‘I genuinely can’t think of anything constructive to say’
James Mills is a History student at Newcastle University.
Without knowing anything:
This lacked any appeal to me from the moment it started playing. And no, it’s not because it’s a different language, I listen to plenty of music from other countries, I pride myself on being well versed… It’s because it didn’t sound good. I’m assuming that it was written in the late 1970s or around that time and it certainly had that aged sound to it. The guitar solo was perhaps it’s only redeeming feature for me, but that also went on for too long. I assume it would have been much more appealing had there been a music video to follow along, though that doesn’t change the sound of the music. Rock music of the 70/80s, no matter where it was from – although I’m assuming somewhere in Latin America – is of its time. I genuinely can’t think of anything constructive to say because nothing about this appealed to me.
After being informed:
Argentina, I knew it. But I only knew it because of the language, nothing about the music itself is Latin American. In fact, it was very Anglo-American in it’s style – it’s just not my style. And of course it was political, it was a time of huge political and social unrest in Argentina in the 1970s. I can give you a history lesson if you’d like? No? Okay. It doesn’t change my opinion on it, but it does underline everything I believe to be true; it is a song of its time and its country. I can’t connect with the music as much as I would like to… Perhaps it’s because I’m too young, perhaps it’s because I’m English, but none of the issues they talk about affect me.