I was just reading the rules of this particular forum. It says that this forum is specifically only for things that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with flamenco. Okay – Paco de Lucia!

Prominent Critic wrote:I was just reading the rules of this particular forum. It says that this forum is specifically only for things that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with flamenco. Okay – Paco de Lucia!

Sure, during the period since long ago when Francisco Sanchez Gomez (alias, Paco de Lucia) lost interest in and/or forgot how to play flamenco he and his music qualify perfectly for discussion in this foro Afuera del Tema.

-Bob

I have affection for Paco de Lucía.
This is for two reasons.
When he was a very young man he gave a concert in Madrid at the Teatro Real and the newspaper the days after reported the concert as La Toma de la Bastilla. This was comparing to the taking of the Bastille in France in the French Revolution.
Before Paco de Lucía the Teatro Real was just for Opera and Ballet etc and flamenco was not always considered in Spain as something serious.
In fact when I was a boy sometimes you heard people say they would buy a guitar for their son but only flamenco.
That expression did not mean that the guitar was a flamenco guitar at all. It meant that the guitar was an inexpensive guitar.
At the time of his Teatro Real concert Paco de Lucía was part of a new wave of Spanish thinking people in the arts who were against the dictatorship and hoping for La Transición.
The thing about long hair and beards and hippy clothes now seems silly to people but we felt that it was time for the dictatorship to end and for the new values and thoughts of us to be more important that the old generation.
This is also why some of his pieces were more fun like Entre dos Aguas. I mean to say we wanted fun and we wanted to break away from serious society. Difficult to explain now but then Paco de Lucía was not just a flamenco guitarist. He was part of a generation move.
The second thing is that although other flamenco guitarists such as Sabicas and Paco Peña who were considered virtuoso at that time had played in the world before Paco de Lucía they had not seemed to reach so many people.
Some other guitarists and in my case I heard classical guitarists but it does not have to be only them.
They said “oh yes well flamenco is ok and fun but you know it is just strumming the guitar with the right hand. The flamenco guitarist does not do so much with the left hand and the flamenco guitarist has a limited knowledge of the frets and a limited technique”.
Then Paco de Lucía played and you just wanted those guitarists to be present so that you could say: “And you were saying?”
We always said Spain is forty years behind Europe. In a way Spanish things were seen as nice but not to be taken seriously.
Paco de Lucía as far as music and specifically guitar put each thing exactly in its place.
So although now he has developed an interest in other musical expression from worldwide I still remember Paco de Lucía with affection as a kind of hero and ambassador for Spain.

Tomas

Yes I think you have summed that up very well. And in some ways his moving away from traditional flamenco is a demonstration of a freedom which I think is no bad thing.

The problem is I think – purely from a visitor’s point of view but with the well being of my spanish family close to my heart - that the change from dictatorship in Spain was too soft. Paco may have rocked the establishment but he didn’t change it. He may have painted the walls but he didn't storm the Bastille.

These days I get very frustrated with life in Spain. I want to pick it up and shake it. I want the 25% unemployed to blockade the government, I want Spain to withdraw from the Euro (why should Spain with all its problems pay for the errors of Greece), I want Mr Bean* – sorry Zapatero - to just once say “We are in the caca” .... Sorry I’m ranting .

Artists often lead the revolution. Perhaps we need another Paco.

* For those who didn’t see it the website of Zapatero was hacked and his foto replaced with one of Mr Bean. In truth not a lot of difference. Type "Zapatero Mr Bean" into Google and you will see what I mean.

Yes I checked it..............very funny!!! poor mr shoe mender!!!!!!
pity the kids nowadays do not want to make a revolution............ at least we had dreams......ok ok we are not that old!!!!