Bruce Springsteen is bringing some local flavor to his shows with the E Street Band in South America. The Boss was playing in Argentina, 25 years after his last visit to the country, and he was exhausted at the end of the show. So he told his fans to check out his website later for a taped performance of "Solo le pido a Dios" by Argentine folk musician León Gieco.
Springsteen said that he learned the track, which translates to "I Only Ask Of God," from another Argentine folk singer: Mercedes Sosa, who passed away in 2009. The vocalist/guitarist opened the video with a spoken introduction (in Spanish) describing his 1988 visit to the nation.
"We came to Argentina when the country was going through a difficult time, and fighting for its future," he said (thanks to the Associated Press for the translation). "For a foreigner, Argentina was very much alive, promising. So it's a huge inspiration for me to return here, and I want to leave this song to the people of Argentina."
As any fan of The Boss knows, Springsteen generally has an obvious or subliminal social/political commentary underneath his tracks. "Solo le pido a Dios" follows suit, harking back to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet during the '70s.
Although we only have the video of Springsteen paying tribute to Argentine musicians, he's been spreading the international love around South America during the band's recents tour. Last week he performed "Manifesto," a song by Chilean poet Victor Jara at the band's concert in Santiago. This week Springsteen has a few shows in Brazil, so we'll see if he can sing Portuguese as well, perhaps?
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