1001 Songs Challenge #949: Todo cambia (2005)

On 11 February 2019 I set myself the challenge of reading 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery (ed.) and following the book’s advice to the letter. I’ve previously read 1001 Films… and started 1001 Albums… but felt 1001 Songs… would be a sensible place to start for what I have in mind here.

My challenge is to read about one song per day and listen to it (YouTube and Spotify, I need you tonight!) before sharing my own thoughts. Some songs I will love, others I’ll hate, and I’m sure there will be those that leave me perplexed but listen to them I shall.

I’ll also try, and most likely fail, to pinpoint the best song from the 1001 on offer but I’m nothing if not foolhardy. Instead of one song, I’m predicting I’ll have about 100 favourites by the end and may have to resort to a Top 10 so far to maintain any semblance of sanity.

So long as I post every day (including Christmas) then this challenge should come to an end on Wednesday 8 November 2021. Staying with the Barney Stinson theme I am hoping that the whole experience will prove to be… legendary!

 

Mercedes Sosa – Todo cambia (2005)

 

 

We’re leaving the US today, dear reader, and catching a plane south all the way down to Argentina. Here we find a folk singer by the name of Mercedes Sosa. She began her career in 1950 when she was still a teenager but we pick up her story in the twilight years of 2005 when Sosa is now 70 years old. 1001 Songs have looked back through her vast career and lifted this song from the 21st century by the name of Todo Cambia.

Todo Cambia translates as Everything Changes and sees Mercedes Sosa take us through a myriad of beautiful imagery as she reflects on her life and experiences. Sosa tells us that the world is constantly evolving and all that live there are changing with it. She gives such examples as an old man’s hair changing and how animals shed their fur. So many things change, even things within ourselves but Sosa does not seem concerned by this. In the chorus she reveals something that never changes and that is home and her people, the ones she has not forgotten, the ones that are her roots and the ones that she will always love and cherish. Such profound emotions can never change, not even be broken by the relentless onset of time.

I was not familiar with Mercedes Sosa but found Todo Cambia to be an absolutely delightful piece of music. The melody is gentle and subtle but the real star here is Sosa’s stunning voice. Even in her later years she was producing magnificent vocals. Her story did not go on much longer, sadly. In 2009 she died from organ failure at the age of 74. The President of Argentina not only declared three days of mourning but thousands queued for hours to pay their respect to Sosa’s body that was on display to the public.

 

Favourite songs so far:

The Animals – House of the Rising Sun (1964)

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence (1965)

The Beatles – A Day in the Life (1967)

The Doors – The End (1967)

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell (1977)

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car (1988)

U2 – One (1991)

Radiohead – Paranoid Android (1997)

Snow Patrol – Run