I really believe that. And I also believe that music and songs have, in some ways, even more of an influence on who we are and who we become. Think of traditional songs that become part of the language, culture and identity of a people. Think of protest songs that can spark social movements.
When the Portuguese dictatorship came down, it all started with a song. One song on the radio started the Carnation Revolution, one song was the signal for the uprising against the dictatorship.
Music and words within a melody have a way of embedding themselves on our mind and our hearts. They can linger within us, in the background, totally forgotten until a melody, a smell, a sound, a feeling, bring them back and they take over us again.
The feeling comes back, the emotion, and that melody, that rhythm, those words that we haven't thought about, we haven't felt for so long overwhelm us. And we know them all, every word. Decades later, we can sing the whole song.
We all know that feeling.
So what are those songs that always lived within me. Songs that I seldom listen to but I know every word but always overwhelm me with emotion. Those songs that have brought me solace in dark times or taught me lessons that have guided me through life and helped me make sense of the world?
I thought I'd explore and reflect on some of them and I had to start with a Basque folk song by Mikel Laboa with words by Xabier Lete.
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| Lete, Iriondo and Laboa in 1966 (all members of Ez Dok Amairu) |
Izarren Hautsa (Stardust)
This song is everything for me. A song that has brought me solace and comfort. A song that brings hope and also gives sense to life and the universe.
The words to the song were written by one of the greatest poets in the Basque Country, Xabier Lete. Lete grew up under Franco's dictatorship which denied and oppressed Basque culture. His poetry and music explored and dealt with Basque culture and identity which, often also turned into larger questions of identity, purpose in life and existentialism.
In the mid to late 1960s, Xabier Lete and Mikel Laboa were part of a group called Ez Dok Amairu. This group brought together musicians, writers and artists (painters and sculptors) who were keen to revive and reclaim Basque culture and identity.
Mikel Laboa, who later became the greatest Basque folk and protest singer, took Lete's words from a poem called Izarren Hautsa and wrote a song that was epic and beautiful scope. One of those songs that casts a powerful spell and, yet, is so vulnerable at the same time.
This song became a staple in Mikel Laboa's concerts and, I would say, it quickly turned into a traditional song, a song that everyone in the Basque Country knew and could sing.
Lete who was a singer songwriter too, recorded his own version of the song with the same words but a different melody. While I love Lete's music, it's Mikel Laboa's version of the song, which ironically he composed first, that has always stayed with me.
I wrote a blog post years ago with my attempt at translating this incredible song into English. Here's the translation:
Across time stardust became life matter
and from matter we sprung, somehow
and thus we live, creating opportunities time and time again
without pause: toiling and moving forward
all of us connected to that chain.
We are compelled to tame our environment
living in that battle and that is our truth.
and we persevere, unable to stop in our attempt
for knowledge and light: toiling to find the dark paths,
and putting their lives at risk, to bring forth new laws.
Humankind's duty is to knowledge, to change by knowing,
to be one with nature and to establish relationships.
And sharing our strengths, anchoring our roots to the ground,
To persist: Creating yes, with war on no,
Taking denial as a law, to march ever forward.
Those who are in need know well how good it is to have
Humans always live wanting to fulfil their needs.
We, too, are something and let's try to see
from where we stand: Casting aside our crazy dreams
burning the dirty weeds once and for all, to choose a good path.
Humankind's duty is to knowledge, to change by knowing,
to be one with nature and to establish relationships.
From the same trunk from which we were born, others will arise,
young branches of trees that will continue the struggle.
Those who will build their own opportunities and rise again when they fall
Those who will make our dream come true with clear reason,
In the strength and light of events.
And the dream is transformed into a mirror of truth,
an old people will anxiously set off on a new path;
all will be ready and eager to take what was built by all,
to fulfil our lives: but dirty money has no heart
we shall rein it in so that it won't grow taller than man.
In this song, Lete explores our place in the universe, our reason to be and our purpose in life. The ending of the poem is a powerful statement. In the context of the mid-1970s, when Lete was a left leaning writer with a conscience confronting the final days of a conservative dictatorship, that's a strong statement.
But Laboa made a change... his song ends with a repeated refrain that echoes the constant cycle of renewal, as the universe and time move ever forward. Laboa sings...
From the same trunk from which we were born, others will arise,
young branches of trees that will continue the struggle.
This was a stroke of genius from Laboa. That refrain, which leads to a stunningly beautiful musical outro, stays with you. It's a magic spell. A refrain of hope and renewal.
We toil and we struggle. We gather knowledge and we learn, to make our lives and those of others better, to improve our society and our world. That is our purpose and then... then we have to leave it to those young branches that spring from the same trunk we all come for, for them to continue the struggle while we rejoin the stars.
This is a song that has always moved me and that always reminds there is purpose and sense amid the seeming chaos. There is always hope, but we must work hard to move forward, to improve, to make things better.
