Interludio tailandés

Ayer estaba escuchando la radio (91 x: La experiencia) en el coche y tuvieron por bien sacar una canción muy gustada por un servidor en sus años mozos, cuando la inocencia mandaba en su cerebro y la juventud burbujeaba por cada uno de sus poros, la canción es de 1984 y se llama "One Night In Bangkok" escrita por un tal Murray Head , y como dato curioso les diré que esta composición era en principio parte de una opera rock llamada Chess, hecha por Benny Anderson y Bjórn Ulvaneus, quienes vieran la fama siendo la parte masculina del grupo pop/kitsch de manufactura sueca ABBA.

Para mí, la canción representa un diálogo entre un irreverente turista americano y una compañía de asiáticos que se enfrentan con razonamientos sobre cual cultura es la más fregona, todo esto adornado con ritmos y beats de manufactura new wave que en ese tiempo era considerado como tecnología de punta en esos lejanos años del cubo Rubik y los tenis Vans.

Aunque la canción nunca alcanzó gran fama mundial y es considerado por muchos como "chafo" o cheesy, todavía logra colarse en el cuadrante radiofónico, así que aquí les muestro la letra y vean la calidad de pachequez que los autores tenían cuando escribieron este gran clásico.



THE AMERICAN:
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies -- doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change -- don't you know that when you play at this level there's no ordinary venue
It's Iceland -- or the Philippines -- or Hastings -- or --or this place!

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

THE AMERICAN:
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

COMPANY:
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

THE AMERICAN:
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

COMPANY:
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

THE AMERICAN:
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the devil walking next to me

THE AMERICAN:
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage parlours --

COMPANY:One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister

A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the devil walking next to me

¡Ah que tiempos aquellos!