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The lyrics of the tango piece "Shusheta"
and their inspiration. |
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By Verónica H. Carreras Venturini and José
Pedro Aresi
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 his tango song written
by Juan Carlos Cobián
and Enrique Cadícamo
has facets that deserve to be commentated. Firstly, it is worthwhile
to dive into the mystery of its title to find out if it refers to or
if it has a direct relationship with some well-known character of the
past in Buenos Aires.
According to the opinion of many ones, Martín Alzaga Unzué was the last Argentine playboy. He was a young good-looking man, sportsman, millionaire and seducer. For these reasons his name fits perfectly the figure that this lunfardo term pretends to qualify. In conversations we had with people of the milieu, most them think that Cobián was inspired in his friend "Macoco". "Shusheta", in its instrumental version, was committed to record for the first time in 1923, played by a sextet led by its composer. Among others, it was as well recorded later by: Carlos Di Sarli, Juan Polito, Horacio Salgán, Héctor Stamponi, Ernesto Baffa, Carlos García as a piano solo, the Nuevo Quinteto Real, Los Astros del Tango, Pocho Palmer, Roberto Di Filippo (bandoneón), the Sexteto Ciudadanos del Tango and, recently, the Orquesta Típica de la Guardia Vieja. Enrique Cadícamo in his memories tells us that in 1922 he met Cobián for the first time and then they became close friends. Thereafter the musician went to the United States and came back in 1928. One year later he asked the poet to "add lyrics" to several tango tunes he had composed, among them, "Shusheta". According to Juan Ángel Russo, a regular member of the Academia Nacional del Tango, the lyrics that Cadícamo wrote in 1934 are the following: Pobre shusheta, tu triunfo de ayer Yo me acuerdo cuando entonces, Madam Giorget te supo dar It is important to say that these lyrics were never filed, nor were either included in any of the music sheets published by Breyer Hnos. and only on June 27, 1938 Juan Carlos Cobián filed the music of "Shusheta" in SADAIC's record. Cadícamo says that in 1944, Ángel D'Agostino asked him to make the lyrics of "Shusheta" suitable to those times, because by then the government had banned the use of lunfardo words in tangos. Cobián allowed him to make such a change and then "Shusheta" temporarily became "El Aristócrata" and its lyrics are as follows: Toda la calle Florida lo vio Dicen que fue, allá por su juventud, Toda la calle Florida lo vio Apellido distinguido, Ah, tiempos del Petit Salón... Todo pasó como un fugaz Toda la calle Florida lo vio
This lyric is the one the public knows best and the vocalist Ángel Vargas was who thoroughly identified himself with it. He recorded it again on August 30, 1957 with the Edelmiro D'Amario Orchestra. Roberto Goyeneche as well recorded it with the Sexteto Tango in 1984. What is funny is that only on February 22, 1946 Cadícamo filed this new lyric in SADAIC. With a few changes it is similar to the one transcribed above.
The Society of Authors and Composers has informed us that the entity officially accepts only the lyrics that are included in the published sheet music. Then in the case of the tango "Shusheta" it only acknowledges as official lyric the one appearing on the issue released by Ricordi and whose lines had little to do with the ones sung by Vargas and Goyeneche. We have held in our hands the written music published by the above mentioned house on September 22, 1965, that is to say, several years after the death of the composer of its music. We stress this because during Juan Carlos Cobián's life the front cover of the music sheet published by Breyer Hnos always showed a figure that wore a kind of top hat on his head, spats and a smoking pipe. The cane was absent. Instead, the cover of Ricordi's issue has a drawing in accordance with the "new" lyric included in it. So in it we can see before a background of low houses, a lamp post and, leaning on it, a man with the pronounced look of a tough guy, with lengue (neckerchief) and chambergo (broad-brimmed soft hat). Despite this last detail, the lyric makes reference to the use of a "top" hat and the whole lyrics are as follows: Toda la calle Florida te vio Hoy quien te ve... Toda la calle Florida te vio Te apodaban "el shusheta" Ah, tiempo del Petit Salón, Toda la calle Florida te vio The only known recording of this version was made in 1978 by Osvaldo Ribó accompanied on guitar by Hugo Rivas. In it, the interpreter entirely sticks to the lines transcribed above. Juan Angel Russo says that the lyrics of "Shusheta" were inspired by "Payo Roqué" and he adds: "Our beloved and well remembered Cadícamo used to tell us this when we met at a café". According to chronicles of the period, it is worthwhile remembering that the above character who died in 1932 was: "a characteristic figure of the bohemian environments, whose name was Benjamín Roque and his sobriquet, "El Payo Roque". According to those same commentaries "he was a friend for everybody, a wonderful whistler who had never worked because he had lived on the charity of his acquaintances". Either had his nickname been "Roque" or "Roqué" we doubt that such a guy would have been the "shusheta" that inspired Cadícamo. There are other persons, among them José Carlos Corbatta, that on a note published on September 11, 2000 in the site "Historia del País" on the Internet, says that he heard his father had said that the tango "Shusheta" was dedicated to Jorge Newbery.
Then we face an enigma not easy to solve, because of that we think that it would not be serious to say that the lyrics of "Shusheta" had had a determined source of inspiration. For that reason we think that it is important to repeat here what Cadícamo said to Juan Carlos Cobián about the source in which he found the inspiration to write the lyrics of "La casita de mis viejos": "Any similarity with living or dead beings shall be a simple coincidence". These words may well explain to us about the many sources of inspiration that filled the poetic vein of Enrique Cadícamo when he wrote the lyrics of his tangos. As if all these things were not enough, it is interesting to highlight that the sheet music published by Breyer Hnos was dedicated to Julio Martel by Cobián. Obviously due to a question of chronology we realize the former was not the well-known singer. The one published by Ricordi, that we have checked at the library of the Academia Porteña del Lunfardo, was dedicated to Mr. Mango Guerrico by Cadícamo. Before the end of this chronicle we wish to express our coincidental views with Roberto Selles when in one of his works he says: "in the research field no statement is absolute". |
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On
April 5, 1945 