Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)

Subject: Juan Tanamera (?)
From:
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:00 PM

Pete Seeger used to sing/sings a song in Spanish called something like Juan Tanamera. It starts:

Yo soy un hombre de la tierra

The lyrics were written by by a Cuban poet, Jose Marte(?) who was exiled in N.Y.

It doesn't seem to be in the database. I would like the lyrics, but in particular I would like to know what he sings in the second line of the chorus right before he repeats "Juan Tanamera".

Thanks,

Murray

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,guest: tndarln at work
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:03 PM

It's Guantanamera, and it's in the DT, but I can't do the clicky thing yet.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Marymac at the boss's desk
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:03 PM

Try Guantanamera!

(I can't believe I'm first to reply!!!

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Deda
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:06 PM

Guantanamera guajira Guantanamera Guantanamera guajira Guantanamera!

Yo soy un hombre sincero de donde crece la palma Yo soy un hombre sincero de donde crece la palma Yantes de morir me quiero Echar mis versos del alma

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Jenny the T
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:17 PM

Juan Tanamera--isn't he the guy pictured on the coffee cans?

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: iamjohnne
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:34 PM

I am so glad that someone besides me recoginized Guantanimera......

Johnne

Goin' where the weather suits my clothes......

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:43 PM

Then there is that Mexican song about the chef that was one of Robin Hood's merry men - the Cooker Archer.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:46 PM

Juan Tanamera used to be in a group with Cookie Archer...their lead singer was Lady Mondegreen

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 12:47 PM

Click for lyrics in Digital Tradition. Click for more complete lyrics in the Forum. The longer lyrics have been harvested for submission to the Digital Tradition.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Armen Tanzerian
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 01:23 PM

One ton of fan mail
I'm getting one ton of fan mail.

Old Saturday Night Live bit on Julio Iglesias-type singers.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 01:40 PM

Initial G with u in many Spanish words is pronounced Hua, rather hard, almost like the J in Juan; an easy mistake if you aren't familiar with the words.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Fortunato
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 01:46 PM

And Mel Downs used to sing:

"One ton tomato, I ate a one ton tomato,
one ton tomaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaato, I ate a one ton tomaaato!"

cheers fortunato

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: SharonA
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 01:55 PM

Fortunato: I have heard several people sing "One Ton Tomato", but who is Mel Downs?

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 02:22 PM

See Lyr add: Guantanamera for origin and useful Cuban song site, which I have added.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From:
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 04:39 PM

Maybe it's the chinese gangster from Macao"Wonton Omera"

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: TNDARLN
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 05:06 PM

On one of Mick Moloney's tours several years ago, one of the guides said something about there being only "One Connemara". Without missing a beat we all sang it, albeit in different keys. Fun moment. T

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 05:51 PM

Wanton Omera - famous Cuban prostitute, used to hang out with Joaquin Behindyou, the famous Mexican bandido and Jose Canucee, the American anthem sprinter.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 07:40 PM

Isn't this an Irish ballad about a woman of ill repute? Wanton O'Meara?

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From:
Date: 20 Aug 01 - 08:24 PM

Guantanemera! No wonder I couldn't find it in the DT! Thanks for the response. Thanks for the complete info Joe.

Murray

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From:
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 03:11 PM

I was looking for the Mp3 - any ideas where i could find a downloadable version of Guantanemera?

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: MMario
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 04:05 PM

if you put Guantanemera and mp3 into www.google.com you should get about 9 nits.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:03 PM

but you might do even better if you used the correct spelling: Guantanamera. It means "woman from Guantanamo", which might give the whole song a rather different interpretation these days...

