A song is a key for locked memory boxes. A song can transport you back through time, giving you a chance to relive moments and ideas that occurred back when you first heard that song. A song is not just a song; it is also a story.
Buenos Muchachos – “El bebedor”
I clearly remember the first time I heard this recording. It was a typical spring afternoon Sunday in Montevideo. Buenos Muchachos were my favourite band and I have went to their concert on Saturday night. There I bought their brand new second record at the time (Aire Rico). As usual, it was a loooong night and drunk too much. As a result I was feeling like shit on Sunday, but I wanted to heard the record. So, I put it and went to bed with the purpose of hearing the record half-awake, half-sleep. I felt asleep at one point, near the ending of the record, but I awake again when this song appear. It was a live bonus track that appear after some minutes of home recordings, poetry and noise collages. It was a classic song in Buenos Muchachos’s gigs, a half improvised number that they always played at the ending. The instrumental part of the song was always nearly the same but the singer always changed the spoken word lyrics. The fact that he always changed the lyrics was fascinating for me, the song was always different. This is pure Montevideo street slang poetry, is very hard to understand for a foreign what he is talking about even when you talk very fluid Spanish. Anyway, I can clearly remember that afternoon, sunlight in my bedroon hearing that song, another time, for the first time. A happy memory.
Read Martín Canova: Lonesome Hunter
