Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

Victor Jara was not, unlike thousands of other Chileans, one of General Pinochet’s ‘disappeared’. Indeed, Jara’s body — once the dictator’s secret police had finished with him — actually turned up, dumped outside Santiago’s Metropolitan Cemetery. He had been killed a few days after the assassination of President Allende by the Pinochet-led junta; Jara’s ‘crime’ had been one of visibility.

The son of peasants from southern Chile, Jara was a multi-talented man who had worked in theatre before fully turning his attentions to songwriting. Taking as his theme an earthy socialism, his career strove to put music at the heart of political change. ‘My guitar is a worker/Singing and smelling of spring,’ he sings in ‘Manifiesto’, written and recorded in 1973, the year of his death. ‘It is not for killers.’

Compiled from several recording sessions held between 1968 and 1973, "Manifiesto" was originally brought out in 1974. 

Jara’s songs have aged well. With minimal ornamentation (some percussion here, some panpipes there), his voice conceals in its light tenor a conviction and humanity that is undiminished through time or language. While his songs are very much of their time and place, they are unlike much politically orientated music in their vivacity and emotion. Jara may place an overt faith and optimism in the people, but there is nothing formulaic or hectoring here. Rather, there is an intimacy that characterizes songs for both individuals and crowd. 

When Joan Turner Jara was exiled from Chile with her two daughters, she was carrying the last recordings of Victor, including his musical testament "Manifiesto", that gives the name to this album, released in 1974 in England by Logo Records, Transatlantic, XTRA 1143. This album probably is the strangest of all "original" Victor Jara releases, since Joan reads the English translation of some of the songs - before, after or overdubbung the original tunes.

Here´s the original 1974 version of this album, which was re-released with some changes in the following years, until Warner released a "final" version in 2001.


Tracklist:

01. Te Recuerdo Amanda (2:29,  includes reading theme translated by Joan Jara, during performance of the song by Victor Jara

02. Canto Libre (4:53)
03. Aqui Me Quedo (3:00,  Joan introduces the topic)
04. Angelita Huenuman (4:02)
05. Ni Chicha Ni Limona (3:21)
06. La Plegaria A Un Labrador (3:50, Joan introduces the topic)
07. Introduction to "Cuando Voy Al Trabajo", translated by Joan Jara
08. Cuando Voy Al Trabajo (4:33)
09. El Derecho A Vivir En Paz (4:31)
10. Introduction to "Vientos Del Pueblo", translated by Joan Jara
11. Vientos Del Pueblo (3:09)
12. Manifiesto (5;45)
13. Reading "Manifiesto" translated by Joan Jara
14. La Partida (3:27) Instrumental
15. Chile Stadium (Estadio Chile) (3:52, reading English singer's posthumous text by the poet Adrian Mitchell

All lyrics are sung in Spanish. Joan Jara, Victor Jara's widow, translated the Spanish lyrics of tracks 1, 6, 8, 11 and 12 and recorded them. These are dubbed onto the start of the respective tracks.

Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

(224 kbps, cover art included)