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Sample Track 1:
"Soy Campesino" from ¡Ay Caramba! (Cumbancha)
Sample Track 2:
"Marianao" from ¡Ay Caramba! (Cumbancha)
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Lyrics (in English translation)

1. Soy Campesino (I’m a Country Man)

(Ramón Vargas)

I’m a country man

Dressed in white

I wear a hat 

And worn out shoes


(Repeat)


I dance to the gaita*

I smoke tobacco

I dance to the cumbia**

With great ease


(Repeat)


And that’s why I sing

(Tropical cumbia)

When I go dancing

(Tropical cumbia)

Cumbia, cumbia, cumbia

(Tropical cumbia)

Cumbia of Colombia

(Tropical cumbia)


How tasty my cumbia, baby! Come and enjoy it!

Let’s see it, buddy!

African rhythm, Jamaican, Colombian, Cuban, all of them Caribbean

¡Ajiaco!***

 

* a cane flute popular in Colombian folk music

** a style of Colombian dance music

*** Literally, “stew.” An expression that means roughly “mix it up!”



2. Ay Caramba!

(Words and Music by Natty Bo)

I run cross town

Check what is in the post

The post no come

Back another day

Travel so far

For money I been owed

Two weeks a pass

Well could it be at last, but no…

 

Ay caramba!

 

Go to work

So early in the morning

Bus break down

I start a walking

Reach too late

Boss him a bawling

“No work today,

No come back tomorrow”, whoy

 

Ay caramba!

 

Well Lord confess

I’m in a mess

So give me strength

Be my witness , yeh

 

No electric light

For two weeks or more

Debt collector

Come knock out the door

No more water come from the tap

The phone’s cut off 

And I can’t pay the rent, oh whoy

 

Ay caramba!

 

Police them stop me

Say you look like wanted man

I say chance would be fine

They put cuff upon me hand

The very next day

They catch the guilty one

Saying, “We won’t keep you long

Let you out tomorrow,” whoy

 

Ay caramba!

 

Well life is tough 

Sometimes it’s rough

But I know 

When enough is enough, yeh 

 

Woah yeh…

 

Ay caramba!

 

3. Tabú (Taboo)

(Margarita Lecuona)


Aah…

 

Soul of distant Africa

Fills my chest with fire

Soul of distant Africa

Fills my chest with fire

 

And the poor child of the slave

Always longs for the palm trees

Of the primitive jungle

Of gods of mystery and war

 

Ifá, Ochún, Obatala, for Chango and Yemaya (4x)*

 

Land of the longed for Africa

The deep rivers and blue sky

There, if a black man looks at a white woman

There, if a black man looks at a white woman

 

Taboo…taboo…taboo

 

Ifá, Ochún, Obatala, for Chango and Yemaya (4x)

 

Taboo…taboo…

 

* Orishas, or saints, of the Afro-Cuban syncretic religion santería




4. Oye Compay Juan (Listen, Buddy Juan)

(Gisela Navea/Beny Billy/Natty Bo)

Chorus:

Listen, my buddy Juan

I’m going to las Yaguas

Listen, my buddy Juan

I’m going to las Yaguas

 

I’m waking up nice and early

There in Ramon de las Yaguas

Look at all the wonders

That this region has

 

Lovely palm trees, vast coffee plantations

Tasty pineapple and honeycombs

I never though I could find

So much beauty in this place

 

(Chorus)

 

There coffee grows like grass

You smell the sweet aroma

Yuca* with yam and goat meat

Is the traditional food

Yuca with yam and goat meat

Is the traditional food

 

(Chorus)

 

There coffee grows like grass

You smell the sweet aroma, yes!

Yuca with yam and goat meat

Is the traditional food

 

Listen, my buddy Juan

I’m going to las Yaguas

 

Hey, country man, I’m going! Did you hear?

 

I’m going, I’m going, I’m going

I’m going to las Yaguas

 

Listen, my buddy Juan

I’m going to las Yaguas

* Cassava root, a tuber common in Latin American cuisine

5. No Me Desesperes (Don’t Drive Me Crazy)

(Words & Music by Carlos Marteles)


Come on, come on, come on, black woman

Don’t drive me crazy

Come on, come on, come on, black woman

Don’t drive me crazy

 

Look, you are

The most beautiful woman

Ay, look, you are

The most beautiful woman

 

Come on, come on, come on, I am

Going out of my mind

Come on, come on, come on, I am

Going out of my mind

 

To dance cumbia

The tango is killing me

Ay! To dance cumbia

The tango is killing me


 

6. Big Bamboo (El gran bambú)

(Words & Music by Vernon J. Roberts)

I asked my woman what should I do

To make her happy and to keep her true

All she said that I want from you

Is a likkle likkle piece of the big bamboo

 

Chorus:

De big bamboo it grows good and strong

The big bamboo grows good and long

The big bamboo stand up straight and tall

And the big bamboo pleases one and all

        

I gave my girl a sugar cane

Sweets for my sweet I did explain

She gave it back with my surprise

She like the flavor but not the size

 

(Chorus)

 

I gave my girl a coconut

She said she like it, its o.k. but

The only thing that worries me

What good is the nut without the tree?

