Camarón, complete discography
by José Manuel Gamboa

Two years would pass before Camarón would return to the world of records, most of that time being spent in dodging the critics and specialist with a desire for argument and chatter. The 80's decade, in which the Camarón phenomenon acquired its fill magnitude, is inaugurated with a re-encounter in the recording studios with Paco de Lucía. José, Paco, Tomatito, Pepe de Lucia and Ricardo Pachón were the creators of this acoustic "Como el agua". The production of Ricardo Pachón, with the direction of Paco de Lucía, is impeccable. The flamenco voice of the "cantaor" is sweet and inflicts pain as never before, and the guitars ...never have accompanying guitars been heard like this on a record. Simply superb. It could be said that Pepe de Lucía is the soul of this album,as he signed the authorship of most of the cuts. He only shares the credits with José Monje in "La luz de aquella farola", and the "bulería" "Gitana te quiero", originally by José Monje and Antonio Humanes, is not his. The illustrations on the record cover introduce us into the secret world of the recording studio. There we see Camarón wearing headphones before his enemy the microphone, which looks like a fearsome insect. But he is content. It seems that there is a good atmosphere, and the report on the back jacket cover confirms it, they are having fan. They are doing something good.

The album is full of "lolailos", "lereles" and repetitive choruses, in other cases abonimable, but with Camarón sound glorius. The tango "Como el agua" is catchy and undisputably flamenco, and "Tu amor para mí no es fantasía" loses the slight rumba character of the previous cuts to concentrate itself on the classic rhythm of the tango. Of the three "bulerías" we most prefer "Quiero quitarme esta pena", and particularly the verses where he signs "a veces se me olvida la razón", wich are full of beauty, and wich Paco uses musically to compose a "falseta" he plays in "La luz de aquella farola". In this "cante" the voice of Camarón full of "duende" (charm) flows in time with with dizzying rhythms. The "alegrías", which have a lot of influence from Morente, are at the level of the rest and in them the guitars commit authentic devilry. In the fandangos of Huelva, marked by the rhythmic banging of knuckles on wood, in the "onubense" manner, the catchy chorus is used and they are superb. We leave for the end the "tarantas" (the credits say "tarantos"), which Pepe de Lucía claims as his, calling them "En tu puerta da Ia luna", an old "taranta" of Málaga by Fernando "el de Triana" that we know from the recordings on slate of the "Cojo de Málaga".