Aaaaaand we're back to Cuba. Guantanamera is believed to be Cuba's most popular and patriotic song, allegedly written by José Fernández Diaz (later known as Joseito Fernández) and often used in his radio show. The song is said to have stemmed from Diaz making a pass at a woman who walked by and she responded pretty harshly, offended. Diaz was so shocked by the reaction that that afternoon he went home and wrote the song out at his piano. The song was made famous for North American audiences by folk troubadour and all around good guy Pete Seeger. Seeger recorded the song in 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis as an attempt to pacify both sides of the conflict and encourage unity (you can hear Pete's version here), and it ended up being a hit for Seeger.
I couldn't find too much info about Joseito Fernández except for the fact that he helped popularize the song Guantanamera and that he passed away in 1979.
Holly:
Guantanamera (Joseito Fernandez): Oh. Guantanamera. Great. Every crappy busker with an acoustic guitar and cheap amp plays this on the subways throughout Europe! I had a hard time listening to this one objectively too. If there’s one thing I can say about the melody, it’s that it’s super catchy. It’s almost guaranteed to get stuck in your head. I love the brass, and percussion, not a huge fan of the strings in this arrangement. I sort of can’t wait until the point where the saxophone is more commonly used….I like Joseito Fernandez’s voice a lot. It’s really smooth and, well, Cuban! I’m going to say that I like the musicality, but not really the song itself. 3.5/5
Kelly:
Oh, I know this song. I can't pin down where I've heard it before, but probably just around. I humming the melody to this at work the other day and the melody is so infectious it was pretty soon in a few other people's heads. I agree with Holly, the string part is super lame, but everything else sounds great, and Joseito's voice is clear and strong and the harmony is really tight. This is not my favourite example of Cuban music, but it's really spirited and fun. 3/5
Get ready for this to be in your head forever.
Guantanamera
Two things come to mind about this song; firstly the overplayed Jose Feliciano version is infinitely inferior to this one ( the crap strings notwithstanding) and stupid me did not realize it was Cuban. The recording quality makes me think this is a fairly recent remaster but why they didn't lose the strings is a mystery to me. I like most things Cuban and Fernandez voice and feeling transports this from being a piece of pop fluff (i.e. Feliciano's version) to a fairly decent Latin folk song. 3.5/5 RD
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