Blades's father is a percussionist-turned-detective and his mother was a singer and radio performer. His grandfather, Reuben Blades, was an English-speaking native of St. Lucia who came to work on the canal, as he tells in the song West Indian Man on the album Amor y Control ("That's where the Blades comes from.") (1992)
After obtaining degrees in political science and law at Panama's Universidad Nacional, Blades worked at the Bank of Panama as a lawyer. In 1974, Blades moved to the United States, staying temporarily with his exiled parents in Miami before moving to New York City. Blades began his musical career in New York writing songs while working in the mailroom at Fania Records, and soon was working with salseros Ray Barretto and Larry Harlow. Shortly thereafter Blades started collaborating with trombonist and band leader Willie Colón, and they recorded several albums together. Their album Siembra (1978) became the best-selling salsa record in history.
After 1980, Blades tried to terminate his contract with Fania, but he was contractually obliged to record several more albums. These are generally considered toss-offs and Blades himself told his fans to avoid them. When he was free of his contractual obligations, Blades signed with another label, Elektra, and assembled a top-notch band (known variously as Seis Del Solar or Son Del Solar) and recorded a number of albums with them.
In the early 1980s, Blades began his career in films as a composer of soundtracks.
In 1982, Blades got his first acting role in The Last Fight writing the title song as well as portraying a singer-turned-boxer vying for a championship against a fighter who was played by real life world champion boxer Salvador Sánchez.
In 1985, Blades gained widespread recognition as co-writer and star of the independent film Crossover Dreams as a New York salsa singer willing to do anything to break into the mainstream. This same year he earned a master's degree in international law from Harvard University. He was also the subject of Robert Mugge's documentary The Return of Ruben Blades, which debuted at that year's Denver Film Festival. During the 1990s, he acted in films, mounted his unsuccessful presidential bid, founding the party Movimiento Papa Egoró, and continued to make salsa records.
His many film appearances include The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Two Jakes (1990), Mo' Better Blues (1990), and Devil's Own (1997). In 1999, he played Mexican artist Diego Rivera in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock.
In 1997, Blades headed the cast of singer/songwriter Paul Simon's first Broadway musical, The Capeman, based on a true story about a violent youth who becomes a poet in prison. In the 2003 film Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas, and Willem Dafoe, he played the role of a retired FBI agent.
Blades' 1999 album Tiempos which he made with the 12-piece Costa Rican band Editus, represented a break from his salsa past and a rejection of commercial trends in Latin music.
Some might say that "his biggest mistake was releasing an English-language album in 1988 in the wake of his 1987 Grammy for Escenas" [sic] but in fact, he tends to avoid commercial choices. After winning his first Grammy for Escenas in 1986 he recorded the album Agua de Luna based on the short stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1987. The next year he released the English language collaboration with rock artists Sting, Elvis Costello, and Lou Reed the same year as Antecedente, another Grammy winner. In 2003 he followed the World Music Grammy winner Mundo with a web site free download project. As he said in 2005 when receiving the ASCAP Founders Award about his non-commercial choices, "That's the way I think."
In 2004 he put his artistic careers on hold when he began serving as Minister of Tourism of Panama.
Source: Wikipedia®
Isabel
Rubén Blades Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Y el agua comienza a caer un presentimiento
Aún sin nombre envuelve a Isabel
Libera un pasado cargado en recuerdos más
Dulces que su realidad cada vez que el cielo
Se quiebra los siente llegar
Todo es posible y nada se pierde en Macondo
Hasta sus fantasmas rehúsan ir a otro lugar
Soledad y explicación a su ansiedad, borrando el pecado
Llueve en Macondo relámpago, limpia un dolor
Ancestral Sonríe a tu entraña pues todo es posible
Cuando uno revive el ayer el tiempo no existe, ni el
Miedo a lo que hubo una vez
A hierba mojada, a tierra encantada, hoy huele a
Nostalgia el jardín, Cien años resbalan, misterios que
No tienen fin
Cae agua de luna en Macondo
Limpia un pecado inmortal
The lyrics to Ruben Blades's song Isabel convey the idea of a presentiment that surrounds Isabel, a woman who is immersed in a past full of sweet memories. The first verse sets the scene with the confusion of shadows caused by blinking skies, and the beginning of water falling. These natural phenomena signal the arrival of Isabel's presentiment, which is described as nameless. The second verse states how everything is possible and nothing is lost in Macondo, even ghosts refuse to go elsewhere. Isabel feels the rain in Macondo giving fragrance to her solitude and explanation to her anxiety, erasing the sin. The third verse describes how Macondo is cleansed from ancestral pain through a lightning bolt and that a smile should emerge from within because everything is possible when reminiscing about the past. Finally, the song concludes with a reference to the wonderful garden of Macondo that now smells like nostalgia, and how despite the passing of time, there is still an endless mystery that remains unsolved.
