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Excluding a few substitutions of isolated words, the interpretation of the movies are not different than the disco versions, with the exception of the zamba “Criollita de mis ensueños” of Gardel, Lepera and Battistella, that belongs to the movie “Espérame”(Joinville, September 1932) and was recorded in February 15th 1933, in Buenos Aires.
Another curiosity is the tango “Te adoro” (I adore you), by Francisco Pracánico and Celedonio Flores, which by suggestion of Gardel, Flores turned into “Te odio” (I hate you). Without doubt the latter was, for its spirit and message, more suitable for the tango expression of those times, while “Te adoro” would have found in the melodic music its ideal complement, and without doubt Gardel would have done a marvelous version:
| I adore you |
| I hate you |
| There are things that have no reason or sense
There are facts that have no explanation,
Like when I met you, my good care
Without a reason or rule, suddenly it was born.
You came to sweeten my sour existence,
Because I without some care wasn’t happy…
It’s odd that such a simple event changed all of a sudden my sad life. I adore you…my blessing…
I adore you with my honest faith.
God willing one day you will know
How blessed and good my love is…
I adore you…my blessing…
And it’s so much my fervor
That I want to have you always
Beside the heat of my heart! If you would see how beautiful is to have in the soul
The sweet music of your passion,
To live thinking all the time in the one you love,
To have the certainty of a great love …
To search in some eyes the light and oblivion
In two good little warm hands,
And in a little house the tenderness o a nest
And in a smile, glory and peace. | | There are things that have no reason or sense,
There are facts that have no explanation...
Like when I met you, my good care,
Without a reason or rule, suddenly it was born.
You came to confuse my sweet existence
Because I was happy without your lies.
It odd that being so beautiful,
You keep such an awful and despicable background! I hate you…damned you…
I hate you like I used to adore you…
God wills that one day you come back to me
Looking for shelter, defeated, faithless.
And then I could
Get even from you betrayal...
I hate you so much that by seeing you suffer I would get even. You know that still I cannot understand
For what damned pleasure you hurt me.
Because I, for your care, left my mother behind,
Ill, alone, without a home or food.
You have shattered my existence, coward…despicable you!
Why should I feel commiseration for you?
When I will be dying, my word will be an eternal, fatal curse.
|
These are just some of the many examples that can be mentioned about the modifications, corrections or suggestions that Gardel did before singing each of the songs in his repertoire and, as it can be appreciated, his intervention was very appropriate.
Gardel was not, without doubt, a mere singer, but a true performer, an actor of his tangos that knew how to understand the personality and psychology of the character that he had to represent. He could not, then, learn off by heart what somebody else had written. He made that story and that context his own until he felt leading each of his compositions, living each word even more than the poet and leaving his stamp, professionally intuitive.
Ana Turón.
(1) Cadícamo, Enrique: “Bajo el signo de Tango”. Ed. Corregidor, 1987, page. 132.
