13. Sounding Spanish Postwar. Canciones para después de una guerra

MARÍA ZUAZU


 

1. Various, “Cara al sol”

From: Banda sonora original de la película Canciones para después de una guerra. CBS 700, 1976, two long playings 33 rpm.

 

Lyrics

 

This is the opening sequence of Canciones para después de una guerra, where the fascist hymn “Cara al sol” is used to frame a collage of found footage and documents — including the official announcement of the end of the Civil War (signifying the end of the conflict and the beginning of the postwar) — expressing the triumph of the Francoist side. “Cara al sol” as it sounds in the film is itself a montage-performance that conjoins the voices of Basilio Martín Patino and his collaborators, recorded during the making of the film, and a preexisting official record of the infamous hymn.


 

2. Martirio and Chano Domínguez, “La bien pagá”

From: Acoplados. RTVE Musica 63012, 2004, compact disc.

 

Big Band and Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE; Adrian Leaper: conductor; Martirio: voice; Chano Domínguez: piano.

 

Lyrics

Discogs

 

Martirio is one of the most emblematic examples of the Spanish singers that are resuming the copla repertory from (and for) a contemporary sensibility. Together with the renowned Latin jazz and flamenco pianist Chano Domínguez, Martirio offered in Acoplados (2004) powerful versions of famous coplas, such as “La bien pagá,” which appears in Canciones para después de una guerra in Miguel de Molina’s rendition.


 

3. Celia Gámez, “Ya hemos pasao”

From: Banda sonora original de la película Canciones para después de una guerra. CBS 700, 1976, two long playings 33 rpm.

 

Celia Gámez, voice.

 

Lyrics

 

“Ya hemos pasao” is an overtly political chotis that celebrated the fascist’s conquest of Madrid while sarcastically responding to “No pasarán,” a leftist “hymn” popularized by the iconic activist “La Pasionaria”. “Ya hemos pasao” was performed by Celia Gámez, and Argentinian singer who arrived to Spain at the end of the 1920s as a tango singer. Gámez was already popular before and during the Civil War and, thanks to her support of Franco, she became the voice of the early years of the regime. In Canciones para después de una guerra the lyrics of the song are used as a script for the image track depicting the take of Madrid.


 

4. Juan Torre Grosso, “Mi vaca lechera”

From: Banda sonora original de la película Canciones para después de una guerra. CBS 700, 1976, two long playings 33 rpm.

 

Juan Torre Grosso, voice.

 

Lyrics

 

“Mi vaca lechera” (My Dairy Cow) was the Spain’s most popular song of 1946. The song celebrates a particularly fertile animal that provides its owner with cheese and milk shake (leche merengada). Milk became a precious aliment during the 1940s, marked by hunger and shortages; many Spaniards did not have access to fresh milk and powdered and condensed milk were rationed, becoming important commodities in the black market. For Manuel Vázquez Montalbán that almost surreal song, clearly in contradiction with the reality of Spaniards, expressed their hunger better that any “scientific report”. In Canciones… the song is collaged with images of the starving people who copiously listened to “Mi vaca lechera” during the 1940s. It is worth noting that “Mi vaca lechera” is still known in Spain and, because of its apparent naivety once displaced from its original sociocultural milieu, is regarded and used today as a children’s song.

I am using here the spelling of the performer’s name as it appears in the credits of the film and on its original soundtrack, which differs from the spelling on YouTube.


 

5. Miguel de Molina, “La bien pagá”

From: Banda sonora original de la película Canciones para después de una guerra. CBS 700, 1976, two long playings 33⅓ rpm.

 

Miguel de Molina, voice.

 


 

“La bien pagá” appears in Canciones para después de una guerra in Miguel de Molina´s rendition. This song is a piercing heartbreak declaration to a prostitute, a story about marginal and immoral characters that the censorship futilely tried to tame by changing its original lyrics. Miguel de Molina was one of the few male famous copla singers and musical film actors. In Canciones para después de una guerra, the hoarse voice of Miguel de Molina accompanies images of hunger and orphanhood, their respective sufferings speaking and enhancing each other.


 

6. Lolita Sevilla, “Americanos”

From: Banda sonora original de la película Canciones para después de una guerra. CBS 700, 1976, two long playings 33 rpm.

 

Lolita Sevilla, voice.

 

Lyrics

 

“Americanos” pertains to Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Welcome Mr. Marshall, Berlanga, 1952) and both the song and excerpts from the movie appear in Canciones para después de una guerra. Bienvenido Mr. Marshall is a very special intertext, since it is a parody of the españolada genre – a “reactionary portrait of Spain” in connivance with and promoted by the Francoist regime as part of their nationhood project-projection. In Bienvenido Mr. Marshall, the citizens of a Castilian village dress up as Andalusians, and the village itself is also decorated accordingly in order to get their share of the Marshall Plan. The artificial folklorization of Spain, the idealization of Americans and the deep significance of Hollywood imagery in the dreams and desires of Spanish people, along with the connection of the Marshall Plan with Hollywood’s domination of European film markets are topics subtly revealed in this satiric film. “Americanos” is the song that the people of the fictional village compose and perform to honor their potential benefactors in Berlanga’s film, and it is the song that unifies Patino’s montage about the alliance between the United States and Spain.