Diablo Mambo

by The Cuban Cowboys

Diablo Mambo cover art
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about

Produced by Greg Landau (Maldita Vecindad, Susana Baca)

credits

released 01 November 2010
"Diablo Mambo" features performances by Latin Grammy winner Alex Cuba, Carole Steele, and Jesus Diaz. Released in November, 2010, "Diablo Mambo" debuted at #5 on iTunes' Latin Album chart following a feature on NPR's Weekend Edition.

Press Kit & PR: Rock Paper Scissors
www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/522.cfm

tags

tags: alternative cowboys cuba cuban latin latin alternative rock spanglish rock en español San Francisco

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about

The Cuban Cowboys mix indie rock with traditional Cuban music. Really? Yup. We been standing on the corner of Brooklyn and Matanzas since 2005. Where you been?

shows

discography

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Track Name: Cojones
Cojones

Los hombres no le pegan a mujeres
[Men don’t hit women]
You told me not to do it so I won’t
El que lo hace pierde sus cojones
[The man that does so loses his balls]
You said this as you held me by the throat

Cuando todavia era un joven
[When I was still a young boy]
I hit my sister we were in a fight
Abuelo vino pa’ poner la orden
[Grandfather came to lay down the law]
He came to cut my balls off that night

Me puso arriba del gabetero
[he put me up on the dresser]
That’s when he took out his knife
Porque papi le pego a mami?
[Why did daddy hit mommy?]
How does a man hit his wife?

I really wouldn’t call myself precocious
I really wouldn’t say I was so smart
Pero en ese momento pude entender
[But in that moment I was able to understand]
The meaning of a broken heart.
Track Name: Oh Celia
Oh Celia

Oh Celia,
Why you say that I don’t feel ya?
That you have changed
That you don’t love me
That I ain’t your man anymore

So now I only got to tell ya:
Ya no veo al sol, ya no veo a la luna
[I no longer see the sun, I no longer see the moon]
Y ahora mira, mira, mira como estoy
[And now look, look, look how I am]

Oh Celia,
I know I really put it to ya,
I only wish you’d reconsider
Cuz love don’t come easy these days

But I know, I know that won’t sway you
Ya no veo al sol, ya no veo a la luna
[I no longer see the sun, I no longer see the moon]
Y ahora mira, mira, mira como estoy
[And now look, look, look how I am]

Oh Celia,
It’s much to late for me to tell ya
That I can change
So I won’t stop you from closing the door to my heart

So go ahead and change the locks now
Ya no veo al sol, ya no veo a la luna
[I no longer see the sun, I no longer see the moon]
Y ahora mira, mira, mira como estoy
[And now look, look, look how I am]


Miramé lo chevere que estoy…
[Look at me, how cool & happy I am…]
Track Name: Check's in the Mail
Check’s in the Mail

Si la vida es un sueño
[If life is a dream]
Then we can only guess the dangers
And the benefits
Of falling for a liar
As thoughtful as you

On the day we met
The stars said that you were full of crap
With you contract
That I could not resist, cuz the truth is:
I lied to myself, we all do

The check’s in the mail, the money’s on its way
I can believe a single word you say
The check’s in the mail, all you got is cliché
Talk to my lawyer motherfucker!!
The check’s in the mail!

Si todo es un desengaño
[if all is but an illusion]
A criminal offense, far as I know,
Is all we got from you, Señor No Show
Your word is as bad as my guitar solo

The check’s in the mail, the money’s on its way
I can believe a single word you say
The check’s in the mail, all you got is cliché
Talk to my lawyer motherfucker!!
The check’s in the mail!
Track Name: The Devil's Dance
THE DEVIL'S DANCE

Se lo dije a Joaquinito, como padre a su hijo
You don't have to be afraid, you will learn from my mistakes
I said it to little Joaquin, as a father to his son...

But if you want to be man, learn the moves of the Devil's dance

Se lo dije a Elenita, de un padre a su hija
The world is full of evil, people will deceive you
I said it to little Elena, from a father to his daughter...

So take this truth by the hand, and learn the moves of the Devil's Dance

Se lo digo a mis niños, como padre a sus hijos
Keep your heart inside your chest, never tell just let them guess
I tell it to my children, as a father to his children...