Line by Line Meaning
Parpadean los cielos confundiendo sombras
The skies blink, alternating between light and shadow as they confuse the world below.
Y el agua comienza a caer un presentimiento
And the water starts to fall, bringing with it a feeling that has no name.
Aún sin nombre envuelve a Isabel
Isabel is enveloped in a nameless emotion.
Libera un pasado cargado en recuerdos más dulces que su realidad
This emotion releases a past filled with memories sweeter than Isabel's present reality.
Cada vez que el cielo se quiebra los siente llegar
Whenever the sky breaks, Isabel feels this emotion approaching.
Todo es posible y nada se pierde en Macondo
In Macondo, everything is possible and nothing is truly lost.
Hasta sus fantasmas rehúsan ir a otro lugar
Even her ghosts refuse to leave Macondo for another place.
Isabel siente la lluvia en Macondo darle olor a su soledad y explicación a su ansiedad, borrando el pecado
Isabel feels the rain in Macondo giving aroma to her loneliness and explanation to her anxiety, erasing her sin.
Llueve en Macondo relámpago, limpia un dolor ancestral
It rains in Macondo with lightning, cleansing an ancestral pain.
Sonríe a tu entraña pues todo es posible cuando uno revive el ayer, el tiempo no existe, ni el miedo a lo que hubo una vez
Smile at your core, because everything is possible when one relives the past; time does not exist, nor does the fear of what once was.
A hierba mojada, a tierra encantada, hoy huele a nostalgia el jardín
The wet grass, enchanted earth, today the garden smells of nostalgia.
Cien años resbalan, misterios que no tienen fin
A hundred years slip by, mysteries without end.
Cae agua de luna en Macondo, limpia un pecado inmortal
Moonwater falls in Macondo, cleansing an immortal sin.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: RUBEN BLADES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
abogado castro
Tenía como 9 años cuando mí padre llevó un cassette de Rubén Blades y sus Seis del Solar, lo escuchábamos todos los días. En especial este, que es un homenaje de Rubén a la obra de García Márquez. Soy colombiano y sobretodo caribeño y me place mucho haber crecido con estos referentes. Gracias Rubén, García Márquez y a mi padre.
Silvana Módica
Para mí uno de los trabajos más hermosos de Rubén. Hace más de 20 años que lo escucho y no me canso. Isabel, mi preferido pero el resto de los temas: bellísimos!! Una inspiración tremenda.
Pablo Cantillo
El magico y casi desconocido album de Ruben, mi favorito.
Lorenzo Armijos
Gracias por subir esta precisosura...!! Por un momento, recordé mi, estancia em Odessa- Ucrania, en mis días de estudios universitarios...Recuero a una amiga rusa, que tenía entre sus valiosas pertenencias, este caset... Increíble...esta obra de Blades...y cada vez que la escucho, evoca esos momentos en el gélido invierno de Odessa...
cayosanandres
..canción inspirada en el Monólogo de Isabel viendo llover en Macondo
(1955) de Gabriel Garcia Marquez, con la dirección musical DE SEIS DEL SOLAR, "a los únicos que le gusto el Disco fue a los dos a Gabo y a Mi ..." dijo Ruben Blades, ya que los detractores dijeron que ese álbum no es AGUA DE LUNA sino AGUA EN EL CEREBRO, para mi es un álbum excelente música salsa progresiva...!!! de mi colección...!!!
Rikardo Salinas Salsomano!
Solo estas canciones las busca un verdadero conocedor de Salsa De la Buena. Saludos de Salsero a Salsero.
Oswaldo Vicente Toro Gonzalez
Sólo a Gabo y a mí...¡ y a mí también!!!!!!
Cesar Naranjo
A mi me encanta este trabajo amigo, quiero q mi hija Laura, sea una Laura farina.... Algún día tal vez convierta una bestia salvaje, en un ser de unidad y convivencia...
Adán Falcon
A mi también
Edgar Alcala
Cuando salió al mercado, lo compré por dos canciones, Isabel y ojos de perro azul, para están dentro de sus mejores composiciones, y luego que saliera los CD, lo adquirí y de eso hace muchos años, ya voy a cumplir 64 años y si que a los jóvenes, disfruten de buena música, ya muy poco se están componiendo actualmente.