Songs of Córdoba, Songs of Madrid

Please excuse my non-postage pals, I’m away in Spain for a few weeks, making friends and meeting strangers. As a con­se­quence of my travels, I have (under­stand­ably, I hope) left behind my tech­nolo­gies for a lighter adven­ture. I’m not naked though, so I can post here and there as available.

I was fore­warned about the cul­tural journey I would soon embark upon (fried hard roe, white pid­geons, cervesa with real cere­visiae) but not about its var­ious sounds. I write now from the centre of El Arenal (they have wifi), where the music is prob­ably that new Jacob Dylan album they have for sale at the counter. What sur­prises me most about the country is a real struggle between pre­serving the authentic and building the new; in terms of infra­struc­ture and trans­porta­tion, this world is about thirty futures from my Estados Unidos. They have a working metro system in every city, cheap bike rentals, and trains that serve freshly-squeezed OJ and show Love Hap­pens in a cheap dub. But they also have his­tory — immense cathe­drals, rich museums, fes­ti­vals, restau­rants that don’t serve Frosties, etc.etc. Accord­ingly, their music is caught in a strange limbo between old and new, with some incon­gruities that add up to some­times jar­ring, some­times plea­sur­able song/site correspondences.

Here’s a break­down of the songs I’ve heard over here. Note that these are not merely the songs I rec­og­nize, rather, they are the ONLY songs I’ve heard. Forget the bells of La Giralda (I have), here’s the real music of Spain.

1. Mariah Carey — “Fantasy”

This is a real treat for me, seri­ously; not only is it Mariah’s best single, it’s one of my favorite songs of all time (ask Mike we’ve argued about this). When this is playing in the cafe­teria of the Prado, well, I know that something’s come true for me.

2. Smashing Pump­kins – “Bullet With But­terfly Wings”

Okay, here’s another one that was playing in a weird place (gift shop in Reina Sofia), but I think it kinda works. I just walked in from seeing Guer­nica, and the opening line “the world is a vam­pire” seemed just and very real.

3. Smashing Pump­kins — “Disarm”

Less accept­able and/or plea­sur­able, this one was in a Café & Te, which was my fault for being there I guess. I had a piece of toast. Bad break­fast conversation.

4. Theme to The Nev­erending Story

Kabob King in Grenada. Pushing doner kebap into my face. Wistful.

5–7. Every Cold­play single from X&Y

The time I’m thinking of involves shop­ping for a hoodie (Madrid was cold) and going into a place called “Wazzup.” Here “Speed of Sound” is low in the back­ground. Actu­ally, I’m also thinking of a small pub playing this too. And Dunkin’ Coffee (a “bake­place,” so I’m told). And the three straight months of hearing this song 37 to 44 times a day on the in-store video loop at work (yes I counted). I like the song I think, but I can’t sep­a­rate it from it’s cyclic rota­tion between a trailer for “Be Cool” and GOW ad spots.

8. Russian Red — “They Don’t Believe”

As seen on BTV once or twice, eating white melon and some toast. Russian Red had an album two years ago that did okay in the states. She’s still quite pop­ular in Spain. I hope she releases some­thing new this year, I think two years is the appro­priate waiting time. I’m including the video because it’s prac­ti­cally nec­es­sary. This is just about the only song here that I felt com­fort­able acknowl­edging in public as a song I like, which says a bit about my problems.

9. Ke$ha — “Blah Blah Blah”

The second song I’m okay with acknowl­edging that I like it because it’s kinda post-ironic (and pre-lapsarian) in a sense. This was playing on a TV in front of El Corte Ingles, the Spain-equivalent of Macy’s, or Bloom­ing­dales, or Piggly-Wiggly. It was also on BTV like twenty times in an hour.

10. The Cran­ber­ries — “Dreaming My Dreams”

Staying with primo Saul and su novia Lily, eating nice cheese and playing New Super Mario Bros. I think it couldn’t get any better, and I know it only will.

11. Willy DeV­ille — “Hey Joe”

Whis­tled by our host atop Montserrat. I think he said “Willy DeJoel,” trying to make a nice tie-in with my name (Joel).

12. The Tallest Man on Earth — “King of Spain”

Per­haps this is cheating, but I lis­tened to this on every plane, every train, every car, during every sleep­less night. Our sound­track was a single song.

xoxo, J