When Hell gives up what love demands, learn the moves of the Devil's Dance

CORO
De lo malo en la vida nadie se escapa, ni el rey, ni el Papa, ni la mujer mas guapa
No one escapes the bad in life, not the king, not the Pope, not the most beautiful woman

Precoro: En el close mio hay un esceleto que ha pegao' los tarros, ha faltao' respeto
In my closet, there's a skeleton that's committed adultery and has shown disrespect

CORO
Precoro: Si este's el mundo que to he traido, olvidate de mi y vete del nido
If this is the world I have brought you to, forget about me and leave the nest

CORO
Precoro: Este's el pais del papelito, llevalo contigo a cada sitio
This is the country of little paper ($$), take it with you every place you go

CORO
Precoro: La viña del nombre produce lo bueno y lo malo a la mizma vez
The vineyard of one's name produces the good and the bad at the same time

CORO
Precoro: Con el Diablo siempre hay que bailar, de esa copa hay que tomar
You must always dance with the Devil, you must always drink from that cup
Track Name: Liberace Afternoon
LIBERACE AFTERNOON

Si papi le gusta el Mambo, ella tocaba una Sarzuela
En su bata de casa andando, detras del piano, su soledad
If papi liked a Mambo, she would play a Sarzuela,
She'd hang around in her house coat, behind the piano, her solitude

En Cuba se fuma tabaco, pero no en esta casa
A papi no le gustaba, dentras del piano, la muy salada
Tabacco is smoked in Cuba, but not in this house.
Papi did not like her, behind the piano, with her sassy self

CORO 1
Liberace afternoon, I remember watching you
Liberace afternoon, play the piano in your room
Liberace afternoon, candelabra, fancy suit
Liberace afernoon, I find myself still missing you

La furia de una chancleta teaches a child to keep his distance
De joven no la entendi, she always said I had the Devil in me
The fury of an old, beat-down slipper...
As a child, I did not understand her...

CORO 1

Los neighbors no se quejaron porque el sonido era tan bello
It was the only mouth she could not feed; the hunger of her memory
The neighbors never complained because the sound was so beautiful

CORO 2
Liberace afternoon, I remember watching you
Liberace afternoon, play the piano in your room
Liberace afternoon, I threw tantrums you threw brooms
Liberace afternoon, I find myself still missing you
Track Name: Shipwrecked Sailors
SHIPWRECKED SAILORS

Talk about two shipwrecked sailors,one of them used to be my friend the other's from a story by Garcia Marquez, whose books I read in college just to impress a girlfriend who thought I was well-read cuz I'd tell her all the truth about the fiction in my head

Gabriel Garcia Marquez escribio de la vez que un marinero abandonado like Jean Genet, a liar and a whore parlez vous francais. The navy really wished he'd just go away, so I guess he never shoulda' told them he wasn't gay.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote of the time a sailor, abandoned like...

CHORUS
Just don't ask me about his self-control, I heard he had a wife down in Orlando. Let's just say this deck has two jokers. Ha ha ha.

Vamos a la playa de la joventud, yeah baby let's get lost on the sea of youth, where el escritor famoso he exposed a fraud while that friend of mine got hisself discharged—they asked, he told in a shore-leave hold, while el otro sold his story for a pound of gold.

Coro 1: Ay, Ay, Ay-Ay canta y no llores over contraband cars, over contraband hearts. Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay-Ay canta y no llores over the way things fall apart
Ay, ay, ay-ay sing, don't cry...

Two lonely cowboys sleeping on the range, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" means passing strange. The shipwrecked sailors washed ashore different from when they came aboard.
Don't ask don't tell! Don't ask don't tell!...
La vida traie luz como escuridad, la menitira se duerme con la verdad. The shipwrecked sailors hid their past living a dream that could not last
Life brings light as well as dark, the lie sleeps with the truth
Don't ask don't tell! Don't ask don't tell!...
Coro 1: Ay, Ay, Ay-Ay canta y no llores over contraband cars, over contraband hearts. Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay-Ay canta y no llores over the way things fall apart
Ay, ay, ay-ay sing, don't cry...
Track Name: El Danzón de Noventa Millas
EL DANZÓN DE NOVENTA MILLAS/THE NINETY MILE DANZON

Pa'l jardinero que ama a sus flores,
El gusano es lo mejor
Pero en el cantero que es la Cuba
El gusano es un traidor
For the gardener that loves his flowers, the worm is the best.
But in the garden that is Cuba, that worm is a traitor.

Me parece que no hay remedio
Este humo no nos deja ver
Ha explotado una bomba nueva
Sobre este juego de ajedrez
It seems to me that there is no other choice,this smoke doesn't let us see. A new bomb has exploded over this game of chess

CORO/CHORUS
El mar que nos divide es un danzón de noventa millas, donde uno nada mucho pa' morir en la orilla.
The sea that divides us is a ninety-mile danzon, where one swims so much only to die on the shore

Este carro de cincuenta años
No camina por que esta ponchada
Una goma que no aguanta aire
Hasta la rueda esta prestada
This fifty-year old car doesn't run because a tire that can't hold air is flat. Even the wheel is borrowed

CORO/CHORUS
El compromiso de los bailadores
En la Habana como en la Souwesera
Es un espejo de los deseos
Pa' los que bailan con lo que era
The dancers' commitment, in Havana as in Southwest Miami,
is a mirror of desires for those who dance with what was.

