best songwriter in Spain, as of Catalan as the of the others Spanish
songwriters. Anyway, one thing that is true, it’s that Raimon was and
is a symbol of many dimensions of the anti-francoist resistance. With
Paco Ibáñez and Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, and with the precedent of
Teresa Rebull, Raimon was the first in singing author’s songs in
Catalan and in whole Spain, and also the first in making songs over the
great Catalan poets’ poems. Raimon came from Jativa (Cat. Xátiva; Sp.
Játiva), province of Valencia, to Barcelona for singing. His first
songs, as "Al vent" (To the wind) or "Diguem no" (Let’s say no) maybe
are still, with 18 years old, a very simple songs, but really vehement,
with his peculiar powerful tone of voice. After some performances in
tv, recitals and festivals, and also some great adventures, as to give
an illegal recital in the Complutense University’s Economic Science
faculty, regime’s censure machinery look down on him, at the same time
that people from all Spain take his songs as battle anthems, and he
became a symbol, while also get international fame, specially in
France, but also in USA, Japan, Italy… Although he was no a former,
he collaborated with the songwriters Catalan collective Setze Jutges
(Sixteen Judges). Despite all this, Raimon is more than a political
singer: he sang songs about fear, about man, about peace, love,
friendship, and return to Catalan people (and to the rest of Spain) the
great Catalan poetry: from XVI’s, as Joan Timoneda or Ausiàs March, to
contemporary as Pere Quart or, his favourite, Salvador Espriu.
que tothom siga lliure,
que tothom trobe el lloc
i el seu motiu de viure.
Del fons del fons del nucli del que sóc,
dels anys patits on tot ha estat perill,
del vell impuls, del clar bressol del crit
que ens ha fet junts i m’ha fet ser com sóc,
naix aquest cant que vol fer-se presagi
i anunciar com als pregons antics
els signes nous que ja veiem venir:
els pobles van sortint del dur naufragi.
Que tothom diga prou,
que tothom siga lliure,
que tothom trobe el lloc
i el seu motiu de viure.
Aquest serà, segons tots els indicis,
el darrer temps de por i de malson:
comença ja ben fort el gran inici,
anem posant les vides al seu lloc.
De bat a bat obrim totes les portes,
que entre el desig més gran de llibertats,
que les presons siguen contrades mortes
i que el silenci no ens siga imposat.
Que tothom diga prou,
que tothom siga lliure,
que tothom trobe el lloc
i el seu motiu de viure.
May everyone say enough,/ may everyone be free,/ may everyone find his place/ and his reason for living.// From the very bottom of the core of what I am,/ from the suffered years when all was danger,/ from the old impulse, from the clear cradle of the cry/ which has made us united and made me how I am,/ this song is born which wants to be an omen,/ and to proclaim as did the old town criers/ the new signs that we already see coming:/ the peoples are recovering from their hard shipwreck.// May everyone say enough,/ may everyone be free,/ may everyone find his place/ and his reason for living.// According to all the signs this will be/ the last time of fear and nightmares;/ the great beginning is starting very strongly,/ and we can start putting our lives in their right place.// We are opening wide all the doors/ so the greatest desire for freedom may enter,/ so the prisons may be dead places,/ and so silence is not imposed on us.// May everyone say enough,/ may everyone be free,/ may everyone find his place/ and his reason for living.
La Nova Cançó Catalana (New
Catalan Song) was a very important songwriter movement that pretended,
making of Catalan their expression way, preserve and vindicate the
language of Catalonia. Teresa Rebull, a Civil War exhiled, was the forerunner, but singer Raimon was the real beginner. The movement, principally, had two differents tendences: Els Setze Jutges (Sixteen Judges), inspired by French songwriters, and El Grup de Folk
(Folk Group), North-American folk-singers inspiration. Jutges were more
worried about Catalan poetry and refused to use Catalonia’s folklore
due to the populist use that the dictatorship was making with every
Spanish folklore; but Grup de Folk like to combine old Catalans songs
with North-American folk-songs. But in the beginnings of 70s, both were
disolved, but the movement stood. New Catalan Song was imitated by
others regional songwriters movement, borning in this way the New Songs
from Basque Country, Castilia, Galicia, Andalucia… Some of the names
of this movements are songwriters as Raimon,
Lluís Llach, María del Mar Bonet, Pau Riba, Marina Rossell, Joan Manuel
Serrat, Albert Batiste, Pi de la Serra, Ovidi Montllor; folk-groups as Al Tall and UC; folk-rock groups as Falsterbo 3 and Esquirols; and progresive and psychedelic rock bands as Companya Elèctrica Dharma or Maquina!… among others.
La Zamarra de Gustavo 