This giant 1942 hit from the Ricardo Tanturi orchestra put charismatic singer Alberto Castillo front and center—and sometimes down in the audience, as his bellicose delivery of the opening lines would sometimes start a quarrel with members of the audience. (As dramatized in this film clip.) The cheeky lyrics by Marvil, known for his comic streak as a songwriter, illustrate the turf war of the times among different classes in society. While tango had been embraced by the upper classes since the early 1900s, its attitudes had always represented the displaced, the immigrant, the laborer: and songs like this one could be interpreted divisively, particularly when the tango was at the height of national popularity. The second verse, often missing from transcriptions, makes it pretty clear that song’s main topic, of course, is the dance craze.
The Malena mentioned at the end of the chorus is the figure from the Homero Manzi tango. The lines may reflect a story, itself possibly fictional, that the real-life singer Malena de Toledo gave up her singing career when she learned that the tango had been written about her.
That’s How You Dance the Tango
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Ricardo Tanturi with Alberto Castillo
The ritzy, what do they know, the pretty boys and hipsters!
They haven’t got the tango—its rhythm, not a chance!
Now, here is handsome for you. What style! What a figure!
What bearing! What audacity! What class it takes to dance!
That’s how you mow the lawn, while I’m designing the ocho,
I could have been a painter, for all these fancy lines.
Here comes a little quickstep, a pivot, and a sit-down…
That’s how you dance the tango, a tango of my prime!
That’s how you dance the tango,
Your hot face feeling
The blood come rising
With every beat’s sound,
While just like a serpent
Your arm goes encircling
The waist of your partner
Who jackknifes around.
That’s how you dance the tango,
Mixing your breathing,
Letting your eyes close
To take in the song,
To hear as the violins
Explain to the bellows
Malena stopped singing
From that night on.
Will it be a reed or woman, when breaking into poses?
Will there be springs or cables, to make it move its feet?
For certain it just grabs me, to me it’s “better than nothing,”
Dancing is a frenzy and I’m crazy for the beat…
At times I even wonder if it shall be my shadow
Pursuing me forever, a thing some spell enchants.
That’s just how it was born, then, to go to the milonga,
And just like me, it’s dying, it’s dying for a dance!
Así se baila el tango (1942)
Music: Elías Randal
Lyrics: Marvil (Elizardo Martínez Vilas)
¡Qué saben los pitucos, lamidos y shushetas!
¡Qué saben lo que es tango, qué saben de compás!
Aquí está la elegancia. ¡Qué pinta! ¡Qué silueta!
¡Qué porte! ¡Qué arrogancia! ¡Qué clase pa'bailar!
Así se corta el césped mientras dibujo el ocho, *
para estas filigranas yo soy como un pintor.
Ahora una corrida, una vuelta, una sentada…
¡Así se baila el tango, un tango de mi flor!
Así se baila el tango,
Sintiendo en la cara,
la sangre que sube
a cada compás,
mientras el brazo,
como una serpiente,
se enrosca en el talle
que se va a quebrar.
Así se baila el tango,
mezclando el aliento,
cerrando los ojos
pa' escuchar mejor,
cómo los violines
le cuentan al fueye
por qué desde esa noche
Malena no cantó.
¿Será mujer o junco, cuando hace una quebrada?
¿Tendrá resorte o cuerda para mover los pies?
Lo cierto es que mi prenda, que mi "peor es nada",
bailando es una fiera que me hace enloquecer…
A veces me pregunto si no será mi sombra
que siempre me persigue, o un ser sin voluntad.
¡Pero es que ya ha nacido así, pa' la milonga
y, como yo, se muere, se muere por bailar!