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Son de la Lira is a Huapango or Son (song), which is a traditional Mexican style of music played along different regions of Latin American and The United States.
HUAPANGO derives from the NAHUATL word "dancing on wood." And although most huapangos and Sons are written, sung and performed in a "decimal poetic form" or a ten-line metrical stanza,
Son de la Lira breaks the rule by letting its verses flow in free prose form but keeping guitar strumming patterns of great similitude to those used in Huapango Music.
The song's also incorporates rhythm motifs from Venezuelan Joropo music and its lyrics alludes to the relationship between a troubadour and his guitar, thus paying tribute to the "Nueva Canción Movement" or Latin American protest song of the 60s and 70s. A time when most countries of the region were ruled under iron feast right wing dictatorships and many folk singers were forced to live in exile and or clandestinity for contesting oppressive undemocratic ways.
SON DE LA LIRA
(English Version)
SONG OF THE LYRE
I hope the sun rises tomorrow
To be with her
I hope the sun rises tomorrow
To be with her
She and I as the only witnesses of our bard and Quixote love
In the city or under a tree
Daydreaming futures, like little gods creating other worlds
Against death and fertilizing in what is fruitful
I hope the sun rises tomorrow
To be with her
When sorrows drown my soul
And my heart is sad
My hands need to touch her
To give my life a little reason
To bring you some of her singing
She is my Aladdin's lamp, my Pandora's Box she is
A rifle of mesmerizing projectiles
What for a witch a
Broom can be
My guitar is my visa and passport
My guitar is my intrepid flying ship
I hope the sun rises tomorrow
To be with this one:
This one that helps me live
This one that helps me think
This one that helps me travel
Sounds from the lyre I came here to sing
Lend me your sister so I can dance with her
This is a syrup of cosmic jongleur
A mixed race crucible
Of Native, African and Spanish
This song of mine stings
It stings
Your body, soul and reason
Un Verdadero Amor is a "Bolero" composition in its own right. The song maintains two typical characters of the mid 19th Century Cuban original genre; a gentle rhythmic 3/4 beat and a lyrics that starts with a bittersweet narrative but ends with a vindictive eternal love.
A TRUE LOVE
(English Version)
When I met you
I was a famished and gray tattoo
Who wandered in the belly of the night
In the fatal depths of that profound pain
Deep emptiness and pain
Crystal tear
Broken wing, rusty and
Deaf metal
Under clouds of sadness and
The disappointment of
Not having found true love
But you came
And with you life shone
You were the muse of a warrior
His Varinia, His star
His sword, his shield and
Inspiration
Now that you are here
I want to share
My weapon of the soul
The happiness that only gives me
Having with me
A true love
That is why when with me
You are not
I know that I cannot be happy
And it is that I do not conceive
Existing without love
Without a true love
Without a true love
Without a true love
A Bossa Nova with a very smoky and mysterious jazzy sound, where the taste of its mother musical form Samba, is still present and transpiring through the percussion rhythmic phrases and tropical string harmonies.
LA Zoo's lyrics are not a typical melancholic or impossible love bossa nova-story but rather an existential, social and poetic chronicle of the everyday life, events and circumstances of a estranged working class individual living in one of the metropolis's many ghettos where time never seems to change and progress is almost impossible to come about the lives of many of its dehumanized and disenfranchised characters because "everything happens and nothing happens in the city".
L.A. ZOO
(The Los Ángeles City Zoo)
(English Version)
He opened his eyes
And turned off the alarm
What woke him up
At six
Spat snakes
And took the towel
To the shower he headed
He resented the nausea
The hangover
Inheritance from the night before
He closed the faucet
And saw his dreams
Diluted with soap
He picked up his rugs
And got dressed
He wrote the poem
Which he never finished
He opened the door
And went
With his thermos mug
Towards the car
He started the old engine
Luckily this time
It did not fail him
He turned up the volume on the radio
And the commute to work
Undertook
He saw crackheads and winos
Cleaning windshields
For a couple of quarters
Laborers and broken hassle dolls
Waste of big capital
He spotted sadistic policemen
Very early
Tracking brown skin victims
He saw in the corner
Jehovah statues
Selling a false kingdom
Of God
A hoodlum ran (Towards) Through him
The hoodlum waved strange
Hand signs at him
And bullied him
But he managed to escape
And a joint he smoked
After the scare
He took the 110 Freeway
Stomped on the accelerator
He played a Pink Floyd song
And
In the metropolis
He got lost
Because
Everything happens and nothing happens
In the city
Everything happens and nothing happens
In the city of L.A
The tittle itself should prepare the audience to expect a story of
lament, serious reflection and or a homage to a dead loved one.
