Memory is important. It is the memory of those who are no longer here, those who passed away a few days ago, and more importantly, those who left us years ago.
But it’s getting harder and harder to think about them. Evoking their faces, their voices, or the scents they emit as they pass by becomes arduous work. Time is cruel. It swallows everything. Finish them all. And so, those of us who are still resisting the Grim Reaper’s plans must vitally close our eyes and stand before them in the deliberately created darkness to watch them.
We can use a song, a picture or just a date. Today is July 10, 2022, just like July 10, 2022, the fateful day of Emilio Jiménez Gallego, better known thirty-five years ago. Moor Emilevictim of an unfortunate household accident.
She was young, especially spiritually, which is really important, because the rest is just wrinkles and sun-damaged skin. Nothing important. On paper, he was 63 years old. And lived in a few years Monforte del Cid, Province of Alicante. There, on that distant, hot day, he tried to light a cigarette, unfortunate that at that moment a gas leak had set his house on fire. Emilio suffered severe burns and died days later in Alcoy hospital.
Many of our parents grew up with his songs, that particular humor that characterizes him, accentuated by his original outfits, often consisting of a djellaba and slippers, and his red fez always with black tassels.
He was born in Melilla, North Africa. And of course, being a joker, he decided one day to sing flamenco “in the Arabic style”. Not from Fandango, Huelva or Lucena, “cantimpalo” and in addition, with his ingenious style, he provoked the acclaim of the Spanish public and the well-deserved recognition as one of the best and most original artists of the time.
Because we can’t forget that Emilio is not just a comedian, but an excellent guitarist and singer who can give life to the sterile wooden planks that make up his guitar, transforming this object into something completely different from its original nature. Emilio had this power. And our grandparents, at the wheel of their Seat 600s, who magically fit their wives, grandparents, and five kids, dad and brothers, spiced up long journeys on the two-way street with their music and their music. lyrics, sometimes singing with his own voice and sometimes with others, and laughing from time to time.
Emilio has covered dozens of songs by other artists. From Manolo Escobar to Antonio Molina. My “car” also became my “mother-in-law”, it was stolen on the way to pilgrimage. Y “I am a miner” “I am the postman” whose salary did not reach two weeks was for a while.
He also did it with Serrat. “Your name sounds like grass to me” was exactly that because the character in the song ate grass. And if he sang “Llorona” with Chavela Vargas, Emilio dedicates his melody to “Ramona”nevertheless he went to Pamplona.
He even made his screen debut with Ramón Fernández, who adapted Camilo José Cela’s work “La insólita y marvelous feat del cipote de Archidona” to the screen. There, he performed in front of the people of Archidon, on a theatrical stage, shortly before the wet episode that gave rise to the title of the book and movie.
But the seventies are here. And the winds of change, in this case cultural, have caused Emilio’s style and humor to be less and less appreciated. Another era has begun, and almost everything before it had to be exiled. An error. A big mistake, because humor today is inherently vulgar. A universe that Emilio refuses to enter, one of the most vulgarity. And for this, Emilio was thrown out of many stages under the influence of the cultural roller that crushed everything.
Carlos Cano dedicated some crests to him. “For Don Emilio Jiménez -Emilio el Moro-. The rows for American milk and the poor man’s carton make me happy. Cheers”. “The keels of Emilio el Moro”. Given the situation in the country,If it’s bases, it’s NATO, it’s Moron, it’s Rota… Emilio el Moro came out singing for alegrías”.
And what drives me to write these lines is not sadness, but joy. Joy because among all the tapes in the world I found one. On the obverse is Emilio in a red fez. He puts the guitar in his mouth like a flute player. When blowing, he puts on an earnest face and tries to make an unexpected wind instrument sound. I smiled. And I put it in my old jukebox. The sound of “bull and moon” was heard. And then, “Four mules”.
I closed my eyes and saw Emilio. I told him that’s how you play the guitar. And he looked at me…