6. & 13. Mar y Cielo

UnReQuieted, the new dram pop excursion is reaching the half-way point. Here's track 6 and, as a bonus, track 13:

Like You Really Care > Really Wish I Could > Who Can Say? > My Father's Hat > Gordon Matta Clark > Mar y Cielo > Vibrations > This > You Know I Know > Who Can Blame Me? > Astray > Dear Mongolia > Mar y Cielo (reprise)

This is one of those boleros where the knife goes in and just keeps twisting. The sea and the sky look like they eventually meet, but they never do. And that's the two .

Mar y Cielo is one of my grandfather's favorites. He used to tell the story, perhaps apocryphal, that when the wife of the songwriter, Julito Rodriguez, heard the song for the first time, she filed for divorce. My abuelo was a multi-instrumentalist who loved these old tunes and was from a generation that would get a couple of friends to come with him and serenade these boleros under the window of someone he fancied. My abuela, who might've been in that window, would have been horrified by our spiced up unfaithful version, so to appease her we've recorded a more traditional take.

Julito was the lead singer for the famous Trio Los Panchos, shown in this video, with the composer singing. Obviously part of some movie. What's very strange is why this dancing pair are smiling so lovingly at each other considering the lyric.

We recorded two versions, one re-cast and one more traditional.

Here's the version that comes after Gordon Matta Clark on the album :

Here's the version that closes the album :

Alas, my spanish is pretty awful. Not Nat King Cole bad but, those who know, know I'm a little iffy.

Lyrics

by Julito Rodríguez
Lyrics in spanish and a translation :

Me tienes, pero de nada te vale
soy tuya porque lo dicta un papel;
mi vida la controlan las leyes,
pero en mi corazón
que es el que siente amor
tan sólo mando yo.

El mar y el cielo
se ven igual de azules
y en la distancia
parece que se unen.

Mejor es que recuerdes
que el cielo es siempre cielo,
que nunca, nunca, nunca
el mar lo alcanzará;
permíteme igualarme con el cielo
que a ti te corresponde ser el mar

A SORT OF AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

You have me but it's of no value to you.
I'm yours only because it says so on paper. My life is controlled by what's legal. But, here inside my heart, that thing that feels love, only I rule.

The sea and sky appear equally blue, and in the distance it looks like they come together. It's better that you remember that the sky is always the sky,
that never never never the sea is going to reach it.

Permit me to consider myself like the sky, because you are most certainly the sea.

Track 6 :

Andrew : drums, percussion, marimba, congas

Korey Charles : trumpet

Bruce Abbott : sax

Aaron : guitar

Jon : bass

Emily Wade Adams : vocals

Hum : piano, vocals

Track 13 :

Andrew : congas

Aaron : guitar

Jon : bass

Hum : vocals

Words and music : Julito Rodriguez Reyes

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE ALBUM : : : AND NOW AVAILABLE ON iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and all other music platforms.

Mar Y Cielo

6. & 13. Mar y Cielo

Lyrics