And then came the other voices. The delicate ones, like with little rococo roses; The baroques; the permanently groaning; the inexpressive; the exaggeratedly expressive; others with kitsch elements that decorated each syllable with a plastic bun; the “sturdy” with suggestions and gestures of people of the secret services; the ones that separated the phrases and the syllables in an arbitrary way; the ones that go out of pace making each tango a never-ending psalmody; the confidential singers with whispering voices; the ones that were permanently overwhelmed; and who knows how many more. They passed and will pass. But others remained. Among the voices that I appreciate most I name here Angelito Vargas, Fiorentino, Raul Berón, Carlos Dante, Alberto Marino, Ricardo Ruiz, Edmundo Rivero, Oscar Serpa, Alberto Castillo, Carlos Roldán, Enrique Campos, and some more I can’t remember; each of them in their style and their time, because there were some that unfortunately extended their careers beyond of the advisable.

And like that, until nowadays, in which it often seems that to succeed in singing, the indispensable condition is, precisely, not knowing how to sing.

A different case is Roberto Goyeneche. A style with Gardel echoes in its essence, but absolutely personal. Many that didn’t realize on time his skills ended up celebrating his excesses. I refer to the best Goyeneche: the one of Salgán, the one of Troilo and of his first years on his own. I have heard that “he is better than Gardel”. It doesn’t bother me, but objectively speaking, it’s not like that. He’s not worst either. What each of them did is unbeatable. Nobody could have done more. What happens is that they cannot be compared for several reasons. The first and well-know reason is that they are a different. They were different times, different availability of repertoires and of technical elements, different demands from the people. The majority of the tangos that Gardel sang were only possible in that time, and they had already disappeared of his repertoire; and those that did not exist yet. But one thing is true: Gardel didn’t need anybody to create himself. It didn’t exist, before him, the species: “tango singer”. He started it and used it up, without previous models or mirrors in which to look himself at. And the existence of Goyeneche supposes, unavoidably, the previous existence of Gardel.

Goyeneche, as all of them, listened to and assimilated Gardel during almost fifty years, in numerous compositions that Gardel sang only once to record them, and which he didn’t listen to anybody. Is it understood? On the other hand, it’s different times for the recording techniques. Gardel could not stretch any composition beyond the maximum time of the 78rpm records which had a maximum of two minutes and 50 seconds(not to mention sound quality and different instruments), which were the only ones that were known at that time; so all his interpretations have a strict and precise beat. Goyeneche, on the other hand, stretched the song when he found it convenient, without limitations, reaching this way a greater freedom to emphasize what he wanted. The recordings with “bocina” or with one single microphone as they were all of the ones of Gardel, have nothing to do, nothing, with the ones of nowadays. Today there is a lot of laboratory process, and even when the voice is out of tune (it is not the case of Goyeneche, I clarify) the note is taken electronically to the correct vibration. Things are put and removed at will; it’s mesmerized, equalized, anyways: abysses of differences. Let’s not forget, also, that “el polaco”(Goyeneche) achieves his greatest hits with songs after Gardel such as Malena, Desencuentro, Afiches, La última curda and others that we remember with unction and in which he reaches his best expressive quality. But all of those pieces we could catalogue them as dramatic. Goyeneche mastered very well these themes of skepticism, of tears, of bitterness…
I think that he could not have tackled convincingly pieces like Che, Bartolo, El que atrasó el reloj, Haragán or Padrino pelao. But we would have to compare common themes in both, to see what happens. Clarifying that, even though sincerely, I don’t imagine “el polaco” singing tangos like Mi Buenos Aires querido, Para quererte nací, Rubias de New York and even less Los ojos de mi moza, I choose both of them, leaving to Gardel, not only the friendly parity, but also the supremacy of the precursor.

Enrique Espina Rawson.

(Extracted from “Disparen sobre Gardel” (Shoot over Gardel)
Editions de la Rue du Canon d’Arcole, 2006)