Graham Reid | | 2 min read
For a Netflix series awash with drugs, guns, bloodshed, serial smoking, violence, impossibly large amounts of money and hedonism, the theme song to Narcos by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante is ineffably sad.
The narcocorrido ballad – a style of music from the borderlands of Mexico and the US which alludes to drug smuggling – was written by Amarante (who had been in the LA band Little Joy with Fabrizio Moretti, drummer of the Strokes) when he imagined what Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's mother would have heard when he was a baby.
The title means Yours and the song has a sad, romantic and almost defeated quality.
But a translation of the lyrics – a real cut above most pop songs as you may see – shows a dark, poetic quality and strangely seductive metaphors.
If you haven't seen the programme – two three-part series, the fist in Colombia, the second in Mexico – it is an exceptional weave of fictionalised reality, is beautifully shot and an insight into political corruption, poverty and unimaginable wealth.
With an excellent soundtrack, starting with Tuyo.
Here are the Spanish lyrics and a translation.
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I am the fire that burns your skin,
Soy el fuego que arde tu piel
I am the water that kills your thirst.
soy el agua que mata tu sed.
Of the castle, I am the tower,
El castillo, la torre yo soy
the sword that guards the treasure.
la espada que guarda el caudal.
You, the air that I breathe,
tu el aire que respiro yo
and the light of the moon on the sea.
y la luz de la luna en el mar.
The throat that longs to be choked
La garganta que ansio mojar
that I’m afraid I’ll drown in love.
que temo ahogar de amor.
And which desires you are going to give me.
y cuales deseos me vas a dar
just to look is treasure enough,
mi tesoro basta con mirarlo,
it will be yours, it will be yours.
tuyo será, y tuyo será.
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For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.
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