 

(Chorus)

 

I met a chinyman named Dick Van Go

He got married went to Mexico

His wife divorce him pretty quick

She like bamboo but not chopstick

 

(Chorus)

 

The big, big bamboo, bamboo

Ay yai yai

Money in the land of the Yankee dollar, eh

 

7. Tungarara

(Words & Music by Isaac Villanueva)

That’s how the frog sings

When she sees her little toad

And when she is in love

She sings like a little bird

 

Tungarara…

 

The little toad answers back “cui cui”

Her with her little purse “cui cui”

The toad with his big mouth “cua cua”

And her with her little purse “cui cui”

The toad with his big mouth “cua cua”

 

When the night is falling

She sits to wait for the toad

And at the edge of the puddle

She falls asleep reproachfully

 

The little toad answers back “cui cui”

Her with her little purse “cui cui”

The toad with his big mouth “cua cua”

And her with her little purse “cui cui”

The toad with his big mouth “cua cua”


 

8. Cachita

(Words & Music by Rafael Hernández)

 

Listen up, Cachita

I'm bringing a little rumba

So that you can dance

Like me

 

Pretty girl

My beautiful Cachita

The hot rumba

Is better than son

 

(repeat)

 

See how you tear up the joint

With maracas

And timbales if you really want

To party

 

The French have fun this way

So do the Germans

The Irish have fun this way

And even Muslims

 

And if an English Lord dances

The excitement gets into him

And drives him crazy

Even the Japanese as well

 

Because the rumba has no frontiers

They even dance it at the North Pole

I’ve even seen an Eskimo

Dancing to it alone

 

Whoever is feeling blue

You’ve got to find your Cachita

And tell her, come on black girl

Let’s dance the rumba

                       

What a beautiful ska, Cachita!

 

Give it some brass!

 

The tasty Ska…Cubano!


 

9. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Estambul, No Constantinopla)

(Jimmy Kennedy/Nat Simon)

Istanbul, Constantinople!

 

Nine lives left so don’t court disaster

Nine lives left and time is our master

Though we’re walking slow our hearts beating faster

Make our way to Istanbul

 

Now the crescent moon and the stars that that reach beyond

Whisper to us secrets I can only find in

Istanbul

 

Long time gone ‘nuff roads we a travel

Let me concentrate these puzzles unravel

Not feh dance with death but look to the future

For we reach the gates of Istanbul

 

Now the crescent moon and the stars that that reach beyond

Whisper to us secrets I can only find in

Istanbul

 

Darling take my hand

And try to understand

Many have failed to make it

To pass on through the gates of

Istanbul

 

10. Marianao

(Words & Music by Beny Moré)

Marianao

How beautiful you are

Your pretty women

Give you the enchantment of love

 

From Guajai

To Almendares

There are lovely places

I will never be able to forget

 

Your flowers

And sharing of happiness, yes

In my verses

I could paint a picture

 

With your parks

And your avenues

With your picnic grounds

And your boulevards

 

And the contrast

Of your lovely palm groves

And sugar cane thickets

And an old sugar mill

 

In Mariano life is seen

Through rose-colored glasses

And everywhere you look

You see a beautiful woman

 

(Repeat)

 

There in Mariano

I left my heart

And I’m going to see it

At nightfall

And I’m going to see it

At nightfall



12. Jezebel

(Words & Music by Wayne Shanklin)

If ever a devil was born

Without a pair of horns

It was you

Jezabel, it was you

   

If ever an angel spell 

Jezabel

It was you

Jezabel, it was you

 

If ever a pair of eyes

Promised paradise

Deceiving me, grieving me

Leaving me blue

Jezabel, it was you

 

If ever the Devil’s plan

Was made to torment man

It was you

Jezabel, it was you

 

T’would be better had I never known

A lover such as you

Forsaking dreams and all   

For the silent fall of your all

 

Like a demon love possessed me

You obsessed me constantly

What evil star is mine that my fates design

Should be

 

Jezabel

 

If ever a pair of eyes

Promised paradise

Deceiving me, grieving me

Leaving me blue

Jezabel, it was you

 

If ever the Devil’s plan

Was made to torment man

It was you

Night and day

Every way

Jezabel , Jezabel, Jezabel



14.
Cumbia en Do Menor (Cumbia in C Minor)

(Rafael Coides)

I present to you the supersonic sound

Come to life!

Cumbia Orchestra Chispa Tren!

How funky, aah

Come here mulata and dance to my cumbia

This is the cumbia from Santiago de Cuba

Tear it up, tear it up!

How tasty!

Right now! Hot!

Party, party, party!

Run with it!

Give it some flavor, boy!

Get down! (Santiago, brother!)

And this mulata really knows how to move her…ay…

 



Additional Info
Ska Cubano Invents a Music that Should Have Been:
Head of A&R at Putumayo to Start New World Music Label: Cumbancha ...
Lyrics (in English translation)
Ska Cubano’s producer, Peter Scott, writes about the songs on ¡Ay ...

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