|
The
goal which lights up the day
(*)
Football
songs by Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina
Jesús
Castañón Rodríguez
Joan
Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina are two of the most respected
singer-songwriters in Latin-America. They were born in Barcelona
and Jean respectively and have become reporters of times and sincere
wishes, people who transmit melancholy, hope, moans and sense of
humor applied to great themes, agreements, little daily life things
Both,
Joan Manuel Serrat and Sabina share the popular passion for football,
with their intense emotions and uncontrollable happiness or suggestions
to share personal experiences. Their football experience, reflected
in nine different songs, leads to four focal points of interest.
A
Vital Expression
Firstly,
the experience of the football club as vital expression. Serrat
as a supporter of F.C. Barcelona and Sabina as supporter of Club
Atlético of Madrid.
The
first one is identified with the entity to go usually to the matches,
participate in charity matches with the club's old wins, victories,
admire Kubala deeply and collaborate on the functions of the Centenary
in 1999 singing the hymn with a choir of 120.000 voices in the Nou
Camp. This communion of Serrat with the team wearing the blue-red
shirt is so great that it's reflected by Joaquín Sabina in
his theme "Mi primo el Nano".
And
the second one, as well as going to the pitch, is identified with
the red and white image related to the suffering but relieved by
an unexpected fact, related to the blind faith and to the modern
and urban picaresque novel. He also collaborates on the functions
of the Centenary in 2003 composing the hymn "Motivos de un
centenario" in a triple version of band, rock and roll and
joke with band where invited soloists collaborate like Antonio Carmona,
Lichis, Josele de Santiago and Germán Burgos; also Musical
and Artistic Group named San Francesç de Borja (Gandía)
and the joke The seven swines (Cádiz) take part; and besides
a choir of guests takes part as well, and which is made up of distinguished
club lovers belonging to the gastronomy, humor, performance, literature,
music, press or bullfighting world: Ketama, Mago de Voz, Nacho García
Vega, Chus Visor, José Ribagorda, Juan Pedro Valentín,
José Ramón de la Morena, Fernando Schwartz, Vicente
Vallés, José Antonio Abellán, Juan Luis Cano,
Miguel Abellán, Lucio, Miguel San Román, Ansorena
and Pepe Navarro.
In
this hymn he tries to tell the reasons of an inexplicable feeling
which is able to captivate Prince of Asturias, which takes place
with familiarity in the stadiums Metropolitano and Vicente Calderón
beyond the scores and the naming like "Atlético de Aviación"
(Atlético of Aviation) or "Atlético de Madrid"
(Atlético of Madrid). This is a special way to stand up to,
grow up, mature, feel, dream, learn, suffer, lose, win and die which
has been led, according to the song, by the presidents Alfonso Cabeza
and Jesús Gil and by the trainers Radomir Antic and Luis
Aragonés and by the players Adelardo, Aguilera, Ayala, Ben
Barek, Calleja, Caminero, Collar, Futre, Gárate, Griffa,
Heredia, Jayo, Juninho, Kiko, Leivinha, López, Mendoza, Ovejero,
Pantic, Pereira, Peiró, Rivilla, Rubén Cano, Santi,
Simeone, Solozábal, Toni, Ufarte and Vavá.
Feature
of situations
Secondly,
football becomes an ideal element to characterize situations and
periods.
If
we take into account the case of Serrat, it is used to evoke the
city of Barcelona in the post-war period with melancholy: black
market, tram, football
"Basora, César, Kubala i
Manchón" form the part of the chorus of the theme "Temps
era temps", composed in Catalan language.
Talking
about Sabina, it's used to describe the hope, youthful dreams and
varied situations of the city of Madrid. The first one appears in
"Tango del quinielista", story between signs where football
and the pools are elements which betray dreams and hopes to improve,
where the redeeming luck is shown as an elusive element for poor
people who live through the Sunday faded afternoons waiting for
a stroke of luck to be able to flourish. Youthful dreams based on
having the membership card of Atlético of Madrid, dreaming
of singing and the fact of conquering the world constitute the base
for "La canción más hermosa del mundo".
The blind faith in an irreparable stroke of luck that can save everything,
the lightning of the unforeseeable nature and the highly intense
emotion that characterize the Atlético of Madrid are used
in "Semos diferentes".
