Fiesta, by Joan Manuel Serrat (1970)
Today the aristocrat and the villain
The famous and the infamous
Dance and hold hands without caring what they look like
Serrat is one of the best singers in Catalunya in Spain, and this song always bring me happiness. I like it a lot. The Sant Joan party that the song talks about is a typical party in Catalunya, celebrated on 23 June with fire on the beach or in the street, everybody dancing, having fun.
I was not a guy who went to a lot of parties. At 13 years old I was going to Barcelona’s academy. I always tried to be focused and I never went to discos or to pubs to drink a lot. But in the summer, when school was finished, everyone would go to the Sant Joan party and it’s a song that reminds me a lot of my little, little town of Santpedor when I was young.
I think it’s impossible to have lived a better childhood, to have been a happier little boy than I was. We were not a wealthy family. We were normal people, more poor than rich, in a little town, and every day I was in the streets with no traffic lights, no cars, always playing, bicycling, football, basketball, tennis, pool.
I remember absolutely that. I would wake up, go out to the street, then school, then back out on the street until mum said: OK it’s time to have dinner and come back home.
Times have changed so much, and I am not complaining, but I think kids miss that a little bit now, especially if you live in big cities. I have lived in Barcelona, New York, Munich, now here in Manchester, but I was so happy in that period in my life – I have amazing memories.
I am not the same as I was when a kid. That’s normal; I am not the same as last year. But the basics are the same. The education you receive from parents, school, your friends, it’s always something you carry for the rest of your life, but we change. I was a boy and now I am a father; maybe in a few years I will be a grandfather.