Crazy censorship

The “hiccup” discussion and promise

A long time ago I posted a song from D’Arinezo writing about the bridges in songs and how crazy and inventive some orchestras could become in them. I used as an example the hiccup on the “El Hippo”.

A comment from a very good friend of mine suggested that this song is not of great value and we should not play it (almost ban it from hearing). The discussion was quickly clarified. Actually, just a few weeks ago, a DJ friend kept his promise in the comments and lured us into dancing to the song with my friend who doesn’t like it and had a good laugh out of it.

The story of “Que nunca me falte”

Since then, I was inspired to write a kind of political post connecting the history of tango and especially the censorship it has gone through from the oppressive regime of Peron. Today, sadly, we relive in the most horrible way, how such a madness of some politicians can drive even the whole planet to chaos. I haven’t posted about it so far because I was struggling to find a good example of the insanity and madness behind the reasons for censorship until yesterday night when I read the story about the lyrics of “Que nunca me falte”. The song is widely known from the orchestra of Pedro Laurenz with the voice of Alberto Podesta and speaks about the love of the protagonist to his mother… wishing that he may never lose the love of his mother. Although there are other songs referring to motherly love in tango, this one sounds a bit strange… it sounds too dramatic… but without any specific reason.

It wasn’t until Osvaldo Pugliese recorded the song with the voice of Alberto Moran that things cleared up a bit. Moran starts the song with different lyrics and here the protagonist is about to kill himself because he feels like a failure and his mother stops him grabbing his arm. Then he goes on praising the motherly love which actually kept him alive. Now… this makes more sense and explains the drama in the initial lyrics. The known version is obviously missing this important piece of context.

But… as I said… this post is about the insanity and madness of the reasoning behind censorship. So… what on earth was the reason for censoring the suicide attempt part from the song?… well according to the officials…. it was unrealistic because… nobody would want to kill himself in such a beautiful country!

Tonight’s Goodnight Tango

I have heard and read many stories of censorship but this wins tonight’s Goodnight Tango censorship award! It’s paranoia and propaganda in all its absolute greatness… but sadly enough I could imagine many similar situations in many different places around the world today. How disheartening is it that we still keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again in different ways shapes and forms?

How about you? Have you noticed censorship in your life? Do you live in a place with such an authoritarian government? Do you have examples of music from your country that defied censorship? What other censored tango songs do you know about? Let me know with a comment below, an email, or a PM on Facebook… oh… and if you liked it… don’t forget to share it with your friends.