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®
Todos Vuelven
Rubén Blades Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Incomparable de su sol. Todos vuelven al rincón de
Donde salieron: donde acaso floreció más de un amor.
Bajo el árbol solitario del pasado, cuántas veces nos
Ponemos a soñar todos vuelven, por la ruta del
Recuerdo, pero el tiempo del amor no vuelve más.
Y su aroma de ayer, nos dice muy quedo al oído
Su canto aprendido del atardecer; nos dice, con voz
Misteriosa de cardo y de rosa, de luna y de miel,
Que es santo el amor de la tierra, que es triste la
Ausencia que deja el ayer.
Todos vuelven.
The lyrics of Rubén Blades' "Todos Vuelven" talk about the nostalgia and longing that people feel for their hometowns or the places they were born in. The song speaks to the universal sentiment that draws people back to their roots. The artist paints vivid imagery in the verses about the beauty of the land and the memories associated with it, drawing on the idea that people are irresistibly pulled back to their beginnings.
Blades describes how everyone returns to the place where they were born, attracted by its unique appeal and its incomparable sun. They return to the corner where they departed from, a place that may have witnessed many loves blooming. One imagines the pleasure of sitting under the solitary tree of the past, dreaming of times gone by, and embracing memories of the good times. People may try to travel down memory lane, but the song warns that love that has passed will never return.
Blades also draws on nature to amplify the power of memories on the human mind. The breeze brings the fragrance of the past which triggers recollection of distant memories. The memory of the past is like a whispered voice that speaks of the sacredness of love that comes from the land. Even though yesterday's absence can be painful, the song asserts that the pull of the homeland is too strong to resist. Everyone returns to their roots eventually.
Line by Line Meaning
Todos vuelven a la tierra en que nacieron; al embrujo Incomparable de su sol.
Everyone returns to the land where they were born, to the unique enchantment of its sun.
Todos vuelven al rincón de Donde salieron: donde acaso floreció más de un amor.
Everyone returns to the corner from where they came, where perhaps more than one love bloomed.
Bajo el árbol solitario del pasado, cuántas veces nos Ponemos a soñar todos vuelven, por la ruta del Recuerdo, pero el tiempo del amor no vuelve más.
Under the lonely tree of the past, how many times do we dream that everyone returns, through the path of memory, but the time of love does not come back.
El aire, que trae en sus manos la flor del pasado, Y su aroma de ayer, nos dice muy quedo al oído Su canto aprendido del atardecer; nos dice, con voz Misteriosa de cardo y de rosa, de luna y de miel, Que es santo el amor de la tierra, que es triste la Ausencia que deja el ayer.
The air, which brings in its hands the flower of the past, and its aroma of yesterday, whispers in our ear its song learned from the sunset; it tells us, with a mysterious voice of thistle and rose, of moon and honey, that the love of the earth is sacred, and the absence that the yesterday leaves is sad.
Todos vuelven.
Everyone returns.
Contributed by Luke W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@do.marketing2239
Hermosa canción, una inigualable interpretación y arreglos del gran Ruben Blades con la letra puro sentimiento de mi compatriota Cesar Miró.
@donking8853
Este es un vals peruano hecho en salsa. Gracias maestro ruben blades x revivir tremendo exito de la sonesta posada del inca. ARRIBA PERU.
@agudecar
Y qué?
@richardcampos1719
@agudecar a ti que ??
@sandroalcaldesandoval6928
Gracias maestro miro
@777Yadir777
@agudecar Andate a mmmmm
@miguelangelveliz1500
Con esa canción en mi mente salí de Venezuela y arribé a Lima. Es la misma canción que tengo en mente para regresar a mi Venezuela hermosa.. esté como esté, es mi patria y de ella siempre orgulloso.
@richardcampos1719
si bonjta cancion peruana
@eltanquedecasma1184
La ironía siendo que es un tema Peruviano
@SANBEPOWER
Casualmente es una composición del canto Criollo Peruano del Poeta César Miró es un Himno Peruano