One stylish aspect of 1920s lunfardo was a liberal use of foreign terms, and those from England had a certain appeal, such as orsai (offsides) and jailaife (high-life). And one curious word in this favored street lingo was smoking—usually pronounced esmoquin—an old term for dinner jacket or tuxedo, which had fallen out of use in English but enjoyed a second heyday in the demimonde of Buenos Aires.
Along with its verbal fashion, in those days the tuxedo as evening dress so symbolized luxury and class, that it could grant its wearer prestige and access all by itself—even if it were his single worldly possession. And in “Viejo smoking,” Celedonio Flores turns out a tango from this esteemed garment, conjuring around it a set of extremes—contrasting glitz with poverty, and silken dalliance with a deeper sentiment of self-appraisal and a longing for the good life. The situation it portrays resonated with the era, and its story was acted out on screen in the early sound film Así cantaba Carlos Gardel (1930), which perhaps created the genre of the music video. (You can watch the dramatized scene, which leads into singing, here; Gardel’s more complete studio recording is linked below.)
NOTE: Due to line length on digital displays, the two verses (of eight long lines apiece) are arranged in hemistichs here.
Old Tuxedo
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Gardel (studio)
Armando Laborde (orq. D’Arienzo)
Get a load of how my cradle
lies in total desolation:
All its comfort is a bedframe
with no mattress on the top;
And check out how this poor fellow
has descended from his station,
Left embittered, poor, and scrawny
like the watchdog of a cop.
Piece by piece the rest got taken
to a broker for consignment
Once I fell in risky business
and cut loose to stay afloat…
You’re the only thing I’m saving,
my old dream, my old refinement,
And God willing, may I never
be too woken up to dote.
Old tuxedo of the era
When I too could cut a figure…
How the pretty lasses whimpered
On your lapels long ago!
Your lapels that by their dazzle
Would attract me such adherents,
And announced on my appearance
My renown as gigolo.
I don’t suffer any sadness
for the losses that I’ve tasted,
I’m not soured to remember
splendors I’d partaken of;
I’m not sorry for the money
or the many years I wasted,
But I cry to be so lonely,
out of friends and out of love…
Not a friendly hand to call on
that can spot me for an ante,
Not a woman who can brighten
the remainder of my life…
Someday soon I’ll lay upon you
since I’ve not a pillow handy,
And on my cot all in a tumble
I will leave myself to die!
Old tuxedo, all too often
Did the finest of the flappers
Stain your sheen lapel so dapper
With her rouge and powder so,
And with my outbursts of bravado
How many tears you wound up drying,
How many bully boys were eyeing
My renown as gigolo!
Viejo smoking (1930)
Music: Guillermo Barbieri
Lyrics: Celedonio Flores
.
Campaneá cómo el cotorro
va quedando despoblado
todo el lujo es la catrera
compadreando sin colchón
y mirá este pobre mozo
cómo ha perdido el estado,
amargado, pobre y flaco
como perro de botón.
Poco a poco todo ha ido
de cabeza p’al empeño
se dio juego de pileta
y hubo que echarse a nadar…
Sólo vos te vas salvando
porque pa’ mi sos un sueño
del que quiera Dios que nunca
me vengan a despertar.
Viejo smoking de los tiempos
en que yo también tallaba…
¡Cuánta papusa garaba
en tus solapas lloró!
Solapas que con su brillo
parece que encandilaban
y que donde iba sentaban
mi fama de gigoló.
Yo no siento la tristeza
de saberme derrotado
y no me amarga el recuerdo
de mi pasado esplendor;
no me arrepiento del vento
ni los años que he tirado,
pero lloro al verme solo,
sin amigos, sin amor;
sin una mano que venga
a llevarme una parada,
sin una mujer que alegre
el resto de mi vivir…
¡Vas a ver que un día de éstos
te voy a poner de almohada
y, tirao en la catrera,
me voy a dejar morir!
Viejo smoking, cuántas veces
la milonguera más papa
el brillo de tu solapa
de estuque y carmín manchó
y en mis desplantes de guapo
¡cuántos llantos te mojaron!
¡cuántos taitas envidiaron
mi fama de gigoló!