Zeca's Best

 

Portuguese singer/songwriter José 'Zeca' Alfonso at his best: Grandola vila morena, with its haunting accompaniment of marching feet is, even  by the high standards of Portuguese music, extraordinarily stirring. Sometimes a song gives me the feeling that I must write, rare enough really, but when that sense lingers it is down to the strength of feeling the singer and song arouses, and this is definitely a case in point.

Grândola, brown town (English transation)

Grândola, brown town,

Land of fraternity;

It's the people who command

Inside you, oh city.

 

Inside you, oh city,

It's the people who command;

Land of fraternity,

Grândola, brown town.

 

On each corner there's a friend

In each face there's equality

Grândola, brown town,

Land of fraternity.

 

Land of fraternity

Grândola, brown town

In each face there's equality

It is the people who command

 

In the shadow of a holm oak

Which no longer knew its age

I swore as my companion,

your will, Grândola;

 

your will, Grândola,

I swore as my companion

In the shadow of a holm oak

Which no longer knew its age.