In this case the elegy is dedicated to the composer's
mother and brother with the pending sentiments left unexpressed by
a sudden and tragic dead.
The song is not a condemnation to their deaths per se, but rather an unequivocal celebration of their lives, sweet memories and integral principles their love and care left behind.
Music wise this piece barrows elements from Brazilian "Samba-Canção" and other Latin American folk music ballad styles where guitar arpeggios and gloomy-melancholic melodies are predominant.
The connection to Brazilian music is evident by the percussion, guitar riffs and singing melodies' syncopation with a hint of Cuban "Nueva Trova" harmonic influence.
ELEGIA A PAYIN MARGO
(English Version)
To my magma
To the matrix of my blue star
To the elemental walls of my world
To my root
To the petrified traces of it
Elegy to my shadow
In water
To my carnal mirror
To my first life hero
Of flesh and bone
To my Enkidu
For his sure hand
For his certain advice
Love song
Elegy of fire
Today I would like to compose
The deepest elegy
Of love
To my brother and my mother with love
Without worrying about adjectives
Metaphors, arpeggios
Or the cruel time
And COVID that took him from me
Without having to lie
Without trying to imitate
Aware of not forgetting
That what I am of love
Is for you
For you
I am
Payin and Margoth
This is the song with which I invoke my dead
This is the song
That overcame fear
This is the song
Which does not attend funerals
This is the song of fire
My love song
I know we were never rich
But you always had plenty
Of moral and ethic
Affection and humanity
And that is now the inheritance
That makes up the essence
Of this singing of mine
For my mourning turn off
There in my gray mourning
Between clouds of incomprehension
Your blue star will shine
To clear up my confusion
When I least expected it
I saw that you were no longer here
Since then there is in me
A hole in my heart
That is why I sing to you
This elegy of fire
To burn my mourning
And celebrate your life
With love
A pop rock song that provides us with a tenor melody of catchy affectionate lyrics, perfect for cheering and celebrating any friend or family member's special day.
BIRTHDAY TUNE
And many more!
Today, it is your birthday
And we're going to celebrate
With a party of a lifetime
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
We've got your presents
And a cake
Confetti and balloons
A turning disco ball
And your favorite tunes
We're going to have a blast
Dancing from dawn to dusk
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you
The album's title song, Cósmico Juglar is a folk rock piece that describes the spiritual rebirth of a nomad songwriter that overcomes personal turmoil, addictions and emotional traumas through his love for life, poetry and music.
COSMIC JONGLEUR
(English Version)
Between chronicles and chimeras
Mental injury traits
Spiritual hangovers
And bottoms of cups
Already drunk
I meet
With myself
Changing shell;
A nomad without a tribe
A minstrel of cosmic race
Daydreaming at school,
At work
And in the neighborhood,
Adding the sequel
Of an imaginary concert;
I sing the vibes
That transcend
From the bone
I give in to the sound
To be its owner and prisoner
And so I live life
Tangled in dreams
Kidnapped by songs
With losses and efforts
Wanting to add a lot
But subtracting myself
In the little
This is the agony
That tortures all madmen
Forging poems
They say I myself
Don't understand
I shoot on winged verses
Singing what today
It is happening.
