This second set of lyrics for “El choclo” was penned in 1930 by singer Juan Carlos Marambio Catán. He wrote them at the request of Irene Villoldo, the sister of the tune’s composer Ángel Villoldo, who related to him an explanation of the song’s title. She claimed that El Choclo was the nickname of a street tough and pimp in the early 1900s, so called because of his blond shock of hair.
The original 1912 lyrics, which Villoldo himself wrote and sang, do not make any allusion to this character; and Villoldo’s remarks about the song, as in his interview with Francisco García Jiménez, do not add any support to his sister’s claim. The tale of a figure from the streets of the past, however, was then on people’s minds, and it played a role in the new lyrics for “Shusheta” which Enrique Cadícamo wrote in the mid-1930s (and later revised). Whether the story is real or apocryphal, the facts of the rewrite point to a certain desire to fit early tangos into the lyric conventions that had evolved during the 1920s. On that note, it is interesting to observe that the story of El Choclo the character is told in the bridge and chorus, while both verses are about “El choclo” the song.
Note: Recordings that use these lyrics are rare, and I haven’t located a video online that features them. The versions recorded by Ángel Vargas (in 1941 and 1957) combine the first and second verses, and substitute some of the wording.
The Corncob (1930)
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Ángel Vargas (orq. Edelmiro D’Amario)
Old-time milonga, in my sorry hours’ sadness,
You bring up memories so vividly and fondly,
And as your notes begin to tug at me in gladness,
I feel my heart go sinking down into a quandary.
I sadly pore upon that past now long behind me,
That penned a chapter of my life in bloody letters,
And which I carry like a cross in persecution,
Although its awful burden just fills me up with woe.
It was that dark night
That always leaves me frightened,
When she was my passion,
And played me for a fool,
And dueling that other
By whom my life was stolen,
My gaucho dagger
Did split his heart in two.
And by my buddies
The Corncob I was styled,
I fight like something wild,
A brawler blow for blow,
But that one kitten,
She filled my life with poison,
And left me lonesome
To weep my tragic woe.
If in your lifetime, it ever falls upon you
To bet your heart on a darling little doe,
You just remember, that once a hope is over,
No other flower will ever after grow.
The lying kisses, deceptions and resentments,
Forever haunting the soreness and the woe…
And when a person surrenders his affections,
Betrayal watches the bed for him to go.
Now that the years have painted white upon my temples,
And sadness claims my heart alone so resolutely,
Just like a lantern light illumining my pathway,
Your notes deliver me their melody of beauty.
Beloved tango, old-time Corncob that so moves me
With those caresses of your notes so full of feeling,
I want to die beneath your groaning and your heaving,
Singing out my grievance, weeping out my woes.
El choclo (1930)
Music: Ángel Villildo
Lyrics: Juan Carlos Marambio Catán
Vieja milonga, que en mis horas de tristeza
Traes a mi mente tu recuerdo cariñoso,
Y encadenándome a tus notas dulcemente
Siento que el alma se me encoge poco a poco.
Recuerdo triste de un pasado que en mi vida
Dejó una página de sangre escrita a mano,
Y que he llevado como cruz de mi martirio
Aunque mi carga infame me llene de dolor.
Fue aquella noche
Que todavía me aterra,
Cuando ella era mía,
Jugó con mi pasión,
Y en duelo a muerte
Con quien robó mi vida
Mi daga gaucha
Partió su corazón.
Y me llamaban
El Choclo, compañeros,
Tallé en los entreveros,
Seguro y fajador,
Pero una china
Envenenó mi vida,
Y hoy lloro a solas
Con mi trágico dolor.
Si alguna vuelta le toca por la vida
En una mina poner su corazón,
Recuerde siempre que una ilusión perdida
No vuelve nunca a dar una flor.
Besos mentidos, engaños y amarguras,
Rondando siempre la pena y el dolor,
Y cuando un hombre entrega su ternura
Cerca del lecho le acecha la traición.
Hoy que los años han blanqueado ya mis sienes
Y que en mi pecho sólo anida la tristeza,
Como una luz que me ilumina en el sendero
Llegan tus notas de melódica belleza.
Tango querido, viejo Choclo que me embargas
Con la caricia de tus notas tan sentidas,
Quiero morir bajo el arrullo de tus quejas
Cantando mis querellas, llorando mi dolor.