It was all very fast and a little sad. Exhilarating sometimes. There was my generation and the generation of my father and grandmother. Two kids were wearing pacifiers and didn’t know what was wrong, even though they knew something was up. … There were tears, hugs, kisses, friends, and the usual songs. Mara Barros, the band’s backup singer and Sabinian to the core, looked ready to collapse and in the row in front of her was a woman dressed in black who filled three packages of tissues in less than two hours. There was crying, there was love, there was laughter, there was pain.
The singer started out wearing a white hat and was visibly excited. He was wearing comfortable jeans and standing without pausing. In the middle of the party, he changed his clothes, his layers shone more and there was a wink, more than in the clothes in the air, to Manolete in the Plaza de Linares. Taurus squared off, saying goodbye. Fate already accepted. He bore it without tears, stoic, a true Iberian macho, but you could see something in his eyes… a smile; Maybe he grimaced.
His work is our history, the history of Spain in the transition and the pesetas, the history of the real estate boom and also the history of memes. Yesterday, the day of farewell, Joaquín Martínez Sabina, with a desperate voice and forced gestures, sang his life in the Movistar Arena. And in the tears of the city was my life, and it is everyone’s life.
The first conniving smiles began with “Marble Tears” and “Pious Lies,” the author’s song. This was followed by “Calle Melancolía” embellished with an aphrodisiac flute. It was the first time Sabina requested some choirs and the city responded enthusiastically. Then, in a classic and elegant gesture, they put a guitar on him. He was never a great musician, but the famous overture to “19 Days and 500 Nights” is as important as the Tar, the Night and the Tithes. He performed backed by the virtuoso guitarist Borja Montenegro, and the entire suite fell apart. Who among us has not suffered from closing the door? Who among us has not known the curse of an empty staircase?
Everyone’s life
He continued, saying: “The one who stole the month of April from me” is the one who broke me. Maybe I was remembering the early mornings when I walked aimlessly, listening to the rubble, searching for some answers that only came with the passing of the years. Then “More Than a Hundred Lies,” which was always one of the most upbeat statements. My colleague went crazy and started jumping around like a chihuahua without a leash while Sabina sang 100 Reasons to Go On. Free treatment. “We have the ashes of revolutions.” There is always hope.
In “Empty Beds”, led by Mara Barros, the Thin Man has disappeared to hydrate. The singer’s face was a mirror of what we had all experienced: Crushed, tense and with a touch of sadness. However, as might be expected of her, she sang freely, with an extraordinary power and absolute control of her voice, pitch and heart, which weighed heavily on her. There was also a special shine in his eyes, the kind that appears in tear-filled pupils and is difficult to explain.
This was followed by another gig and a rock ‘n’ roll friend, Jaime Asia, who sang Strictly’s “An Agreement Between Gentlemen.” Without him, as without so many others, Flacco’s career would be incomprehensible.
The second part of the ceremony was more difficult
Sabina kept saying goodbye and her poet’s voice reflected the minutes. It was the end of a long tour, lasting almost a year, and he seemed raring to go. “De Purísima y oro” shone, in which the singer from Úbeda sounded like a Manolete, and “Peces de Ciudad”, one of those who have tormented the historian from time immemorial.
“La Magdalena” has arrived, depicting the world of Torrente Ballester, the world of sun and shade, motels, carajillos and unpainted spring beds. A reality I will never experience, but which, thanks to the book, is as much mine as it was my grandfather’s. “Time passes and everything stays the same” – I said to myself.
The ending was a poem for the poet and his pen. In the midst of a riot of orgy of rhymes sounded “Street of Broken Dreams”, “However”, “Contigo” and “Princesa”, which were closed. There were tears, sober goodbyes, and the turning on of the lights.
And then, as things continued to make no sense, life resumed its course.