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PODCAST

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs is a music podcast aimed mainly at students of Spanish and music lovers. The level is Intermediate to Advanced (B1-C1). On each episode I tell you stories and curiosities about songs of the Spanish-speaking world, ranging from the most iconic to the more obscure and quirky. I am Raúl G., a teacher of languages (Spanish and English) with a background in Fine Arts.

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All Episodes

00:25:23

22 - Muy punk indeed: el extraño y maravilloso mundo...

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2023/04/06

La Polla Records, known by fans simply as La Polla, emerged from Álava, in el País Vasco (the Basque Country) right at the end of the 70’s. In a strictly punk sense, the group were to Spain what the Sex Pistols were to England. The song No somos nada, their 1986 eponymous record's opening track, is a sort of manifesto for the group: 'so this is who are are'. And what is that? Well: somos los nietos de los obreros que nunca pudisteis matar. somos los nietos de los que perdieron la Guerra

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00:27:23

21 - Dalida: En brazos de la mujer madura

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2023/03/06

During the 60’s and 70’s, pop artists would often record their most popular songs in multiple languages. Such was the case with Dalida, an Egypt-born Italian-French singer who became a huge star in France and much of the Middle East throughout the second half of the 20th century. For this type of artist it was - it still is - common practice to have songs written for them that echo real events from their life. In 1967, at the age of 34, Dalida became pregnant by an 18-year-old Italian student. In

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00:32:57

20 - Paco Ibáñez: Ingeniería de versos y cantares

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2023/01/16

Paco Ibáñez en el Olympia was a double album recorded live at the famous Parisian theatre in 1969. It has since become one of Spain’s great classic albums, and a window into a very particular time and place in the country’s recent history. Ibáñez (b. Valencia, 1934), had been banned from performing in public in his country of birth, due to his openly oppositional stance to the Franco regime. The gig at the Olympia was full of young Spanish dissenters, mixed with many of the same feverish French

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00:24:51

19 - Paloma San Basilio: Dos cabalgan juntos

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/12/19

Juntos is an uplifting, life-affirming love song. In recent years, the 1982 hit from Madrileña singer Paloma San Basilio has come to be seen as something of a gay anthem, and this has helped to keep the song alive and relevant for new, younger audiences. It is very much a ‘gay’ song in the old sense of the word as well. There’s also something slightly subversive in the tune, as we’ll find out, though it all sounds so pure and naive that you might not even notice. Loosely based on Bye Bye Blackbird,

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00:21:34

18 - Alizzz: Si te acercas, caigo

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/11/27

Chico conoce a chica. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl stop seeing each other. Boy and girl bump into each other in a club after one year. Timidly, they start chatting and… Well, you guessed. What had to happen, happened. The song is called El encuentro (The encounter), and is track #4 from Tiene que haber algo más, the 2021 debut album by Alizzz. Alizzz’s Wikipedia entry describes him as músico, compositor, cantante, DJ, productor musical y representante artístico (artistic agent). So, he’s one of

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00:26:29

17 - La rapsodia bohemia de Facundo Cabral

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/11/06

Argentinian singer-songwriter Facundo Cabral was a true bohemian. He was taught to read at fourteen by a Jesuit teacher and met his father at forty-six. These and other experiences - his wife and daughter died on a plane crash - came to shape his outlook on life and his music. His signature song, No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá (I'm neither from here nor there) has become something of an anthem for the Argentinian people - and, by extension, all Latin people. In the lyric, Cabral paints a

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00:20:20

16 - María Dolores Pradera, Ferrusquilla y la playa...

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/10/23

José Ángel Espinoza, better known as Ferrusquilla, was a Mexican songwriter and actor. Early in his career he became known as El Hombre de las Mil Voces, for his ability to play multiple characters for radio drama productions and for (allegedly) being able to impersonate God himself! One of Ferrusquilla's most recorded songs was El tiempo que te quede libre. The version to top all others would be that of María Dolores Pradera, one of the most elegant performers to ever have come out of Spain

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00:18:31

15 - Putochinomaricón: El cabreo es una energía

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/10/09

Brace yourself: it’s Putochinomaricón! And he’s not amused! And he’s using the subjunctive!! “Yo creo que la buena música surge de los intestinos y del odio extremo”, says Chenta Tsai, born in 1990 of Taiwanese parents. ‘I think Good music springs from the guts and from extreme hatred’. Here's one of the key tenets of the punk ethos: anger is an energy. Chenta, aka Putochinomaricón, makes ‘the kind of music that would sound in a Chinese bazaar of the year 3000’. His songs explore the neuroticism

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00:28:14

14 - Bunbury: Miénteme, dime que me quieres

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/09/26

“Yo quería hacer un disco que le gustara a mi madre y a mi padre”, said Bunbury in 1999 while discussing Pequeño, his second solo álbum, released later that year. ‘I wanted to make a record that my mum and my dad would like’. Sure enough, the album became a major departure for Bunbury in that for the first time he embraced traditional sounds and rhythms from the Latin American and Mediterranean worlds. Infinito, our song for this episode, sees the Spanish singer-songwriter diving into old-school

