Gloria Estefan Reappraisal Month
Jonathan writes over on Bilbo's Laptop:
["Mi Tierra" is] a hell of a song, and I hear more in it every time I return to it. It was even a minor hit on various English-language charts, including in the UK and Australia; and I have to wonder why it's not talked about more. Is the Spanish language too daunting? The Cubanismo too specific? Estefan herself too easily dismissed as a pop lightweight? (I've done it myself, based mostly on the fact that everyone I knew who liked her in the 90s were women in their forties.) Consider this a call for Gloria Estefan Reappraisal Month. Or at the very least, point me to the places I've missed where people have given her her due. [emphasis added]
I never gave her career its due, that's for sure, maybe 'cause she made everything sound easy. Miami Sound Machine pulsed energetically but too far in the distance for me; then she caught me for 3 minutes and 54 seconds of quiet longing and obsession on the AC dial:
I gushed to Jonathan thusly:
"Can't Stay Away From You": heart throbbing and heart stopping, almost deadly still, but not at all placid. At the time, I would put it on mixtapes next to the Carpenters' "Superstar," either before "Superstar" (in which case "Superstar" is a murmur that turns into a wail, letting loose all the arrested pain of the previous number) or after (in which case "Can't Stay Away From You" is the sad aftermath, unfolding into infinity).
I haven't learned to listen to "smooth"; by my definition, "Can't Stay Away From You" is too slow and stark to be smooth, even if there are no jagged features. I'd say the same about Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," though I'm sure both could make it onto smooth radio. Whereas "Si Voy A Perderte," which is far more eventful than "Can't Stay Away From You," has glisten on its surface, so a feeling of less friction. If my ears ever do learn to penetrate the Smooth, some of what I've overlooked will hit me powerfully, emotions in a shiny skyscraper, but this hasn't happened yet.
After "Can't Stay Away From You" she went on to a dull glisten, and I blinked off... or I thought she went on to a dull glisten, but Jonathan has a whole other story to tell, as Gloria fades among the Anglos but grows strong on Latin radio.
I urge you to follow Bilbo's Laptop, which is Jonathan Bogart strolling through the Number One Hits on the Billboard Hot Latin Chart from 1986 onward (he's up to October 16, 1993). This is one of nine blogs of Jonathan's, which provide the most eye-opening writing I've discovered this year, on music, on culture. (If we could get a crew willing to risk conversing on the Bilbo's Laptop comment threads the way people do on Tom Ewing's Popular, we'd teach each other a whole shitload we didn't know, I'll betcha.)
["Mi Tierra" is] a hell of a song, and I hear more in it every time I return to it. It was even a minor hit on various English-language charts, including in the UK and Australia; and I have to wonder why it's not talked about more. Is the Spanish language too daunting? The Cubanismo too specific? Estefan herself too easily dismissed as a pop lightweight? (I've done it myself, based mostly on the fact that everyone I knew who liked her in the 90s were women in their forties.) Consider this a call for Gloria Estefan Reappraisal Month. Or at the very least, point me to the places I've missed where people have given her her due. [emphasis added]
I never gave her career its due, that's for sure, maybe 'cause she made everything sound easy. Miami Sound Machine pulsed energetically but too far in the distance for me; then she caught me for 3 minutes and 54 seconds of quiet longing and obsession on the AC dial:
Click to viewI gushed to Jonathan thusly:
"Can't Stay Away From You": heart throbbing and heart stopping, almost deadly still, but not at all placid. At the time, I would put it on mixtapes next to the Carpenters' "Superstar," either before "Superstar" (in which case "Superstar" is a murmur that turns into a wail, letting loose all the arrested pain of the previous number) or after (in which case "Can't Stay Away From You" is the sad aftermath, unfolding into infinity).
I haven't learned to listen to "smooth"; by my definition, "Can't Stay Away From You" is too slow and stark to be smooth, even if there are no jagged features. I'd say the same about Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," though I'm sure both could make it onto smooth radio. Whereas "Si Voy A Perderte," which is far more eventful than "Can't Stay Away From You," has glisten on its surface, so a feeling of less friction. If my ears ever do learn to penetrate the Smooth, some of what I've overlooked will hit me powerfully, emotions in a shiny skyscraper, but this hasn't happened yet.
After "Can't Stay Away From You" she went on to a dull glisten, and I blinked off... or I thought she went on to a dull glisten, but Jonathan has a whole other story to tell, as Gloria fades among the Anglos but grows strong on Latin radio.
I urge you to follow Bilbo's Laptop, which is Jonathan Bogart strolling through the Number One Hits on the Billboard Hot Latin Chart from 1986 onward (he's up to October 16, 1993). This is one of nine blogs of Jonathan's, which provide the most eye-opening writing I've discovered this year, on music, on culture. (If we could get a crew willing to risk conversing on the Bilbo's Laptop comment threads the way people do on Tom Ewing's Popular, we'd teach each other a whole shitload we didn't know, I'll betcha.)