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!)