A comparison with an extreme contrast
ADI紎 ARRABAL
Adi鏀 arrabal was written in 1930 by Juan Bauer
(music) and Carlos Lenzi (lyrics), and it was only recorded
twice. The two versions, from 1930 and from 1941, are from
different decades and also from stylistically very different
orchestras: The avant-gardists of the twenties, the sexteto
run by the De Caro brothers Julio and Francisco; and the
popular "Los 嫕geles" 聲gel D'Agostino with 聲gel Vargas.
This is one of many tangos about the barrio, the
home, which is loved but not idealised. In the lyrics, that
contain some lunfardo words, the protagonist leaves his poor
neighbourhood to find a better life; and in the next verse,
not having found it, he comes back to his home and his mother.
Julio de Caro with Pedro Lauga (15th of March,
1930)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VcK_jzxTi8
聲gel d'Agostino with 聲gel Vargas (9th of
September, 1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBOe68gKPDo
De Caro's version, where we can clearly
distiguish the two violins and the two bandoneons of the
sexteto, takes expressiveness to extremes. The violins
sometime play sometimes high and shrill, sometimes low and
lascivious, with rubatos at any time. In the B part we have a
dialogue a capella between the two bandonens, and in the
second A part an even more crazy dialogue between the two
violins, always accompanied by Francisco De Caro's piano that
keeps the music grounded in all the crazyness, playing
sometimes chromatic and dissonant. The singing of Pedro Lauga
is congenial, not beautiful, more like shouting, and
accompanied gently by a playful violin; only the first part
(about leaving the arrabal) is sung.
D'Agostino's version has a completely different
spirit. It sounds warm and peaceful, really like "at home".
The orchestra plays transparently with the instrumental groups
changing roles between main melody, countermelody, and
interlude. The singer is integrated in the orchestra as
another instrument, and 聲gel Vargas's warm voice expresses
the sentimental view at the arrabal. In this version, the
verse about the protagonist coming back is also sung, and in
the end some references to tango as part of the home are more
spoken than sung.
A translation with background info by Michael
Krugman:
https://tangodecoder.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/adios-arrabal-return-of-a-repentant-rascal/