Los Kinks: Mallorca and sixties pop

Francesc Vicens can't be accused of not being eclectic in his musical interests. Two years ago, the views of this Mallorcan musicologist were being widely sought when the Sibil·la chant was placed on UNESCO's list of practices which add to the "intangible cultural heritage of humanity". He has now produced a book on a subject far removed from the folk and religious heritage of the Sibil·la. Entitled "Paradise of Love", it deals with pop music and culture in the Mallorca of the sixties.

The book's subtitle is "L'Illa imaginada". From this, I take it that the book is in Catalan. It sounds as if consideration should be given to publishing it in English as well. Sixties pop groups from Mallorca would be unfamiliar to almost anyone who wasn't Mallorcan, but the groups themselves are only as important as the cultural context of the growth of tourism, the influence of pop culture from the UK and the US and the social climate of Mallorca under Franco. As such, it appears to be as much a social history as it is a musical one. Its story deserves to be told more widely.

Spanish pop music in the sixties, as far as a British audience was concerned, was of little consequence. There may have been others but the only hit song that comes to mind is Los Bravos' "Black Is Black". Los Bravos weren't completely Spanish in that the singer, Michael Kogel, was German, but Los Bravos had a connection with Mallorca. It was at the Jaima nightclub in Cala Mayor that Kogel met members of a group called Los Sonor from Madrid. They joined forces and eventually changed their name to Los Bravos.

Otherwise, Spanish popular music meant that from Latin America and the US. "Guantanamera" was a hit in 1966 for the American group The Sandpipers whose version retained some Spanish lyrics from a song that was originally Cuban; the song's title means, by the way, woman from Guantánamo, a place that has since acquired an altogether different reputation. There was Herb Alpert, who was American, and his "Spanish Flea" and very little else.

Mallorcan pop groups of the time that Vicens has chronicled will mean very little, but the names of the groups of that era certainly reflected the era: Los Bohemios; Los Millionarios, who apparently had a big hit with "Jardín de Rosas", a cover of Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden"; Los Geminis who did their own take on Tommy James & The Shondells' "Mony, Mony"; Los Telstars who were part of Beatlemania in a Mallorcan style, though they dared to venture into Troggs territory by recording "A Girl Like You". There was also a duo, Juan and Junior; Juan was from Palma and Junior was from The Philippines and they were about as big as it got in Mallorca in those days. They were for a time part of Los Brincos who recorded a song called "El Pasaporte" which was apparently critical of Franco.

I've listened to a not terribly good quality recording of "El Pasaporte" (its English version) and it wasn't bad, though it's difficult to make the lyrics out, and I have to thank, as I also do for names of artists listed above, a remarkable resource at http://66spanishgarage.blogspot.com.es for making it available. I urge you to visit this website as it is full of absolute gems.

Being critical of Franco wasn't the best career move a pop group or anyone could make in the 1960s, but the fact that there may have been some criticism, albeit almost subliminal, does indicate the way in which the sixties brought about social change in Mallorca, and especially in Mallorca and the Costas because of tourism. Allied to nudges from the US for more liberalism in return for all the aid that was coming Franco's way, tourism plus pop culture began to erode Francoism. Yet, as Vicens appears to point out in his book, protest wasn't a facet of this new pop culture. It may not have been openly expressed in the music, but it surely played its part in altering society, given that protest had moved into the pop mainstream and away from its folk roots of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and others.

Occasionally, you stumble across an item in the local press that pulls you up and makes you think: "now that's really interesting". So it was with the piece about Vicens' book in "Ultima Hora", replete with a poster for The Kinks (and not Los Kinks) at Palma's bullring on 17 July 1966. The combination of the sixties (with all the baggage the sixties imply), tourism, a society in change, music and pop culture is a heady and vibrant mix. I do hope a way is found to publish this book in English.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.