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Songs for Insomniacs 72: Vicentico Valdes and Sonora Matancera, “Los Aretes de la Luna”
A romantic turn for insomniacs tonight.
Havana-born Vicentico Valdes is for me the most romantic of vocalists — he shades the melody with passionate but never melodramatic intonation, accompanied here by the peerless Cuban band Sonora Matancera (according to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived band of all time), who backed up Celia Cruz and a boatload of other artists.
Google translation of the lyrics:
The Moon’s Missing Earrings
I have saved them to make you a necklace
I found them one morning in the haze
When I walked by the immense sea
Privilege that I thank heaven
Because no poet could find them
I keep them in a golden chest
They are my only fortune and I’m going to give them to you
The Moon’s Missing Earrings
I have them stored at the bottom of the sea.