Narcos song

[High on Death]

How do you get a song out of your head, when you don't know the lyrics?
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment ... ranslation

What Is the Dreamy 'Narcos' Theme Song Really About?
Netflix
Kristin Hunt
By Kristin Hunt
@kristin_hunt

Narcos' opening-credits sequence draws you in with galloping zebras and plenty of slo-mo cocaine clouds. But its most compelling aspect is "Tuyo," the smooth tango that plays over the montage.

If only you could decipher the song's lyrics! Unlike the rest of the binge-worthy Netflix show, the credits don't employ English subtitles, so the song can leave you a little bewildered. What is it saying? Who even sings it? Below, all you'll ever need to know about "Tuyo" -- including how to play it.
Netflix US & Canada/Youtube
What do the lyrics mean?

Let's start with the title: "Tuyo" means yours in Spanish. Simple enough, right? Here's a rough translation of the rest of the song, based on interpretations from Decider and Medium:

I am the fire that burns your skin
I am the water that kills your thirst
Of the castle, I am the tower
The sword that guards the treasure
You, the air that I breathe
And the light of the moon on the sea
The throat that I long to wet
But I'm afraid I'll drown in love
And which desires will you give me?
Just to look is treasure enough
It will be yours, it will be yours.
NPR Music/Youtube
Who sings it?

That would be Rodrigo Amarante, a Brazilian singer-songwriter who's been on the music scene since the late '90s. He got his start in the Rio de Janeiro-based band Los Hermanos, then joined Little Joy, which paired him with the Strokes' Fabrizio Moretti. He went solo in 2014 with the album Cavalo. You can hear a few tracks off that record via NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series. (Fun fact: the guitar Amarante plays there has a name, and it's Butter.)

Narcos producer José Padilha was familiar with Amarante's music because his cousin made a documentary about Amarante's band. But Amarante had also worked with Wagner Moura, who played Escobar on the show (RIP), on a Brazilian production of Hamlet. With recommendations from both Moura and Padilha, Amarante was a natural pick for the title music.

To write the song, Amarante turned to an unlikely inspiration: Escobar's mom. "I had this idea to write a song that was his mother's favorite when he was a kid, something that would influence his idea of the man that he would like to be," Amarante told Billboard. "I wanted to deliver something romantic and deceivingly generous but if you listen to the lyrics you see that there's a narcissistic point of view. The show is about cocaine and gangsters, so I could easily write a song that's heavy and nervous and Latin. But how would that expand the story?"
Who's covered it?

Amarante's song is short, simple, and requires only an acoustic guitar, so it's natural YouTube cover fodder. Here's Luísa Guedes, frontwoman of the Portuguese band Luísa & os Alquimistas, crooning it in a park:


Then there's Daniel C.K., who ends his take with a bonus low-budget explosion:


And for a super meta moment, check out the mariachi band that covered it onscreen in Season 1 of Narcos:


Can I play it?

You bet. Here's a tutorial for guitarists, and another for piano players. Good luck, and watch out for those Castaños brothers.

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Kristin Hunt is a freelance writer for Thrillist and would really like to see that Brazilian production of Hamlet. Follow her on Twitter @kristin_hunt.

[dckx]

Nice song... reminded me a little bit of Manu Chao, most famous for his song Clandestino.



The lyrics are completely unrelated to Narco's theme, but are still good.

Alone I go with my sorrow
Alone goes my sentence
To run is my destiny
To escape the law
Lost in the heart
Of the great Babylon
They call me clandestine
For not having any papers

To a city of the north
I went to work
I left my life
Between Ceuta and Gibraltar
I'm a line in the sea
A ghost in the city
My life is forbidden
So says the authority

Alone I go with my sorrow
Alone goes my sentence
To run is my destiny
For having no papers
Lost in the heart
Of the great Babylon
They call me clandestine
I'm the lawbreaker

Mano Negra, clandestine!
Peruvian, clandestine!
African, clandestine!
Marijuana, illegal!

Alone I go with my sorrow
Alone goes my sentence
To run is my destiny
To escape the law
Lost in the heart
Of the great Babylon
They call me clandestine
For not having any papers

Algerian, clandestine!
Nigerian, clandestine!
Bolivian, clandestine!
Mano Negra, illegal!

[High on Death]

Nice song... reminded me a little bit of Manu Chao, most famous for his song Clandestino.

The lyrics are completely unrelated to Narco's theme, but are still good.

Indeed. An homage to open borders globalism?

Whatever floats your boat, I guess...

[dckx]

Indeed. An homage to open borders globalism?

No, just a song inspired on how it feels to be an undocumented person.

[High on Death]

Undocumented person? As in, illegal alien?

Why do these countries allow illegal immigration? To exploit a low-wage workforce where the workers have to do what they're told and keep their mouths shut. H2 visas are the modern-day equivalent of slaves. EVERYONE is getting screwed, so the richest of the rich can get huge profits, with their cheap compliant workforce, subsidized by the taxpayers. They're too greedy to do things the right way. Its cheaper and easier to bribe government officials to ignore the law, rather than change it.

[dckx]

Agree. My point was that the song is not a tribute to open borders globalism.