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: Guantanamera (!)
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:04 PM

Nits?! Ew! Baby lice! Why would anybody want nine of those?? *G*


Also check out these threads on the Forum:

Lyr Req: Looking for the history of Guantanamera

Full lyrics and chords to Guantanamera

Help: quantanamera (misspelled)

Lyr Req: One-Ton Tomato (Guantanamera parody)


Dicho says: "Initial G with u in many Spanish words is pronounced Hua, rather hard, almost like the J in Juan..." I'd been taught in school that the Spanish "gu" is pronounced like "gw" is in English but with a less hard "guh" sound... so I guess it's somewhere between a "gw" and a "hw". But "Juan" would have slightly more of an "hw" sound than "Guan-" would, again according to what I was taught. I'm sure the pronunciation varies somewhat with different dialects; even in the US, I'm sure the Latino population of the Philadelphia PA area, for instance, have a slightly different "accent" than Dicho would have heard in Texas. Also, I've been told that Cubans pronounce their "h" sound very hard, though I've never heard it personally.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: M.Ted
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:04 PM

"Guantanamerra" doesn't bring up a any hits, but "Guan" and "Guantan" do--Incidentally, there are several versions of the song, the original cuban melody, the pete seeger melody(the one most people recognize), and some salsified versions of the Seeger melody--as the young folks say, "It's all good--"--

Subject: Guantanamera (!)
From: SharonA
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:24 PM

There again, spelling is everything (one "r"), so M.Ted brings up a good point about doing a search on part of a word if you find yourself coming up empty-handed searching for the whole word (while unknowingly misspelling it). It might be a good idea to do searches on different sections of such a word ("Guan", "antan", "mera") to find more hits... such as, for example, that Mudcat thread I linked to above that was spelled "quantanamera". .

Note, too, that on Mudcat you can change the Subject line of your post to a thread. For this thread, I'm entering "Guantanamera" so that, in the future, others who do Forum Searches will find this thread. That's how I found the "quantanamera" thread: some kindly soul changed his Subject line to the correct spelling.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 04:09 PM

I had fun briefly when I was at Guantanamo. Of course I wasn't a Taliban detainee and the rum was really inexpensive... Neil

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Alison
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 06:40 PM

"Wanton Omera - famous Cuban prostitute, used to hang out with Joaquin Behindyou, the famous Mexican bandido and Jose Canucee, the American anthem sprinter" - all good friends of Andy, the star of Waltzing Matilda ('Andy sang, Andy watched, Andy waited...).

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 06:47 PM

Actually, I think that the Spanish-phonetic spelling of the bandit's name was Joaquin Bijaña. :^)

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: technission
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 01:54 AM

When I saw the request I nearly choked on my hwacamole, and now yo soy un hombre muy verde with envy over the delicious puns. Kudos to all for the genuine help and wonderful parodies!

miguel con queso

"When you hear a sneeze from the kitchen, cancel that order for nachos." - Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Escamillo
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 05:28 AM

Thanks to Sharon and all who contributed. As a Spanish-speaking person pretending to be a singer, I'll try to explain the pronunciation:

The phonetics in English would be GOO AN TAH NAH MEH RAH but Cubans pronounce a very soft initial "G", so you may feel confident to say ONE TAH NAH MER RAH

I do have a good MIDI and I can send it to anybody who may be interested. Somewhere in those threads I wrote the English phonetics for the lyrics.

Un abrazo - Andrés (from Buenos Aires)

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 05:38 AM

For West Walians, the song describes a village in the Welsh valleys, close to the Pontardawe Folk Festival,
Ystalyfera, I come from Ystalyfera,
Close by Ystradgynlais,
Just to the North of Pontardawe"

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Adolfo
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 09:20 AM

Funny all those parodies. Is there a webpage with parodies of famous songs? For those really realy interested in Guantanamera, visit

http://www.soncubano.com/temas/guantanamera.htm

It's in Spanish (of course!)

Andrés, un abrazo desde España, ojalá que todo se resuelva en tu hermoso país.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 09:34 AM

Great mondegreen!

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: SharonA
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 11:11 AM

By the way, the sprinter whom Alison mentioned competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics and won the 1000-meter race, narrowly defeating the French competitor as he put on a burst of speed and pulled ahead in the last seconds of the race. The headlines in the American papers read: "José Canusí by Sedonne Sur le Leit".

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Lynn Koch
Date: 06 Mar 02 - 02:15 PM

Alison - "Andy" is also God's first name. It says so right in the hymn:

"Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me..."

