Ángel Chaparro Sainz

(Re)cording and (per)forming: Translating songs in a musical trip from the West to the East

This paper examines the cover song – that is, a new version of a previously performed or recorded song by someone other than the original composer or performer – from a translating perspective. Cultural and transcultural aspects will be considered as fundamental factors within translations. My examples will show how different strategies and intentions can be applied to song covering. I focus on an essential factor that affects lyrics: the linguistic switch. To what extent is it a translation when we enjoy songs that have been covered by bands who decide to sing the “base song” in a different language? Is it translation? Is it adaptation? Is it rewriting or (re)cording? Is it self-translation? Through the analysis of three different cover songs (from Western country songs to music by Leonard Cohen) by Spanish singer/songwriter Nacho Vegas, I propose potential answers to these questions, in which the cultural trip becomes key.

Keywords: music, cover songs, translation

Biography

Ángel Chaparro Sainz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies at the University of the Basque Country. He is a member of REWEST, a research group with a strong focus on Western American literature and culture, and he also collaborates with the Translation Studies research group TRALIMA. His most recent research explores interconnections between music, popular culture, literature and/or translating. He has also studied self-translation and Chicano literature in, for example, “Self-translating the Beginnings of Chicano Literature: Two Languages, Two Cultures, Two Authors” (2013), and published a book on Phyllis Barber and contemporary Mormon literature: Parting the Mormon Veil: Phyllis Barber’s Writing (2013).