Yesterday, November 11, the troubadour Vicente Feliú Miranda turned 75 years old. Although in December 2021 he physically left, he did not manage, in his case, to write in the past tense; still less use the construction “would have complied”. For this reason, against all the logic of existence, I feel that Tinto, as it is affectionately called in its surroundings, continues to celebrate its birthday.
Transcending, with evocations, with the conviction of hope and struggle as a flag, is a philosophy in Vicente’s lyrics. “My commitment is with you”, a rocking song written in 1970, is an example:
Now I return, in one hand life,
in the other death and mumbled a flower.
I have traveled a piece leaving
twenty-two Novembers and various meats without faith.
Now I return, willing even more
to shoot to kill
I’m back now, perfectly safe
that there are no more ways to be.
Now I come dressed in a man’s suit
outside and inside too,
with a sword of love hanging from his neck,
sharp and silver, for you.
Now I come loaded with all the hungers
possible to continue
mounted on winged steeds of psychopaths
and of the future,
give drowned anguish in my generation.
Now I return, friends, companions, enemies,
ready to fight again
with a man on the forehead whose name
it’s my name too.
I have come from this journey intact
and filled with centuries.
I have seen God, Martí, Whitman and others
and they have engraved their acronyms on me.
Now I come ready to give you all
what I have accumulated for you,
to rinse my hands in all your mud,
in your great wound, in your persistence.
Now I come ready to give you my back,
my hands, and my soul too.
Now I come to your side, again until forever,
until one day the man on my forehead
I removed the sword and the key in my belly
and then already…
Its message is an emotional map and a celebration of human existence, with all its dilemmas and joys.
When five years ago we celebrated Vicente’s 70th birthday, Silvio Rodríguez defined him body and soul in some memorable lines. Silvio, life brother and companion of so many Tinto battles since they crossed paths back in 1962, guitar in hand, reflected:
“It is known that life does not always reward virtue with justice. But if this friend has a reputation for something among his peers —besides irreducible troubadour—, is of human nobility. And it is that we all know that he has always been the most willing to sacrifice, a true singer of barricades, so many times not well gratified.
Vicente Feliú is supported like pitchforks of a very present life, his songs. Luckily, he had the opportunity to record most of them, recorded on several albums over more than four decades of career. However, these phonograms and his themes are little known. His imposing and tender Trust meSomehow, she outshone her sisters.
Among my favorites I rescue “1975. Final song”, included in the disc I don’t know how to stay. Don’t get carried away by the title of the song. The word “end”, when we delve into the lyrics and listen to the orchestration, reveals itself far from any meaning of end. In fact, each of the three verses of the song closes with the verse: “Hey, I’m leaving quickly to look for, to follow”.
1975. Final song
Hey, don’t be afraid of my step as an old walker
that my feet are not mine but of love
that not only in winter do I get close to the heat.
Listen well, I’m leaving quickly to search, to continue.
Hey when my son grows up take him to the sea
give him wings and a kiss on the forehead when leaving
that does not know the brake in your hand when flying.
Listen well, I’m leaving quickly to search, to continue.
Hey when behind a star you understand my smell
and the howl of a wolf remember my voice
Name me, I will have suddenly been a song.
Listen well, I’m leaving quickly to search, to continue.
With the celebration of his 75 birthday As a pretext, here I bring together photographic moments that I had the opportunity to capture with Vicente Feliú as the protagonist. I am not making a posthumous tribute: the Tinto left “to search, to follow”.
