Jorge Borges - 1964

In 1965, Piazzolla had a short collaboration with Argentina's most famous literary figure, Jorge Luis Borges, which led to the difficult-to-find recording, El Tango. But that was not the only place where Piazzolla and Borges intersected. Piazzolla also wrote music to accompany a movie based on a Borges short novel, La intrusa. And, he wrote music featured in our video today to accompany lyrics from another Borges poem, Mil novecientos sesenta y cuatro (which translates to "Nineteen Sixty-four").

Nineteen Sixty-four is sung beautifully in today's video by the Coro Juvenil Femenino de Córdoba, conducted by Gustavo Baez. They were singing at the Sixth International Choral Festival "San Juan Coral", organized by Coro de la Universidad Católica de Cuyo in San Juan, Argentina. The original version was sung by Ney Matogrosso, a phenomenal and most unusual singer who represents a cross between Tiny Tim and Gene Simmons. The record itself is quite unusual. It was a single inserted into a Ney Matogrosso LP. It was only available for a very short period because the Brazilian government banned it, presumeably because of the lyrics in Nineteen Sixty-four. My SSD (Spanish Speaking Daughter-in-law) tells me the chorus of the song goes something like this: "I'll no longer be happy. Maybe it doesn't matter. There are many other thoughts in the world that are more profound." Perhaps the leaders of the 1964 coup d'etat in Brazil believed the words were aimed at them. The full story of the recording is well told in a 2006 Brazilian Nuggets blog.

As rare as an original copy of El Tango may be, an original copy of Ney Matogrosso's single containing Nineteen Sixty-four is probably even rarer. The video below represents the only version of the song on YouTube - it is even rare there.

If the video does not appear below, click here.



Note added 26 July, 2012: The original posting of the blog indicated that the Argentinian government banned the song.  That information was incorrect.  As noted in the comment below, it was the government of Brazil which banned the song. I have modified the blog and added a link referencing the 1964 coup d'etat in Brazil.

To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.