Devious Journal Entry

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"I never realized my family was poor     until I left my neighborhood," Ruben     Blades says. During his adolescence,     the family's economic problems got     worse while the country's political     situation with respect to the United     States was getting more and more     difficult. This had an important effect     on the life of young Ruben, forcing    him  into thinking about problems he    never  thought about before. "Up to    1964, I  had been totally pro-Yankee.    In tastes,  in music, in everything.    But the events  of January of '64, when    the United  States refused to raise   the  Panamanian  flag at the Canal Zone   - a  situation  that resulted in 25   people  dead -  opened my eyes and,   like me,  many of  those who had been   absolutely   pro-American started to   ask themselves   questions of a   political and social   nature."



Rubén Blades started his musical life     listening to rock, Central American     music especially the music of his     native Panama and, according to     himself, a lot of Brazilian music too.     This would yield such a passionate  and    diversified music, as one would   expect.   He brought the political and   social   feeling of his time to salsa,   what is   oodity enough for a rhythm   which is   designed to only or almost   only speak   about love and sexual   passion.



He brought the lyrical     sophistication of South American nueva     canción and Cuban nueva trova to   salsa,   telling acidly-rendered   stories of   devastated lives, but with   an   ever-present message of hope.   After   1980, Blades wanted out of his   contract   with the exploitative Fania   label, but   was contractually   obligated to record   several more   albums; these were   generally   toss-offs and Blades himself   tells   his fans to avoid them. After   signing   with Elektra, Blades assembled   a   top-notch band (known variously as     Seis Del Solar, or Son Del Solar).     Then he fell in with a set of West     Coast liberals (Jackson Browne, Linda     Ronstadt), started making movies, ran     for president of his native Panama     (although he hadn't lived there for two     decades) and in between still  manages    to make some excellent  music. Note to    Americans: Blades is  fully bilingual,    and does his own  translations into    English (all his  post-Fania LPs come    with lyrics in  both languages), which    makes it  possible to fully appreciate    the  poetry in his best work. And    there's  a Rubén Blades web site with     biographical info and discography. I'm     missing almost all the early Willie     Colón albums, and I'm still reviewing     most of Blades' Fania work, so stay     tuned. I do have many of Colón's early     hits - La Murga, Calle Luna Calle Sol ,    Che Che Cole, Piraña - on   compilations,   and they're well worth   tracking down.   Hector Lavoe is the   vocalist on many of   Willie's early   records (Willie also   produced Lavoe's   first solo albums);   after a while   Colón got tired of   dealing with ego   crises and starting   singing lead   himself. Colón has now set   up his own   web site; he's even linked   to us,   which is nice of him since we   don't   exactly see eye to eye on certain   of   his albums. (DBW)



www.rubenblades.com

Coming soon, bookmark it, still under   construction.


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