Arganaraz: Wild nights of tango

AQUELLAS FARRAS (ARGAÑARAZ*)
(Those wild parties)
Words: Enrique Cadícamo
Music: Roberto Firpo
Tango, 1930

On YouTube:
Carlos Gardel
Tino García w/ Orq. Angel D'Agostino (1952)
Ricardo Tanturi (Instr., 1940)
Orq. Adolfo Pérez "Pocholo" (Instr., 1949)

[Photo: (Translation) "I'M ON A BENDER!... I request of whoever finds me sloshed, tie this tag to the buttonhole of my jacket.... SEND ME HOME!.... Name: Mayol, Manuel.... Address: Avenue de Mayo 1334, 3rd fl..... Please, do not knock! Just ring the bell and wait for them to come and get me.]

Tiempos viejos y compadres
de mi vida cadenera*
que ya no volverán
mis años a gozar.
¿Qué habrá sido de esa barra
bravucona y trencillera
que tanto dio que hablar
por su guapear?

Old times and the pals
of my vigorous days,*
my years to enjoy,
that will never return.
What’s become of that
rowdy, quarrelsome gang
that caused so much talk
by its swaggering about?

(Recitado)
Adiós, amigos de entonces,
ya estamos viejos de tanto andar.

Marcando una candombeada
fue luciendo medias lunas
y entre cortes y quebradas
iba el tango provocador.
Me acuerdo de aquellas farras
Que entre fuelles dormilones,
Ritmaban los corazones
Un pasaje sentimental.

(Spoken)
Goodbye, friends of yesteryear,
we’re old now from all that running around.

Leading a candombeada
and showing off the media lunas,*
between cortes and quebradas,
the tango raised a ruckus.
I remember those wild parties where,
among sleepy bandoneons,
a soulful riff
set the rhythm of our hearts.

Siglo de oro de ese tiempo
donde el Ñato Monteagudo
borracho de pernó
se quiso suicidar,
Y del loco Puentecito
y del viejito Lossano...
¡No los he vuelto a ver...!
¿Dónde estarán...?

That golden age, that time
when Pug-nose Monteagudo,*
drunk on pernod,
wanted to kill himself,
and crazy Little Puente,
and my old buddy Rossano...
I haven’t seen them around!
Where can they have gone?

(Adiós, amigos de entonces,
ya estamos viejos de tanto andar.

Goodbye, friends of yesteryear,
we’re old now from all that running around.

NOTES:

* my ruffian life: mi vida cadenera. The word cadenero is a Lunfardo term for a pimp or rufián, also valiente (brave or valiant) or esforzado (vigorous, energetic). The latter interpretation seems more apt here.

* leading a candombeada and showing off media lunas, between cortes and quebradas, the tango raised a ruckus: As my Uruguayan correspondent Lucia Figueroa has pointed out below, a candombeada is a parade (cumparsa) of dancers and drummers performing candombe music, a custom which is still observed every February in Uruguay in a series of high-spirited gatherings called llamadas. Half-moons (media lunas) and stars are important symbols of African derivation that are prominently displayed on these occasions (see illustration, and here). Cortes and quebradas are typical figures of the early, candombe-inflected tango (canyengue). Thus the passage alludes to the historical importance of the candombe in the development of tango and milonga. (Revised 7 April 2015.)

* Argañaraz: A very short street (one block only) in Buenos Aires, probably named in honor of Francisco de Argañaraz y Murguía (1563-1602), a Spanish conquistador who founded the city of San Salvador de Jujuy in the Túcuman Territory. Calle Argañaraz is in the barrio of Palermo, running from Calle Lavalleja to the Avenida del Estado de Israel. It is just a few blocks from present day tango clubs like Club Malcolm, La Viruta, and Salon Canning. Perhaps it was the location of one of the condombeadas the song memorializes.

* Pug-nose Monteagudo: The identity of this character is revealed in the article "Muchachos que andan paseando."

 

Comments

[Lucia Figueroa]

This is a picture to understand the reference to "Marcando una candombeada fue luciendo medias lunas"

http://vosenplural.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/1476148_10200133412616800_1336753600_n.jpg?w=604

[Michael]

Tell us what we are looking at, Lucia. Who painted this? When? What does it represent? How do you interpret it?

[Lucia Figueroa]

Yes, this was a random image to show the medialunas (half moons) in the comparsas. Here in Uruguay a comparsa is a group of people who play and dance candombe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candombe).
This is a picture taken on the annual carnival parade on februaray ("Las llamadas"): http://www.elacontecer.com.uy/imagenes_noticia/10747_Urafrica%20trinidad.JPG

There are many characters in a comparsa, among these characters we have the people who carry the stars and half moons, elements who remember the respect the African people had for these symbols.

As you might now, candombe, tango and milonga have a common root and they have evolved on their own ways to become the musical representants from el Rio de la Plata.
Nowadays candombe is everywhere in Uruguay, while tango is not that popular. In Argentina is just the opposite.

Returning to the song, candombe is a extremely catchy rhythm, and a party is thrown instantly every time a group of drums start playing to it, so I understand this reference in a song related to a guy who jumps from party to party :)

Note apart, if you come to Uruguay in february you must assist to the comparsas' parade of "Las llamadas"!

[Michael Lavocah]

Hi Michael, Cadícamo's lyric may date fro 1930, but there is an earlier one from 1914 or possibly even 1913 - about which I know next to nothing. Apparently the original sheet music calls it a "tango parisien":
www.worldcat.org/title/vlad-tango-arganaraz-tango-criollo/oclc/497676556