It
was the original soundtrack of Torrente II to emphasize the modern
and urban picaresque novel and the forms together with the president
Jesús Gil's peculiarities and style , as well as the superintendent's
peculiarities as well (main character of the film). The experience
of Rayo Vallecano, with a poor style based on continuous relegation
to Second Division, gives the disillusionment of an unrequited love
some atmosphere in a "Barbie Superstar" way, leading it
to be a candidate for actress and model that, after walking round
all the short cuts based on ambition to try to come out of the neighborhood,
is on the decline.
The artistic sublimation of football players
Singer-songwriters
praise artistically footballers who have attracted their attention.
Serrat
raises to the myth in "Kubala" due to his skill to go
into the penalty area and set the ball on way to the glory of a
goal. He emphasizes that personally, even though the history of
football pays more attention to Pelé, Maradona or Di Stéfano
as better football players.
Sabina
recreates Riquelme and Jorge Valdano in time to the tango. He dedicates
to Boca Juniors' goal scorer in the Intercontinental Cup in 2000,
"Dieguito y mafaldas", a topic where he portrays the Argentine
who has suffered hard times and who is on the way to the ground
called "La Bombonera" to dream of the unattainable woman,
to mitigate the badly healed myths to certain dreams can become
true in happy explosion after the Boca and Palermo's pieces of play.
On the other hand, in "Un tango para Valdano", the blue
and white champion is turned into a Gardel of the stadium: he dances
with the ball, speaks in a lunfardo way with the ball, looks for
Maradona in his play, he's also stadiums poet, philosopher of changing
rooms and aesthete trainer of football.
Towards
a literary dimension
A
forth and last focus of attention is made up of a literary dimension
to emphasize lyrical poetry, the rhythm of the ball, emotions bottled
into short structures
Joan
Manuel Serrat was jury of the Premio de Poesía Deportiva
Juan Antonio Samaranch, which the weekly magazine Don Balón
organized together with Manuel Alcántara, José Luis
Córdoba, Romá Cuyá, Pedro Ruiz and Esteban
Conde. And Joaquín Sabina receives César Vallejo's
clear influences with the description of human sorrow, the tormented
experiences and the grey lives which look for a hope ray, like in
the "Tango del quinielista".
Epilogue:
alchemists of emotions
To
conclude, Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina are a duet
for musical and literary expression of sport. Since melancholy and
sadness or even since wit, inventiveness and fun, they make words
of sport dance till these words can stay in collective memory and
get a fantastic goal which lights up the day.
Records
SABINA,
Joaquín: "Tango del quinielista", Inventario. Madrid,
1978.
- "Mi primo el Nano", Yo, mí, me, contigo. Madrid,
1996.
- "Barbi Superstar", 19 días y 500 noches, Madrid,
1999.
- "Dieguitos y Mafaldas", 19 días y 500 noches,
Madrid, 1999.
- "La canción más hermosa del mundo", Dímelo
en la calle. Madrid, 2002.
- "Semos diferentes", Dímelo en la calle. Madrid,
2002.
- "Un tango para Valdano", en Con buena Letra. Madrid:
Temas de Hoy, 2002, pág. 315.
- "Motivos de un sentimiento". Canción del Centenario
del Atlético de Madrid. Madrid, 2003.
SERRAT, Joan Manuel: "Temps era temps", Tal com raja.
Barcelona, 1980.
- "Kubala", Material sensible. Barcelona, 1989.
Bibliography
CASTAÑÓN
RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús, "Joan
Manuel Serrat y el deporte", Idioma y deporte número
13, Valladolid, 11 de diciembre de 2000.
SABINA, Joaquín: Con buena Letra. Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2002.
SERRAT, Joan Manuel: Cancionero Serrat. Madrid: Aguilar, 2000.
__________
(*)
The
first version of this article is published in Lecturas:
Eduación Física y Deportes (Buenos
Aires).
Traducción:
María Elena Martín Pérez

| Cómo
se cita este artículo
|
 |
CASTAÑÓN
RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús: El gol que ilumina el
día.
Idioma y deporte [en línea]. 8 de septiembre de 2003,
número 43. [Consultada: 8 de septiembre de 2003]. Disponible
en Internet: <http://www.idiomaydeporte.com/dueto.htm>
ISSN: 1578-7281.
|
| |
Copyright
© Desde 1999 hasta la actualidad, Jesús Castańón Rodríguez.
Asociación Cultural Asociación de Ideas. Reservados
todos los derechos. Aviso.
|
|