“I want to live / I want to scream / I want to feel / The universe above me / I want to run free / I want to find my place.” The chorus of what is probably the most popular song of the Amaral group, The universe above mepublished on the album Birds on the head (2009), chains together metaphors about the loss of innocence or loneliness in which so many people find themselves in big cities. However, that topic was originally called Let me in. Those two words are crossed out at the beginning of the double page of the notebook in which the duo, formed by Eva Amaral and Juan Aguirre, wrote it. It is one of the surprises for visitors to the small exhibition hosted by the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, entitled The best lyrics in Spanish, free access and until June 21.
This exhibition brings together 42 song texts from the sixties to the present. Almost all of them handwritten on pages, notebooks, cardboard… they represent an emotional journey through Spanish music through different artists and genres; sounds and words that have accompanied several generations in good and bad times. Of The universe above meFor example, Eva Amaral says: “Try to want to find your place in the world and feel life again, perhaps, with that intensity of the years of childhood.”
The idea of bringing these letters together arose in January. Since then, the organizers have contacted artists or their heirs to contribute original manuscripts. The exhibition, on the occasion of International Spanish Day, on April 23, is organized by Cervantes and Apple Music—the subscription service for streaming Apple musical. Under each of the lyrics, framed in glass, there is a brief explanation of the song and an Apple Music QR code that, when downloaded, allows you to listen to the songs and to some authors or family members, telling how they were composed. Thus, Pedro Guerra says that “pulling the thread” of the chorus of contaminate me “The rest” of that song “was built,” which, “in part,” he had composed thinking about Ana Belén and Víctor Manuel singing it.
Among the selected artists are also José Luis Perales, with And what is he like? which was initially intended for Julio Iglesias, but “due to the demands of his company he ended up recording it himself,” says the poster; Mari Trini (two wanderers), Joaquín Sabina (What is called Soledad?), Victor Manuel (Spain white shirt)Miguel Ríos (I return to Granada), Antonio Vega (The place of my recreation), Van Gogh’s Ear (The beach), Vetusta Morla (Backstab), Nacho Vegas (time of wolves), Nacho Cano (Today I can’t get up), Rozalén (So), Pau Donés (I look at you and I tremble), Luz Casal (I’m going to allow myself) or the group Arde Bogotá. Precisely, from this rock band from Cartagena (Region of Murcia) is the most recent song in the exhibition, Instructionsincluded in their next album, scheduled for May, the organizers explain.
Before the inauguration he spoke about The place of my recreationone of the anthems of Antonio Vega (died in 2009), his brother Carlos, with whom he formed an acoustic duo when they were kids. “He always taught me the songs he made.” Carlos Vega confesses how impressed he was when he heard this gem from his brother: “Of sun, wheat and desire / His hands are in my hair / Of snow, hurricane and abysses / The place of my recreation.” “It came out of the blue. It’s a lyric that defines his personality and in which I recognize him the most,” he points out. In this case, the clean lyrics are brought to the exhibition on a sheet of paper and a black cardboard on which Antonio Vega had written part of the theme in different colors.
How did Antonio Vega compose his songs? “He had no discipline, he was chaotic; but he was very experimental. The germ of a song of his was always the music. Furthermore, the lyrics are very musical, that is, he was clear that the sound of the words should enhance the song. That is not easy to achieve.” The result managed to “get to the bottom of each person.”
When contemplating the songs, you can sense the creative process and the personality of its author. Thus, the almost pendolist handwriting of Miguel Ríos, the numerous crossings of Xabi San Martín, of Van Gogh’s La Oreja, on the pages of The beach; the large handwriting of Manolo García or the small handwriting of Rozalén.
Miguel Aute, on the phone, remembers when at home he passed in front of his father’s office, Luis Eduardo Aute, and he was looking for the muses. “I heard him sing softly. He didn’t like to show what he composed until he considered the lyrics and music were finished.” His son visualizes that office, “extremely organized in its chaos; he said that everything was in perfect disorder.” By Aute, who died in 2020, the composition is included Wetting everything, on a sheet in which the lyrics are accompanied by some children’s drawings by his daughter. “He worked from the moment he got up until night, only stopping for lunch and dinner,” adds his son, who announces that among the papers and objects from his father’s legacy there is a notebook with drawings and poems that he would like to edit one day.
More neglected have been the brothers David and José Manuel Muñoz, the Estopa, of whom the lyrics of family nightmarewhich they scribbled on what they had at hand at the time, a sheet of paper from a Seat pad, the company where they worked. And more formal, typed on a sheet of music, the classic Our love brokewhich composer Manuel Alejandro orchestrated with his wife, Ana Magdalena. The song was immortalized by Rocío Jurado in her album wild pigeon (1985), with its volcanic interpretation. It is inevitable to remember it when you read on the wall: “Our love broke / from using it so much.”