Quimi Portet superstar

One of my favorite lyrics from Cançons en bell llemosí 1987-2020 by Quimi Portet (Vic, 1957) is “Estenent la roba” from the album Oh my love (2012) : the smell of detergent or fabric softener flowers, sunshine on the back of your neck (diminutives galore!), neighbors cooking rice, the rooftop turning the colors of mismatched socks. In another song, from the album Ós bipolar (2016), “Pamela,” she waters the geraniums and splashes a pedestrian (who well deserves it). How many people consider themselves the best!

Starting with Quimi Portet, when he says he's the handsome guy in El último de la fila (the group he formed with Manolo García until 1996). There's a lot of amusing self-promotion, because since the beginning of his solo career in 1997—and before that, when he and Manolo García had the group Los burros—Portet has composed a parody of the superstar. A concert in Manresa is the World Tour. "Si plou ho farem al pavelló" (If I plowed, I farem al pavelló) is the title of the live album, pretending it's a concert in Cincinnati.

Everything has an air of mockery and of pouring water on the wine of transcendence. He says he's a big star and an average singer. He claims that Catalans are modest, but that they shouldn't be so modest if, when they go to the bathroom, they say they're going to have a river (it's an idea that—more ambivalence is impossible—he got from Pilarín Bayés or Albert Pla, he can't remember which). He's like the German shepherd in the song "Oh My Love," who wants to work for the FBI and does nothing but chew on shoes.

In the midst of this game of double meanings, Cançons en bell llemosí 1987-2020 says some important things. The first is implicit in the title. Llemosí is the way the poets of the Renaixença called Catalan. For example, Bonaventura Carles Aribau: “Si, quan me trobe sol, parl amb mon esperit, en llemosí li parl, que llengua altra no sent.” Quimi Portet's songs are a new “Ode to the Homeland”. In “Homes i dones del cap dret” from the album Viatge a Montserrat (2009) the reference is explicit, with a mix of Aribau and Patufet.

He contemplates the country from a rest stop and sees the blood and filth of the slaughterhouses. He evokes the vanished fragrances of hay, sainfoin, lavender, and the thyme in soup. He connects with other themes, which speak of festes major petites , the gas station, people having a beer at the local casino (and asking to be told their story), butcher shops that slaughter on Tuesdays and Fridays. When he says in a song that "there's no such thing as fried d'abans," Quimi Portet, a self-proclaimed superstar, speaks like a grandfather. Blessed ambiguity.

⁄ He claims that Catalans are modest, but they shouldn't be so modest if when they go to the bathroom they say they're going to have a river.

In other lyrics, his childhood world comes alive in an imaginary space. While there he met Aribau and Patufet, here he formed a gang with Sisa, Adrià Puntí, and Joan Miquel Oliver, psychedelic creatures. From his early works: “Montserrat,” a schoolroom love song. More recently, “Vida interior d'un lluç,” which transcribes, in images of discreet surrealism, the feeling of isolation that has always accompanied him. “La Rambla,” from Hoquei sobre pedres (Hoquei sobre pedres, 1997), can be compared to Sisa's songs—“Ham tancat la Rambla” and “Rambles” from Transcantauror: última notícia (Transcantauror: última notícia , 1984). One so expansive (Sisa), the other so prim (Portet). Some songs are dedicated to nightlife and what Portet calls “instrospecció de passades maneuvers reproductives més o menys reexides” (flirting) that are reminiscent of the great Vic classic Òpera àcid (1989) by Miquel Creus, without so much drama.

The story of Portet playing the drums without much of an idea and dedicating the song “Toco la bateria” from La terra és plana (2004) to himself, made me think of Iggy Pop. In Jim Jarmush’s documentary, Gimme danger (2016), Iggy Pop explains that, in his early days as a drummer, he hated being stuck at the back of the stage and that he had a three-meter pedestal built so that everyone could see him banging the drums. Quimi Portet should be in one of those columns with his tortilla.

Quimi Portet Cançons en bell llemosí 1987-2020 Pròleg by Quim Monzó and epilogue by Manolo García La Segona Perifèria 312 pages 23.90 euros