The real Georgie Dann: a Conservatory trained musician, smart and pragmatic

PREMIUM

• CARLOS TORO

  Madrid

Updated Wednesday, 3November2021-20: 02

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Everyone knew him, although not everyone liked him.

Everyone had hummed, seriously or in jest, some of his songs, although not everyone was willing to praise them.

It was

who died this Wednesday at the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid at the age of 81 during a hip operation.

The French musician came to Spain trying to seduce her elegantly with music rooted in the great tradition of the

.

He was a Parisian who saw how she resisted him in the salons and ended up taking her out to dance in the discos and the festivals to the beat of the so-called "summer song".

Georgie Dann was intelligent, he was pragmatic

, helped, despite appearances, by a solid musical training, because Georges Mayer Dahan came from a family of musicians and had studied for nine years at the Paris Conservatoire, apart from pursuing a teaching career .

An excellent instrumentalist (accordion, clarinet, sax, guitar), he was part of some French pop groups before trying his luck as a soloist.

And he did it in Spain, in 1964, at the Mediterranean Festival, or the Mediterranean Song, with his song

(Everything you know), a criticism of a young girl with a head to birds.

The Festivals at that time dictated the musical fashion in Europe: Eurovision, San Remo, Sopot ... In Spain they abounded, and Benidorm took the cake in terms of popularity and impact on the charts and sales. The Mediterranean, held in Barcelona, ​​harbored all the ambitions in the world to become the first Festival in Spain. He did not succeed, but he left for posterity, in the voices of unforgettable performers, a handful of equally memorable songs. Among them

, defended by

(the contest rules required two interpreters).

That, no less, was the winning song in 1964.

one of the great stars of French song, defended

. They were in sixth place, but they liked them a lot. The song was successful. Not so much, naturally, as

(I have understood that I love you), in, on the other hand, a year with

(Les Surfs),

(Charles Aznavour),

( Trini López),

(Gigliola Cinquetti "),

(Alain Barrière),

(Gino Paoli),

(Rita Pavone),

(Mina),

(Adriano Celentano),

(Dynamic Duo), etc.

But Georgie discovered Spain. In a way, he fell in love with her and decided to stay on her ground. But there was too much competition, between Spaniards and foreigners, in the musical field in which he wanted to develop. He then opted for a style that some would call "easy", but for which it is necessary to have talent.

, little appreciated by critics, but undoubted. It's not easy to make a hit with lower caliber ingredients. If this were the case, many would sign up with an advantage. Georgie took advantage of his training to compose songs dressed as a flea market rather than boutique, but effective in a fiercely competitive world. Thus he achieved the unofficial title of, say,

.

The

is a discredited category. Characteristics of cheap commerciality are attributed to it, merely catchy, in the superficial sense of the term. A beachy, festive by-product, only admissible as unpretentious entertainment in a framework of intellectual bewilderment typical, theoretically and topically, of the summer season. Drinks, pickups ... Songs too, if you like, with their quality, their grace, their that, their little trick, but ... cool, light. A frivolous and uninhibited parenthesis between months of duties and worries.

It is still true, if we musically reduce summer to those parameters. Okay, yes, summer songs have been

But also "

", "

... Songs, on the other hand, not limited to the hot months, but extended to many more.

In any case, Georgie Dann knew how to make a name of the highest value in a market defined by those characteristics, properties, rather, commonly admitted as "summer", until he got to identify with them and provide them with his name. In fact, it became a symbol of a way of making music and performing it.

he, dressed in shiny overalls, with his typical swaying movements, flanked, surrounded by girls with immovable, inalienable physical characteristics, a trademark of the house. Showy, generous, striking girls, with high boots and short skirts. A visual spectacle.

And is that Georgie Dann was not, strictly speaking, a great seller of records. But it maintained a very high rate of performances on television and in indoor or outdoor venues in countless cities and towns. He had ups and downs, like every artist. But, over time, he maintained a covenant with himself and his followers that can only be classified as regularity within fidelity. The nature, let's say light, of his songs, made him

Years go by for all of us, but we are almost surprised by his age. We tended to attribute to her, hibernating, a kind of joint and immutable youth-maturity, with her hair dyed but intact.

From 1964 to 2018, with his appearances, disappearances, comings and goings, he published about thirty albums. And in the memory and the soundtrack of the country, of a very specific country, remain "

", "

... From time to time some of those sound pieces reappear in an advertisement, a period report, a sociological study, a film ... He did not compose much for such a long artistic life.

His lyrics were often of an elementary double meaning, vulgar, directed to an undemanding public. But they worked.

Georgie married Emilia García (Emy), one of his

", with whom he had three children.

Two of them, Patricia and Paul, form the musical duo Calle París.

He has died in Madrid in the course of a hip surgery.

Admirers or detractors remember him today as a character present in their lives, even in good moments of them.

And although they know exactly what the black had, they still wonder.

But they were other times in another Spain in another world.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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