"I don't provide solutions, but am rather a kind of sniper. I | |||||
feel like a sniper when I am composing my music. From my | |||||
fairly comfortable position, I shoot at whatever I want." ---- Frank Delgado, Singer-songwriter |
that help to form social consciousness, they have a kind of work which requires a great level of responsibility. Silvio has said that a certain kind of self-censorship exists among us, that if we do not want to be subjected to certain things then we don't talk about them. This has not been the case with me. I have spoken of everything which I have wanted to talk about. Everything that has hit me, which has made me sad, which I have felt. The trovadores have always been chroniclers. If you listen to the older songs of the traditional Trova, you will hear a lot of social reflection in those songs. I try to deal with reality. I don't know if my material is dated, and I am not preoccupied with whether my treatment is transcendental or if it takes themes to a higher level. These are very relative terms. There are songs of the Mexican Revolution from 1914 that are still being sung today. They still are valid. Times have changed but people are still facing the same conditions. I am pretty critical, pretty acidic in my treatment. But I try to put a big dose of humor into my work. I believe a lot in humor, in laughter. Martí used to say that "humor ought to hit people like a whip with rattlesnakes at the end." Others are more apologetic, or more messianic in confronting problems. Maybe very serious. There are people who like to be that way. Then there are people who like it the way I do, with humor which is a bit corrosive. I think this is a bit more in the spirit of the rhythms which I utilize, which are usually traditional Cuban rhythms. For example I use the rhythm of son, which is a great vehicle for telling a story, and is fairly easy to put a narrative to. But above all I am a type of witness - who is trying to narrate in a poetic way, an artistic way, a musical way. I didn't invent the jineteras (prostitutes), I didn't invent the apagones (blackouts), I didn't invent brujería (African-based religions), nor the loss of values, and these are things that exist which my songs reflect. Sometimes with humor, sometimes done better, sometimes worse. But at a minimum my intention is to present these kinds of problems to people without being a messiah and without presenting myself as some kind of savior. I don't provide solutions, but am rather a kind of sniper. I feel like a sniper when I am composing my music. From my fairly comfortable position, I shoot at whatever I want. I have the sensibility to recognize the problems which exist here, to set them to poetry and song. There are others who get paid to solve people's problems and who never solve anything. I don't know how to run a country. Nobody's ever going to ask me to do that. I want people to enjoy my songs, I want them to sing, I want them to laugh, and probably more than anything else I want them to be moved by my songs, to identify with them. I certainly don't sing in order to entertain people. Maybe to refresh them, but not to entertain them, which for me is just a kind of prostitution. If that was a necessity for me then maybe I would just be a prostitute. For me, to look for art for the sheer sake of entertainment is about the same as going to a brothel. And, hey, maybe everyone needs to go to a brothel once in a while. I'm not saying that that's not a necessity at times! |
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For more on Frank Delgado, including song lyrics, visit his website at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Backstage/1815/frank.html For audio of Frank Delgado songs, check out http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/8694/index.html |
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