A milonga about boredom and melancholia in the pampa

LOS EJES DE MI CARRETA

This song was composed by the folklore musician and singer Atahualpa Yupanqui, with lyrics by Romildo Risso. It was recorded within two weeks in October of 1947 by Troilo and Canaro; Atahualpa Yupanqui himself only recorded it in 1960.

It's a very melancholic song about the boredom of a rural worker. He doesn't want to grease the axles of his cart because their sound is the only distraction he has in his life. "No necesito silencio".

These are the versions I want to present:

Atahualpa Yupanqui, 20th of May in1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9g9jvZ4yJ0

Aníbal Troilo with Edmundo Rivero, 7th of October in 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSJJ_bcDds

Francisco Canaro with Alberto Arenas and Enrique Lucero, 20th of October in 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_5K5uGyqU4

Atahualpa's version:

This is not music for dancing, it's a milonga campera for a singer with his guitar. Atahualpa sings slowly and with pauses, gentle and meditative, with beautiful interludes of the guitar.

Troilo's version:

This version is energetic and melancholic at the same time. The instrumental part has a driving rhythm, played by the tutti, with slight rubatos, like stumbling, and the piano playing bordoneo - and then Troilo's bandoneon that suspends everything for a moment (at 0:30), until the machine starts once more. Edmundo Rivero with his deep voice brings calmness while the orchestra keeps the energetic rhyhtm and discreetly accompanies the singer. Each part of the lyrics is repeated, and in the repetition Rivero sings a bit more gentle and more expressive. And at the end of the last verse, in the sad part of the lyrics - "Yo no tengo en quién pensar; tenía, pero hace mucho" - everything slows down, the orchestra accompanies with a downward scale, Troilo's bandoneon comes in, and the song fades out.

Canaro's version:

This version is, like Troilo's, energetic and melancholic, and it has as well the "stumbling" rubato in the instrumental part. But it's more heavy and more regular. The two singers alternate in singing a line and its repetition, and the last verse is sung by the duet. The orchestra accompanies the singing very lively and loudly, with countermelodies - often different ones - of the violins and the bandoneons; and the singing itself is not so subtle and expressive. Then, after the last verse, everything slows down and gets dark towards the extremely extended end.

(For both Troilo's and Canaro's versions, this piece must be the last in a tanda!)