The Permanent Collection: 023 & 24

The Permanent Collection is a weekly log of my favourite tracks in the entire world. This isn’t a ranking, but a space where I can share my deepest music loves with you in a more intimate setting. Paid subscribers get access to the full archive, bonus songs and a playlist.

Pansequito - No Me Importa Lo Que Digan (2009)

One of my fav fav favs!!!

Ballad to fiesta - this flamenco banger comes courtesy of José Cortés Jiménez, known mononymously as Pansequito, who passed away February of this year.

I’d be lying if I told you I know anything about the lyrics. My Spanish is as good as my Mandarin - non-existent.

If you follow my radio show on Patreon, I’ve been on a bit of a Flamenco kick - and my all time favourite flamenco song is this one. Do you know why I’m not a club DJ? Because I’ve DJed this out before. I think it’s a smash, but I think most people aren’t idealistic romantics like me.

Not knowing a lick of Spanish, I can only describe how my heart feels.

Pansequito’s voice in this song has lived a good life. It’s old and leathery and 90% throat because the lungs have almost given up the puff.

The song is like an ascension up Mount Teide - it is a relentless rise up into the clouds. The palmas (flamenco clapping) holds us on the train tracks. The guitar is the coal. Pansequito, the chimney. The bass sidles behind the curtain of the private cabins, along a the chorus of singers who draw back the linen to let the sun stream in at the final climax of the song.

Whenever I listen to this song, it is loud. Obnoxiously so. I may not be Spanish, but at that moment, I don’t know what I am.

I’ve embedded the song because there aren’t many quality versions on YouTube, and it’s not available on streaming (sorry).

Thanks for reading this week’s edition! 024 is below for paid subscribers.