12.6.12

LOS TEMERARIOS, “¿POR QUÉ TE CONOCÍ?”

7th February, 1998


But first...

Our last encounter with Los Temerarios had them whooping it up, slightly unconvincingly, with a live cover of a classic Vicente Fernández ranchera song. This seems to be much more their preferred speed: a heavily -- and nostalgically -- orchestrated song of romantic regret. "Why did I meet you?" is one translation of the title and first line of the song ("why did I know you" -- very much including the Biblical sense -- is another), and you can guess the development of the lyrical theme from there. She belongs to another, and he (or the character played by Gustavo Ángel) is in anguish because he can't have her. The chorus then sweeps into t a declaration that he knows she truly loves him, but is afraid to tell her man that he (Ángel) is the only one who can make her dream.

I don't buy that at all, and not just because I try to be skeptical of guys who claim to know women's minds, especially when the women aren't around to speak for themselves. The very production urges us against him: his voice, so close-miked that he barely sings above a whisper, is creepily intimate, and the sugary, pan-60s nostalgia of the orchestration, calling to mind both late doo-wop and classic ranchera, sounds more like a fantasy built up in an obsessive's head than a properly sweeping setting for his tragiheroic narrative of self.

Of course all this too is in my head, unsupported by any literal reading of the text -- and maybe I'm grasping at straws to keep yet another ballad interesting. Still, the gestures towards pops past are intriguing. We'll see more of Los Temerarios in the next decade, and based on the gap between this and their previous number one, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from them.

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