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00:38:04

13 - Gabinete Caligari: Todos los caminos llevan a Soria

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/09/12

“Todo el mundo sabe que es difícil encontrar en la vida un lugar…” Thus goes the opening line of Camino Soria by Spanish band Gabinete Caligari, the song we’re discussing in this episode. By the river Duero, the town of Soria (North of Madrid, in Castilla la Mancha) becomes here an almost mystical place where one is to find peace and healing from the pains of heartbreak, betrayal and the restless hustle and bustle of Madrid during the heady years of the Movida. We will hear nouns evoking nature,

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00:20:05

12 - Walt Disney canta en español

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/02/22

We’re on a trip to Disneylandia! Today we learn about the dubbings of Disney films for Spanish and Latin American audiences. We then go on to study Lady and the Tramp’s infamous Siamese Cats Song. Listen to Si and Am singing in a suspicious Thai accent, with a genuine Mexican flavour and a touch of Yodish for good measure. Through their song we get to explore reflexive verbs, demonym adjectives and a suffix without which Ned Flanders could not utter a complete sentence. So: just the purrrrfect

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00:21:05

11 - El amor según Raphael

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/02/06

So you still don’t know what being in love is like? Stress no more: Spanish crooner Raphael gives you no less than twelve different definitions of such a state in Estar enamorado (To be in love), a song from 1981 written by the singer’s habitual partner in crime, Manuel Alejandro. Together, Raphael and Alejandro have formed one of the great partnerships in music, bringing scores of brilliant romantic classics to the Spanish songbook over the 1960’s and 1970´s. Estar enamorado is one of their last

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00:16:59

10 - Los Nikis: Balada triste de Sing Sing

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/01/09

In this episode we learn about Los Nikis, an 80’s band from Madrid, and their song from 1986 Diez años en Sing Sing. The song title and chorus reference a classic prison drama from 1932, 20000 Years in Sing Sing, starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis. It was not unusual for Spanish bands of that period to quote old books and movies in their lyrics or even in their album covers. In a letter to his sweetheart Margaret, the narrator reminisces nostalgically about his past life as a baseball star with

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00:15:56

9 - Los Ronaldos: La soledad del astronauta

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2022/01/03

In this episode we explore the song Así no se vive bien by Los Ronaldos, one of the most loved rock bands that came out of Spain in the 80’s. Their vocalist Coque Malla is still going strong today as a solo artist. In 2021 he released Soy un astronauta gigante (I am a giant astronaut), a 5-disc compilation spanning his whole career both with Los Ronaldos and solo. The narrator in our song is a Bowie-esque shape-shifter who sings away a seemingly perpetual sense of aloofness, detachment and,

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00:21:00

8 - David el Gnomo: En el corazón del bosque

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/08/13

In this episode we explore the opening theme song of David el Gnomo, an animated television series that was hugely popular in Spain during the mid-1980’s. Throughout the episode we learn about David’s domestic life and the wider gnome world. Did you know that gnomes live for several centuries, and that Spaniards – both of the gnome and human variety - don’t mind aging? We will also find out the difference between saber and conocer, our two verbs for to know; and how to be careful and pay close

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00:15:48

7 - Derribos Arias: Amor subacuático

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/08/01

In this episode we discuss Branquias bajo el agua (Gills underwater), a song by the Spanish group Derribos Arias. Ignacio Gasca, better known as simply Poch, was the leader of this band which helped to define the spirit of the Spanish movida in the early 1980's. Poch was by all accounts a colourful figure, with a taste for the surreal and the odd, much of which he brought to the music of Derribos Arias. Listen to this band's music and you will hear clear echoes of much American and British

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00:25:48

6 - José Alfredo y Chavela: La dama y el canalla

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/07/21

In this episode we discuss Vámonos, a Mexican ranchera written by José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of the 20th Century. One of many singers who helped to popularise the song was Chavela Vargas. She was close friends with Jiménez - it is well-known that they shared many a tequila together. On stage, Chavela had a truly iconic presence. Always clad in her poncho, her signature gesture was to slowly open her arms as she sang, in a warm embrace of every member of

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00:15:10

5 - Rodrigo Amarante: Vida de Pablo

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/07/14

In this episode we talk about Tuyo, the opening theme of the television series Narcos, which tells the story of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The song, commissioned specifically for the show, was written and performed by Rodrigo Amarante, a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. Amarante was inspired by the type of music that Escobar’s mother would have been listening to while raising her ambitious young son, and also way back in her own teenage years: a time

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00:14:09

4 - Almodóvar y McNamara: Los chicos quieren ser mamás

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/07/05

In this episode we learn about la movida, an exciting time of countercultural creativity that took place in Spain during the late 1970's and early 1980's, after forty long years of fascist dictatorship. One of the many punk-influenced acts to come out at this time was the duo Almodóvar y McNamara. The former would soon become Spain's most international film director, whilst Fabio McNamara was a punk-trash superstar in his own right and collaborated in many of his singing pal's early

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00:16:23

3 - La habitación de Antonio Flores

Qué Pasa, Raúl: Spanish Thru Songs ·

2021/07/05

In this episode we learn about Spanish singer-songwriter Antonio Flores, who achieved commercial success in the mid 90's with his album Cosas mías ('Stuff of mine'). Sadly, this masterful work would also be his last: shortly after the album release, Flores went into deep depression, following the death of his mother, the legendary singer, dancer and actress Lola Flores. Only two weeks after she passed, he was found dead from a drug overdose. The song we explore is track number 9 from

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