A Mighty Wind & Spanish Civil War Song

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SKELETONS OF QUINTO
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 08:35 PM

THE SKELETONS OF QUINTO


I have just re-watched Christopher Guest's folkumentary A Mighty Wind and I noticed that towards the end of the concert section, when The Folksmen are required to fill in time because the next performer has gone missing, that the encore which they announce, but never perform, is a song about the Spanish Civil War called The Skeletons of Quinto.

I worked the fields my father worked
From dawn until setting sun
My calloused hands and wind-burned face
Have marked me as a man
Who has no voice, no rights, no hope
No place to call his own
And the skeletons of Quinto call me home

The silver tentacles of the moon's rays caught me
The deathly silence of the mountains chill me to the bone
And the skeletons of Quinto call me home

If I lived to be a hundred, I won't know me Papa's plight
The cruelty of the master's whip
The horrors of the night
He braved them all and stood his ground
The bravest ever known
And the skeletons of Quinto call me home

I know that somehow, in the world,
The workers must be free
The toil and sweat, and tyranny, the fascist jeu d'esprit
Will only serve to keep us down, and make the bourgeoisie
And the skeletons of Quinto call me home


This is interesting because Christopher Guest, who co-wrote, directed and acted in the film as the Folksmen's banjo player is the nephew of David Guest, a young mathematician who was killed fighting with the International Brigades after the crossing of the Ebro in 1938.
I see in the film's credits that Christopher Guest is credited with the words to The Skeletons of Quinto and the Folksmen with its performance. Was there a recording released of the songs from the film which included The Skeletons of Quinto? I see from his Wikipedia entry,HERE, that Christopher Guest plays mandolin and guitar - does he play banjo in the film?

Subject: RE: A Mighty Wind & Spanish Civil War Song
From: GUEST,Tinker from Chicago
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 08:55 PM

Yes. It's on the soundtrack album from the movie.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but when the singer recites some lines in Spanish in the middle of the song, isn't that Castillian?

Subject: RE: A Mighty Wind & Spanish Civil War Song
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 07:12 AM

I have just found the Folksmen's recording of THE SKELETONS OF QUINTO
on Youtube.

Subject: RE: A Mighty Wind & Spanish Civil War Song
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 09:15 AM

Yes Tinker, I think that the spoken Spanish is Castillian. Is anyone adept enough to be able to transcribe for us what these spoken lines are? Or are they included in the sleeve notes of the soundtrack album?