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| Sabina - Live at the Estadio de Valencia | | (And The Effects Of Smoking) | | 01 July 2006 | | "Smoking kills!" say the cigarette packets, in what Douglas Adams might have called large (un)friendly letters; and FairgroundTown doesn't argue with doctors who carry statistics. Nevertheless, we recently saw Joaquin Sabina (the Spanish Springsteen) play live to 20,000 people at Levante's Estadio de Valencia, and discovered that smoking can have effects beyond statistics.
The conventional wisdom is that forty-odd years of his favoured cigarillos have wrecked Sabina's voice and left him a faded tableaux of the artist he once was. And, having gone back and listened again to the likes of Mentiras Piadosas and Juez y Parte we'd be the first to agree that his voice has certainly evolved.
However, the voice that we heard at the Estadio de Valencia, while rough and rasping, was also powerful and melodic. So what gives? Tobacco? Certainly! But we also think there is another answer - one that says something interesting about Spanish musical culture.
When Sabina began his 'rock' career in the early 80s he was as much influenced by traditional Spanish music as he was by (say) Springsteen or Dylan; and his vocal style was a reflection of this - distinctly clean and classical. This won him the approval of a critical base which was similarly steeped in the local musical culture, and without which his career might never have taken-off.
Nevertheless, the reality was that Sabina's songwriting genius was blinding people to the fact that, in classical terms, he was actually a very poor singer; and the years of tobacco (and God-knows what else) mean that he can no longer even pretend towards a classical style. And this is what has so upset people - not that his voice doesn't sound great, but that it no longer respects much in the way of tradition.
But for the younger members of the audience, or those (like FairgroundTown) who grew up listening to Bryan Adams and Metallica, it is the character and soul of a voice that moves us, not technical ability; and that is why we say the critics are wrong - smoking may have changed Sabina's voice, but as an artist, he has never sounded better. |
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The point is we are all connected... through love... through loneliness... through one lamentable lapse in judgment!
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