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).

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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.
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