Jarabe de Palo (literally "Wooden Stick Syrup" or, after the Spanish expres… Read Full Bio ↴Jarabe de Palo (literally "Wooden Stick Syrup" or, after the Spanish expression "dar un jarabe de palo", i.e. a "hell of a beating"), was a Spanish rock band founded in 1996. The group was led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Pau Donés, whose death in 2020 caused the band to break up.

Pau Donés, born and raised in Barcelona, worked for various groups before being able to take on his current project, Jarabe de Palo. He began at age 15 with his brother Marc, with whom he formed a group known as J.& Co.Band and later another one named Dentaduras Postizas. During this period, he completed his musical tracks in Barcelona with a job at an advertising firm.

His greatest success came to him after a trip to Cuba, where he was inspired to write La Flaca which became the title of his first album, "La Flaca," in 1996. A year later came the big surprise: millions of albums were sold around the world, and "La Flaca" became the song of the summer in 1997.

After this great success on his first album, Pau was determined to show that the band would not be a one-hit wonder, and with this idea, he launched Depende (1998), which was produced by Joe Dworniak in Moody Studios in London over two months. This album featured collaborations with the likes of Ketama and continued with Jarabe de Palo's ironic and ingenious lyrics, which managed to connect with the Hispanic public and even made inroads among Italians.

In 2001 they released De vuelta y vuelta, their most conceptual album. It showed a change in the band with the first music video of the album, in which Pau appears shaving his head, shedding his long-haired features. This album featured collaborations with the likes of Antonio Vega, Jovanotti, Vico C, and Celia Cruz.

In 2003 the band tried to show a change to more positive songs with their album Bonito, which featured the likes of Los Mártires del Compás, the singer-songwriter Elena Andujar, and their Italian friend, Jovanotti.

In the autumn of 2004, the band announced that they would go on tour with their new album, 1 m2 (Un metro cuadrado (A Square Meter)) featuring the likes of Jorge Drexler, Lucrecia, and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).

The group has received great awards such as Premios de la Música, Premio Ondas, and Grammy nominations. They have collaborated with La Vieja Trova Santiaguera, Antonio Vega, Vico C and Celia Cruz (soundtrack of El milagro de P. Tinto). Pau has also composed tracks for Ricky Martin and starred in a music video with Alanis Morissette.

On 9 June 2020, Donés died near Barcelona after five years of dealing with colon cancer, causing the band to split up shortly after.

Adios
Jarabe de Palo Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Tengo que decirte
Que mi vida es muy triste
Que va a ser como imposible
Que me olvide de que existes

Tengo que decirte
Que el día en que te fuiste
Se encendieron las farolas

Que alumbraban el camino

Para que pudieras volver
Volver, volver

Tengo que decirte
Que a la luz de la candela
Intento arañar la niebla
Que no deja que te vea

Deja que te espere
A la puerta de tu casa
Un minuto me hace falta
Luego me voy para siempre

Solo quiero decirte adiós
Adiós, adiós
Y, por si acaso, que sepas
Que aquí siempre tienes un sitio

Adiós, adiós
Y aunque no te lo creas
Sin ti nada sera lo mismo

Solo quiero decirte adiós, adiós

Solo quiero decirte adiós, adiós

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Adiós" by Jarabe de Palo speak about the pain of saying farewell to a loved one. The singer expresses the difficulty of moving on from a relationship and how everything reminds them of the person they once loved. The first two stanzas set the tone of the song, as the singer tells the other person that their life is now sad and it seems impossible to forget them. They describe the moment when the person left, and how the street lamps were lit to guide their way back, something that will never happen again.

The next stanza depicts the singer trying to see through the fog to get a glimpse of the person they long for. They wait for them outside their house, but they know that they will never come back, so they say goodbye. However, the singer assures the other person that they will always have a place in their heart, but they understand that everything will be different without them.

Line by Line Meaning

Tengo que decirte
I must tell you

Que mi vida es muy triste
That my life is very sad

Que va a ser como imposible
That it will be almost impossible

Que me olvide de que existes
To forget that you exist

Tengo que decirte
I must tell you

Que el día en que te fuiste
The day you left

Se encendieron las farolas
The streetlights turned on

Que alumbraban el camino
That illuminated the way

Para que pudieras volver
So that you could come back

Volver, volver
To return, to return

Tengo que decirte
I must tell you