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When
it comes to theme songs, some cities have it, some cities don’t. There is
the Tony Bennett classic, I Left My Heart in Frisco - ouch! Sorry, I mean
San Francisco! Old Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra immortalized both Chicago (“My
kind of town”) and New York, NY. Then, there’s Chuck Berry’s Memphis, Marty
Robbins’ El Paso, Delbert Harrison’s Kansas City, Randy Newman’s I love
LA, John Fogerty’s Lodi, Glenn Cam-pbell’s Galveston, Bob Dylan’s Oxford
Town, WC Handy’s St. Louis Blues...the list goes on......Toward the bottom
of the barrel we find the late great Perry Como’s Seattle (“the bluest skies
you’ve ever seen are in Seattle”!!?? Was he in an airplane?) Well, our own
home sweet Mazatlan has a theme song that ranks right up there with Mi Lindo
Monterrey, written by Raul Lavista and Ernesto Cortazor (“Ay, mi Monterrey!”)
and Pepe Guizar’s mariachi standard Guadalajara (“Guada-lajara!Guadalajara!”).
El Corrido de Mazatlan by the late great songwriter Jose Alfredo Jimenez
is famous throughout Mexico, and has no doubt inspired many people to come
here. Mazatlecos love this song. They know every word by heart. When they
hear it, they get this misty eyed look like you see in the movie Casablanca
when the French refugees all start singing la Marsaillaise. The definitive
version is sung by the composer, backed up by Sinaloa’s own Banda El Recodo
de Don Cruz , Lizarraga, the original and all time greatest Mexican polka
band in history. Sure, Acapulco has it’s Elvis movie, and PuertoVallarta
has Night of the Iguana, but we have El Corrido de Mazatlan, and a beloved
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theme song is something even Hollywood can’t conjure up. Eat your heart
out Cabo San Lucas! It is a civic treasure. The problem is, the lyrics,
suprisingly enough, are in Spanish, which limits it’s international appeal.
So, as part of my tireless effort to exploit, I mean to diminish, cultural
misunderstandings, I have taken the liberty of translating to non-rhyming
English prose our municipal anthem so that anglophiles might enjoy it, too.
By the way, the melody and chord progression are not terribly dissimilar
to Kris Kristofferson’s Me & Bobby McGeewith tubas and trombones providing
comic relief. Ode to Mazatlan by Jose Alfredo Jimenez. Now that destiny
has brought me to these lands where the Pacifico is without equal it is
necessary that the guitars play to sing to you my ode to Mazatlan. Oh how
beautiful is your boulevard Cen-tenario, how beautiful as well your cathedral.
Here a poor man feels like a millionaire, here life passes without tears.
I am a foreigner, I was born very far from here, nevertheless I’ll tell
you in my song that all of you have the pride, the great pride to be from
Mazatlan. And the women! Oh, what women you have! To the roses they might
be compared. But the scent that the flowers have, they have, too, and also
something more. And as for your men, what can I tell you? They are friends,
and noble in truth. Lest you forget your everyday surroundings, ay, how
beautiful is everything here in Mazatlan! (Amen) |
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