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A great suprise!

Manny | Puebla, Puebla Mexico | 09/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well... English is not my language. Sorry. What can I say about this guy, who became something like an idol, back in the late sixties? I still remember my days in high school (my Bob Dylan and Beatles days) when our Spanish Literature teacher in Mexico made us memorize all the poems that she considered the most important. The trouble is that some of them were originally written in the Spanish of the Middle Age! It was practically another language and quite difficult to store them into your brain! One day, when I was trying to find room in my memory for "El Infante Arnaldos", included in "El Romancero del Siglo XV", I noticed that the poem's structure seemed like a song lyrics, and asked myself "why not?" So I held my guitar and while I read the poem I played several guitar accords; soon the music for the poem flowed like water from the spring. So I found the perfect formula to achieve a great number of beautiful Spanish poems converted in songs! Juan Ruiz "El Arcipreste de Hita", Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, Miguel Angel de Quevedo, among others, were victims of my new mania which developed indefinitely -like a lover's affair- until I got married in 1978.

One day, 1970, in México City, Jorge Saldaña presented on his TV program a songwriters' confrontation, performing Joan Manuel Serrat and Paco Ibáñez videos. Then I knew that I was not the first man in the planet who turned poems into songs. I learned that the first had recorded an LP that included Antonio Machado's poems and, the second, wrote music for every poem he read. Wow! This man impressed. Accompanied only with his guitar, his expressive strength was the exact mean to communicate the poet's message and metaphoric contents.

Paco Ibáñez is the natural all time troubadour. His voice is specially made for this function. The music he gets was already waiting to be assembled specially for each poem he picks. I bought this recording in 1973, and since then it has represented one of my most precious jewels. The selection of poets and poems from then and now is perfect. The music is exquisitely overwhelming.

During several years I had tried to get the CD version, and it was a real surprise for me to find it in Amazon. Com, since not even in Paco's official site his albums are available. It's really an enormous advantage to be capable to get this outstanding recording in Amazon.com. I truly recommend it. By the way, the song lyrics, I mean, the poems are included in the item.

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