CORO/CHORUS
Vamos a mover las fichas
A este juego hay que darle mano
Aunque uno nunca 'ta seguro
Si el enemigo es un hermano
Let's scramble the dominos; with this game, you gotta be aggressive, even though one is never sure if the enemy is a brother
Track Name: Señor Balaban
SEÑOR BALABAN

Mi abuelo, el me dijo, que cuando era jovencito
Le hablaba a un vecino, un viejito bien vestido
Con traje blanco y un baston, el fue el rey del Malecon
Dando muela a las muchachas, cantandoles una Guaracha
"Ese viejo se burlaba de la manera que you le hablaba
A las chicas que you queria. Y ahora te digo lo que el decia:"
My grandfather told me that when he was a boy, he used to talk to this neighbor of his, a well-dressed little old man.
With a white suit and a walking cane, the guy was the King of the Malecon, flirting with the girls, singing them bawdy songs.
"That old man used to make fun of the way I spoke to the girls that I liked. And now I'm going to tell you what he used to tell me."

Señor Balaban, Señor Balaban...

Es que necesito saber el nombre de esa chica que pasa por aqui cada mañanita. Haz me un favorcito, tu me conoces soy tu vecino, de buena familia soy su destino.
I just need to know the name of that girl that passes by here every morning. Do me a little favor, you know me, I'm your neighbor, from a good family, I am her destiny.

CORO
Las mujeres pa' me, son las olas del mar, aunque suben, aunque bajan, hay que nadar. El me dijo a mi que "te van a gustar. Pero nunca te olvides mijo que te van a enredar!"
To me, women are the waves of the sea, they go up and they go down, but you still have to swim. He told me "you're going to like them, but never forget, my son, that they'll trip you up!"

CORO2
Ya es hora de mojar el tabaco...
It's time to wet the tobacco...

Las Delicias, en Hialeah, squeezing lemoncito on our Palomillas
Abuelo took us to a Cuban restaurant, pastelitos, croqueticas gimme all I want. Abuelo and mi papi give their best advice, Moros y Cristianos in between their bites, talk about a war that I'd grow up to fight, Cuando hablan de tabaco, I see Marlboro Light.

Yo no tuve ningun tabaco por alli. A esa edad se parecilla mas como un cigarrito! Mojar, sembrar, fumar, a mi me da lo mismo. Lo que you quiero saber, lo que you necesito saber, es que les digo? Como les hablo? Dime eso viejo mio.
I didn't have no cigar down there. At that age, it was more like a cigarette. Wet, plant, smoke, it's all the same to me. What I want to know, what I need to know is what do I tell them? How do I talk to them? Tell me that, old man.

Señor Balaban, Señor Balaban...
Track Name: La Ventana
La Ventana

The moon over Brooklyn is on my side
Help me peek across the rooftops, pass the cats in all the windows,
Just to see her turn on her lights

I see the fishies on her shower curtain
I see her stockings run
She got a Lady Guadalupe tank-top
Sometimes she falls asleep with her pants still on

Hay la ventana, la tentacion
[Oh, the window. The temtation]
Hasta cuando la tentacion?
[How long must this temptation last?]

Just like her boyfriend, out in the desert
She’s losing a war
Cuz I watch her every noche
And I know that she’d agree
That less is more

She keeps a blossom in a saucer
I suppose for her love
‘Mid the clutter of his letters
Are her teardrops all reflected
By the moon above

Maybe once, maybe twice
A night in the middle of summer time
Something in her eyes belies the price of keeping the curtains drawn
Til her show, it come on
Til my show, it come on

Hay la ventana, la tentacion
[Oh, the window. The temtation]
Hasta cuando la tentacion?
[How long must this temptation last?]
Track Name: Bajo La Luna
Bajo La Luna

Mira pa’ arriba mijo a what we got
A full moon tonight
Moon say: “I don’t know what I want, but I know what I like.”

If she grumpy in the morning that’s cuz
The Sun come out
While Moon only has to whisper
The Sun feels the need to shout

Entre dia y noche hay un gran amor
[Between day and night, there is a great love]
Cuando sube la luna, cuando baja el sol
[When the moon rises, when the sun goes down]
This ain’t no lunar disco, this ain’t no mess around
When the Moon come up, the Sun go

Bajo, bajo la Luna, Under the Moon alright
The stars say they be coming over
The Sun won’t melt your wings tonight.

One day the Sun was hung over, drunk
On the light of the Moon,
“Will my face grow to fit my mask?
Is that what you think is true?”

Moon shot back to her lover
“Sun, If you only knew
Never pay attention to what I say.
Only how I say it to you.”

Entre dia y noche hay un gran amor
[Between day and night, there is a great love]
Cuando sube la luna, cuando baja el sol
[When the moon rises, when the sun goes down]
This ain’t no lunar disco, this ain’t no mess around
When the Moon come up, the Sun go

Bajo, bajo la Luna, Under the Moon alright
All the lobos shout together
To keep the Sun awake at night.