Talking Sailor
And I heard the radio a telling the news,
Said the big Red army took a hundred towns,
And the Allies dropping them two ton bombs.
I started hollering, yelling.
Dancing up and down like a bullfrog.
Doorbell rung in come a man,
I signed my name, I got a telegram.
Says,"If you want to take a vacation trip,
Got a dish-washing job on a liberty ship."
Woman a crying. Me a flying.
Out the door and down the line.
'Bout two minutes I run ten blocks,
I come to my ship down at the docks.
Walked up the plank and I signed my name,
Blowed the whistle and was gone again.
Right on out and down the stream.
Ships as far as my eye could see.
Pulling away.
Ship loaded down with T.N.T.
All out across the rolling sea.
I stood on the deck and watched the fishes swim,
I was a-praying them fishes wasn't made of tin.
Sharks. Porpoises.
Jelly beans, rainbow trouts, mud-cats, jew-gars,
All over that water.
This convoy's the biggest I ever did see,
It stretches all the way out across the sea.
The ships blow their whistles and ring their bells,
Gonna blow them Fascists all to Hell.
Win some freedom. Liberty.
Stuff like that.
Walked to the tail, stood on the stern,
Looking at the big brass screw-blade turn,
Listened to the sound of the engines pond:
Came sixteen feet every time it went round.
Gets closer and closer.
Look out, you Fascists!
I'm just one of the merchant crew,
I belong to the union called the N.M.R.
I'm a union man from head to toe,
I'm U.S.A. and C.I.O.
Fighting out here on the waters.
Win some freedom. On the land.
(1963)
El trovador cubano Silvio Rodríguez abrió el 1 de septiembre en el Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona su nueva gira por el Estado español con un concierto de 22 canciones que fue creciendo paulatinamente hasta desembocar en una sucesión final de clásicos. A punto de cumplir 80 años, Rodríguez mostró una voz sólida, mantuvo la habitual sobriedad de sus conciertos, dejando que fueran las canciones y la poesía las que expresaran aquello que apenas necesitó explicar con palabras.
Las plataformas digitales democratizaron el acceso a la música y multiplicaron las posibilidades de publicación para miles de artistas. Sin embargo, dos décadas después de su irrupción, el mercado parece avanzar hacia una dirección inesperada: los éxitos son cada vez más locales, los algoritmos refuerzan las fronteras culturales y, salvo los artistas mainstream, resulta cada vez más difícil descubrir en nuestros escenarios a músicos procedentes de otros países, especialmente cuando deben cruzar un océano.