo con el tango, El hipo, Che existencialista) and a great deal of dubious cases that are full of lunfardo and cryptic language. In any case, I think he has the most ironic and typically mock serious voice of all tango singers.

I started this post by mentioning a certain form of theatrical melancholy and you will perhaps recognize that in the following song, particularly if you listen to Echagüe’s version (1939). In contrast, the Laborde version (1954) and a few other options, listed below, have a much more authentic sadness to them. Tango is the anthem of the sensitive macho and songs like El vino triste may help you to find out why…

This blog has been featuring quite a lot of strong and dramatic lyrics and I repeat, tango is not for the faint of heart. However, there’s also an abundant amount of cheerful, funny and derisive material to be found. A quite amusing element in tango is, as far as I am concerned, the combination of lively music and sad or sarcastic lyrics, which tends to happen a lot. On the other hand, there are also a few tangos that combine a sad melody and happy lyrics, and today I will give an example of that.

In my view, Jorge Ortiz has one of the most gloomy and desperate voices in the whole genre and he is rather famous among modern-day dancers because his tracks with Biagi are very popular. However, he has also done a couple of songs with Miguel Caló, which tend to sound much more dramatic than those with Raúl Berón. Therefore, it may come as a surprise to some that the following song is actually very cheerful (OK – while ignoring the sad overtone for a moment). By the way, I think this poem has an unique kind of flow, there is something very smooth about it, like an express train among tango lyrics.

I have been working on quite a lot of Troilo translations during the last few months and I realize my selection has been a bit biased towards Alberto Marino. However, my interest in Francisco Fiorentino is in no way less serious. I generally prefer to dance to his early songs with Troilo but there is also a lot of great later material that are supposedly being overlooked dramatically. I have decided to translate one of the most curious titles in his repertoire and I hope you’ll enjoy some of the, in my opinion, very poetic elements in this lyric. I advise you to use my translation to take a look at the structure of the Spanish words in this tango, worth mentioning are excerpts like ”en mi vida oscura – como una pura – copa de alcohol” and ”mis sueños se derrumban – sobre la tumba – de esta pasión”.

Whenever someone asks me to mention one of the most accessible, universal themes in tango lyrics, the first thing that comes to mind is love. However, I also tend to add that the lyrics are much more focused on either the feelings that we associate with heartbreak or melancholic longing, than love itself.

These strong feelings can be expressed in grotesque, resentful ways, or, in contrast, the message may also be remorseful and full of nostalgia. But sometimes, those little anecdotes about love are ambiguous: the ”woman” might represent the country of origin of an immigrant, or whatever sentimental longing each of us will feel at a certain point in our lives.

Lilián is, in my opinion, mostly a metaphor and we will all interpret the poem differently. However, I’d say everyone will recognize the profound solitude that is being expressed in the song. In any case, this definitely one of my favourite tangos about loneliness and it would be hard not to feel sad after listening to it.

One of tango’s most widely shared (but also controversial) rules of thumb is…. after the Golden Age came to an end, the later the recording, the worse the quality. There is a lot of music from the late fifties onwards that is often referred to by many DJs as ‘tango-for-exporty’ (adjective). As far as my opinion is concerned, most of that material is indeed not so suitable for dancing and there is certainly a great deal of newer music that feels a bit corny, a bit trite. I do listen to a lot of post-Golden-Age music because I study the lyrics, and I love to find alternative versions by soloists. What’s more, there are also quite a few interesting songs that are not suitable for dancing but still very interesting from a cultural point of view.

However, one of the exceptions that prove the rule is late Biagi with Duval. This combination seems to be popular with a lot of tango fans. I don’t think Biagi lost his touch, during a time when tango was starting to fade into obscurity. I like every single track that I have been able to find, especially Bailarina de tango, so it was just a matter of time until I would start translating one of them. This particular song boasts a nice variety of versions by excellent singers, feel free to stick with your own preference.

(6:00)

(5:35)