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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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“They Dance Alone” (Cueca Solo)
“Why are these women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
their faces fixed like stone?
I can’t see what it is they despise
they’re dancing with the missing
they’re dancing with the dead
they dance with the invisible ones
their anguish is unsaid
they’re dancing with their fathers
they’re dancing with their sons
they’re dancing with their husbands
they dance alone.
It’s the only form of protest they’re allowed
I’ve seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
they’d go missing too
Another woman on the torture table
what else can they do”…
– Songwriter: Gordon Sumner aka Sting
IN ONE of my previous columns I mentioned that Sting had often been compared with the late John Lennon. I suppose it was inevitable as both were Englishmen and rock musicians.
Of course, the comparison does not stop there. Both made an impact and probably greatly influenced the music of their generations as songwriters and singers.
Another similarity was that both John Lennon and Sting were part of bands that became famous before going solo; we all know that John Lennon was one-fourth of the “Beatles” while Sting was also one-fourth of the “Police”.
The comparison and similarity I would like to talk about is not necessarily their music although it also played an integral component, but their involvement in social, political and environmental issues.
In the late ‘60s and ‘70s John Lennon was part and very much active in the peace movement and protest against the Vietnam War. The iconic song “Imagine” epitomizes his dream of a world at peace without war.
John Lennon was also an exponent of the “Free Speech Movement.” His most famous or infamous line depending on which side you’re on is “We’re more popular than Jesus Christ” which, of course, drew the ire and hatred of Christians all over the world at that time.
But we’re not here to talk about John Lennon; that’s another column. Let’s talk about Sting and his song “They Dance Alone” or “Cueca Solo” in Spanish.
From that free online encyclopedia:
“‘Dance Alone’ (Cueca Solo) is a protest song composed by English musician Sting and published first on his 1987 album …Nothing like the Sun; the song was the fifth and final single released from the album. The song is a metaphor referring to mourning Chilean women (arpilleristas) who dance the Cueca, the national dance of Chile, alone with photographs of their disappeared loved ones in their hands.
“Sting was accompanied by Eric Clapton, Fareed Haque and Mark Knopfler on guitar with Ruben Blades providing additional Spanish vocals.
“Sting explained his song as a symbolic gesture of protest against the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet whose regime killed thousands of people between 1973 and 1990. This song was recorded in both English (with some spoken Spanish words by the Panamanian salsa singer, Ruben Blades) and Spanish (with additional lyrics by Roberto Livi). This latter version was titled Ellas Danzan Solas and was released on the 1988 EP Nada Como el sol.”
From songfacts.com:
“Sting wrote this after he saw a brief news story about women dancing on the streets of Chile torn apart by the Pinochet regime. The women were dancing in the streets with pictures of their husbands, fathers, brothers or sons pinned to their clothes or they were holding the pictures and dancing with them.
“Sting: ‘I never tackle political issues head-on. With something like ‘They Dance Alone’ and the Pinochet regime, the metaphor was of the poor women dancing alone in front of government buildings; you could understand that metaphor whether or not you knew the political issues. I’ve never set out to write a song that is about, for example, the environment.
Songwriting is much more veiled than that. The meaning reveals itself as you go into it. A song should be plastic enough for you to find different meanings there. That’s what all art does, all poetry, if you can call it that.”
Let me leave you with these lines from “They Dance Alone”:
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin’ with her invisible son
One day we’ll dance on their graves
One day we’ll sing our freedom… (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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