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Escamillo
Date: 07 Mar 02 - 01:10 AM

Adolfo, thanks a lot for your wishes for Argentina, and thanks to all that people in Spain who are so generously and ingenuously gathering food and medicines for the poor people in Argentina, while our politicians and bankers enjoy an unseen life of luxuries. That's why this is going to explode. Sorry, this is more appropiate for the thread "Still alive in Argentina".. :)

Un gran abrazo y nuestro permanente reconocimiento Andrés (in Buenos Aires)

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From:
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 04:04 PM

once on a meadow, i say uh once on a meadow, oncccccce on a meaddddow, i say uh once on a meadow.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,BOAB
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:49 AM

Some of the more raucous Killie supporters used to gi'e voice to "Wan can o' lager, only wan can o' laaaager"...-----

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: open mike
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:15 AM

then there is that john prine song
Happy Enchilada...and you think
you're gonna drown

ahhhh-yeeeeee

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 12:12 PM

You're all going down a blind path...Juan Tanamera is in fact a Greek song, written about a toyboy called Yiannis Chryssos ("Gold", named so after all the heavy gold chains he had round his neck).

He was famous for his one-night stands (whole-night stands, more like), and for being up bright and early even after the exersions of a hard night at his trade. So the people on the street would greet him in the morning, saying "Yianni, KALImera" ("good morning John, you made it through another night then").

Eventually the song "Yianni kalimera" was written, made the charts and exported to Cuba, where some local wordsmith tried to translate it into Spanish ("yo soy un hombre sincero" - "I am a straightup guy"), but mishearing the second word transcribed it to TANAmera...

There you have it.

I'll get my coat...

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 12:25 PM

Thought I'd mention:   Guantanamo is where we are incarcerating so many in these sad days.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Peace
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:12 PM

Hoon and Huly.

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:02 PM

Art Thieme, I thought about you when I was reading the Winnebago thread. Didn't you do a song about that? ("poor Fifi and Fufu??)

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: GUEST,Dis Guy
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 11:50 PM

Thanks to guest: tndarln at work
whoever you are. I heard this song while dining at a Oaxacan Restaurant. Although not thoroughly impressed by the food, the band that was playing was very good and they sang this song, but I didn't know what it was called after all these years. Thank you

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 08:51 AM

During the last Soccer World Championship the German fans used this tune for a hymn to their national coach:
Rudi Völler, Rudi Völler - es gibt nur ein'n Rudi Völler (Rudi Völler, Rudi Völler - there's only one Rudi Völler).

Subject: RE: Juan Tanamera (?)
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 09:19 AM

England soccer fans have used it for many years, and at one time even subverted it when the England team had two players with the same name:

Two Gary Stevens, there's only two Gary Stevens ... (Actually I think one was Stevens and the other Stephens)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: GUEST,Woman from Guantanamo
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 08:23 AM

A "Guantanamera" is a woman from Guantanamo -- as in the US Naval Base in Easternmost Cuba -- only long before the base, when Guantanamo was the name of the town on Guantanamo Bay. The song commemorates the versus of Cuba's premier poet and nationalist, Jose Marti, who died during the Spanish American war and who had a distinguished and well documented life. There are literally hundreds of versions of this song, but most prefer the Celia Cruz interpretations as being the very best.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 08:49 AM

Is she related to Vera ?

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 11:24 AM

It's sad that a place with such a lovely name and with a song as hopeful and graceful as this will now forever be associated with such a shameful episode in American history.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 11:31 AM

I was skipping down the list of responses and almost despaired of hearing the correct one, until "Woman From Guantanamo" came along. She has it right. The poem, set to music, was from Jose Marti. He was considered a Cuban patriot and, some would say, the poet laureate of Cuba in his time. The song was almost an anthem.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 01:02 PM

"Juan Tanamera" seems just begging for a song challenge/parody. Maybe he was a notorious coffee bean rustler...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 01:08 PM

The verses by Martí, the new words by Diaz, and the Celia Cruz versions are all given in thread 16967, along with some of the history of the song:
Lyr. Add: Guantanamera

This and other threads bearing on the song are linked at the top of the page. The link I give here is the most informative of the lot.
Note- The verses by Martí did not mention the Guantanamo area.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juan Tanamera (Guantanamera)
From: Midchuck
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 01:43 PM

I thought it was "One ton o' mierda."

As you Brits say, I'll get me coat...

Peter