1917
Or “My Sad Night”, as translated into English.
The first tangos, in the 1880 – 1900s had no words at all – just melody. Tango was born initially as a dance. The earliest tangos were played on violin, guitar and flute – simply because musicians could easily carry those instruments with them through bars, restaurants and brothels. After all it would be hard to do that with piano and bandoneon still had not established as a tango instrument.
Later, lyrics appeared in tango, matching the environment where it was born: boastful, ironic, sometimes vulgar, with streetwise humor. Here are a few examples from well-known tangos of the 1900-s:
“Miss Clarita, so lovely and graceful,
when you walk, the whole neighborhood watches;
with your high-piled hair and bright skirt,
even the priest at the church sighs”
or
“Don Juan is my name, gentlemen,
I’m from the Palermo district;
everyone knows me as a brave man,
a true tough guy of the first class.”
and it was all like that. In other words, absolutely no lyrical nostalgia or melancholy.
Then came – and was recorded in 1917 by Carlos Gardel the tango “Mi noche triste” or “My sad night”. It’s regarded as the beginning of a new chapter in tango, the tango we know: sad, nostalgic, full of longing and complicated love torments.
Here are a few lines from it, so nothing like what was before:
“Girl, you left me
in the best years of my life,
leaving my soul wounded
and a thorn in my heart,
knowing that I loved you,
that you were my joy
and my burning dream.”
And here is the dance performed by the brilliant Chicho and Juana, which for me is forever tied to this tango—hard to dance to, recorded with guitar alone and considered as the starting point of the lyrical tango.