Margarita Lecuonas Tabu
9/1/2022 2:23:23 PMThe original song has suffered from much adaptation, reinterpretation from the very start, to the extent that the original meaning tends to get lost, especially in English adaptatiions (where it is almost exclusively known today as an instrumental, and from the start if ever sung at all in english, slushy romantic words were substituted. This version here is not the orginal as sung by the author, because it has an extra verse added by her cousin Ernesto Lecuona that is used in a more well-known recording by the Lecuona Cuban Boys. In my view that detracts from the pure meaning of the orginal by introducing the (no doubt valid but) tangential male concerns about racial prejudice against black men mixing with white women. In its pure form it is the longing of the descendants of slaves for the ancestral spirit gods of africa. And a remarkable creation by the original author. For this reason I always sing it in Spanish and never without those additional lines shown in this version. The musical arrangement here is unexceptionable, though of course it is the percussion, rhythm and soulful delivery that makes the performance (lacking in the Cuban Boys recording I might add.)