And so I live life
Tangled in dreams
Kidnapped by songs
With losses and efforts
But there is a light
That never goes out
I am the light
That didn't turn off
I am the light
That the miracle
Did not turn off
A smooth and passionate apotheosis of love poem turned into a jazzy ballad. This song lists metaphors of natural elements sustained by a simple but extraordinary arrangement of guitar, flutes, upright bass, brass and drums that reach a musical climax with the porcelain voice of extraordinary singer Elena Diaz and the strings of Maestro violinist, Roberto Paolo Riggio.
TATTOO
(English Version)
When I kiss you
Precipitous volcanic explosions
All over my body
Occur
Time pauses
Libidinous spasms in
A grotto of humid fire
What an apotheosis of love!
Angel’s blood
Chalice of the sun
What a sublime dream!
If your eyes are the dream
I never want to wake up
If you were canvas
With my tongue I would tattoo
Supernovae expanding the
Universe
You are the moon and
I, the delusional beacon
Reflected in your
Convex sea
What an apotheosis of love!
Angel's blood
Chalice of the sun
What a sublime dream!
If your eyes are the dream
I never want to wake up
Originally conceived as a commissioned piece of musical work for a play in commemoration of the Mexican holiday "Day of the Dead" or Día de los Muertos in Spanish (November 1 and 2), Balada de la Muerte served Nelson Saga as a great opportunity for exploring a recurring and inherent troubadour's theme: Life and Death.
The song is dedicated to the Chicano (Mexican-American) social activist and poet, Raúl R. Salinas, Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton and Russia’s founder of modern literature, Alexander Pushkin.
The lyrics are peppered with various stories of death, from a satirical drug overdose to a femicide and from tragic deaths of immigrants to other factual geopolitical crimes against humanity.
BALLAD OF THE DEATH
(English Version)
Dying of laughter
The joker said
-"That, not even dead
I would do".
And so it was that
He who did not want
Later on
More and more asked of it
Oh death, what irony
He died of an overdose;
Neurotic-compulsive death
She was dying of desire
And killing the desire
She screamed naked at about her lover
With lust and passion:
-"Kill me, kill me baby!"
And so her husband
Found her on the spot
And her death wish was fulfilled;
Passionate death
Life comes and goes
Death dances incessantly
Everything has a solution in this life
Whether you are ugly or beautiful
Whether you are rich or poor
Everything but Death
Cold dead
Sizzling Death
At sea and desert
Dead of hunger
Dead of thirst at the border
Their only crime being
The color of their skin
Militiaman killing migrants
Racist Death
In Palestine they die
Innocent children
Accomplice silence
Toothless justice
Ayotzinapa (Mexico) searching for
43 missing teachers
Not one more, not one less
There is no housing
Schools or hospitals
Deadly savage neoliberalism
Life comes and goes
Death dances incessantly,
Everything has a solution in this life
Whether you are ugly or beautiful
Whether you are rich or poor
Everything but Death
A self biographical tune that describes the political causes and family events that made the composer flee his civil war-torn homeland of El Salvador as a child and migrate north-bound to the United States in the 80s.
A true heartrending story of a refugee's struggle for survival and for finding redemption away from hate and rancor. This live version is accompanied by an acapella intro with the words: “Do not cut down the little tree,Which the sweetest fruit of life
Shall give” in Farsi language by exceptional Iranian vocalist
Mohammad Firoozi.
ESCAPE
(English Version)
Perhaps it would have
Had been easier
To keep on living with my blindness
Than at an early age
To start myself wondering about
God, life, death
The earth, and the universe;
Why are there haves
And have nots?
My father still worked
Close to his seventies
My mom was eaten by
Diabetes and debts
If I don't escape
The same path for me awaits
Good bye homeland, friends
And family. I must go
I must go away
From this tropical hell!
On the beast's back I escaped
In the train of death
Its rail tracks
Make dreams come true
Its rail tracks
Eat people away
My cousin Willi was
A peace loving rocker
He was falsely accused
Of being a guerrilla rebel
One very strange morning
He appeared beheaded
We collected his body
From the municipal dump
He will no longer sing
His favorite rhapsody
"Mama ooh, ooh, ooh!"
I used to listen to Los Guaraguao
And Radio Venceremos
A snitch neighbor gave me in
The Death Squad
Went to my house
Good bye homeland, friends
And family. I must go
I must go away
From this tropical hell!
