Solamente Una Vez

I fell in love with this song a few years ago, when two Chileans generously provided the CD soundtrack to a delightful party held in my honor while I was visiting friends in Baltimore, friends I hadn't seen since I'd left for Spain.   A few days later, still humming the Lara tunes they'd introduced me to, I picked up a two-disc set of original recordings of Lara performing Lara songs. If you surf around to meet Agustín Lara, and I hope this song prompts you  to do so, you'll discover you've likely hear Jose Carreras or Placido Domingo or Luís Miguel or another well known crooner sing a Lara classic.

The Chileans delighted in watching me fall for Lara that evening in Baltimore. They told me he was a poet, an assertion his lyrics have since borne out for me, and that he was not at all a handsome man, despite his talents for words and  music. Apparently El Flaco de Oro, as Lara was known ("The Golden Skinny Guy", believe it or not) had his heart broken by a beautiful woman who left him for someone else. I'll stop by here another day and translate a bit of the lyrics of this tune for you.

For now, know he is telling you he has loved, once, during his life. Once, his soul gave itself to another, with sweet and total renunciation.

I give you the song that started the singing at yesterday´s celebration, Solamente Una Vez.