Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"The Time Is Giving Birth to a Heart"

Several years ago, I saw a very good French film called IRMA VEP. It was a movie about making a movie (among other things), and at one point, a group of aging radicals enjoying a dinner party reunion screen one of their old guerrilla filmmaking collaborations. The soundtrack music of this film-within-a-film sounded slightly sped up, as if the record player was set to the wrong speed; still, the tune stuck in my head and I paid careful attention to the credits to ID it, but no luck. Haunted by the song, I phoned the U.S. distributor of the film, thinking they may have had to clear the music rights and could tell me what it was. Though they were very friendly, they had no answers for me.

Cut to what, almost a decade later? Yesterday a friend sent me a YouTube clip he thought I'd enjoy for it's strangeness and it turned out to be a Fernando Ubiergo cover of the song I'd been looking for all this time - "La Era Esta Pariendo un Corazon"! (Translated here as "The Time Is Giving Birth to a Heart," but "The Times Are Giving Birth to a Heart" is closer, I think.)

With a title in hand at last, a quick search found the rendition I'd heard (slightly sped up) years ago, performed by one Silvio Rodriguez!

Enjoy - it only took me ten years to bring it to you!