On the beast's back I escaped
In the train of death
Its rail tracks
Make dreams come true
Its rail tracks
Eat people away
Though the war stole
My childhood and country
It never took away
My desire to live
And be happy
Though the war stole
My childhood and country
It never took away
My desire to live
And be happy
A folk song infused with Baroque guitar and violin style. The lyrics dwell into and set questions with wit and honesty, about the causes behind some of the most critical geopolitical events of the 21st. Century. Of which humanity as a whole has been made hostage of a fateful endless game by big pharma, financial greed and the world's mighty military complex.
CASUS BELLI
(English Version)
Tell me the name
Of the coward
That ordered
To knock down
Those two towers
And how can
Without being controlled implosion,
Nine seconds
Malverse the factual reasons?
The Naked Emperor
Wanders around
The truth hidden before your eyes
The night lights up in Babylon
With death, greed and hatred
The whore of Wall Street
Makes fun of you, makes fun of me
Mocks at itself
From the East
A pandemic broke out
The capital system was
Condemned to quarantine
The superheroes
Of cinema are nowhere
To be found
In their place there are only
Doctors and nurses
The Naked Emperor
Wanders naked
The cure is sold to you
By who makes you sick
Fear is an epidemic
Which paralyzes and
Poisons your mind
After the lockdown
Came the New World Order
But I will rather continue
Dreaming of a more harmonious and
Just humanity
A lullaby of absolute tenderness for a child not yet born. A dreamy and neo-romantic poetry, propelled by fine guitar arpeggios.
LULLABY
(English Version)
Sleep on… my child
Daddy is going to sing
To the beautiful
Dark skin girls
About to dream of
Pegasus on the moon
Choral carousel
Unicorns that gallop
Toward your
Shooting star
You are an aquatic backpack
That rides to the front
For nine months
Of that who will
Give birth to you
Mystery pearl
Miraculous cargo
You are more than just
Flesh and bones
You are my happiness
Sleep on...my child
12 / CIPITIO
A legendary character from El Salvador’s folklore revolving Around other legends and characters such as the Siguanaba witch And the Cadejo dog. Cipitio derives from the Mayan-Nahuatl word for child : Cipit, Cipitl or Cipote.
CIPITIO
(English Version)Amilcar, Amilcar Was a kid,
A hard headed rascal and glutton. He didn’t like bathing nor doing his homework,
only watching television:
nailed to his Nintendo!
At midnight he used to get up from bed and would go to the kitchen,
to eat pupusas*,
the family breakfast!
And in the morning his mama would ask:
who ate the pupusas?
Amilcar responded,
he swore and nearly convinced her: Oh mother, it wasn’t me!
Yet he had a huge belly before him, bigger than an elephant’s,
roaring louder than a lion.
But one night,
as usual he left his bed for the kitchen
and what was his surprise?:
he found Cipitio
and that night Cipitio took him to the Devil’s Gate.
"And so this happens for being hard headed you see,
Cipitio took Amilcar away!
So, all children that misbehave
Cipitio will take them away!"
Spoken word part:
Let it be known and be aware that Cipitio is a character of excellent Cuscatlecan, Pipil-Mayan, Quiche or Lenca mythology.
Only child of the so called Siguanaba (Sihuehuet), the beautiful princess who for unbridled passion and pernicious disobedience was transformed into a frightful witch by the sacred council of Mayan deities.
Cipitio:
with his beaming blood shot eyes, his belly full of worms, his straw hat and his backward feet
dedicated himself to the strange task of consuming ashes from wood stove homes.
Promoting in this matter an influential fear among those children who misbehave.
Luckily, ou friend Amilcar, who during the Salvadoran Civil War would lose a leg due to an anti personal land mine,
this time managed to escape safe from the rascal Cipitio’s clutches and he, himself, was able to tell the above mentioned tale that says and repeats:
And so this happens for being hard headed you see,
Cipitio took Amilcar away!
So, all children that misbehave
Cipitio will take them away!"
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