Tango And Marijuana: Musicians In Argentina, Birthplace Of The Genre, Break It Down

By Ulises Roman Rodriguez, via El Planteo.

The relationship between tango and marijuana never materialized fully. Although the tango environment opened up to the cannabis world in the 90s, the poetry of the suburbs does not approach cannabis culture.

Tango, from its origins, has a long history with drugs but marijuana was never been (nor is) the main character in popular tango lyrics.

In 1924, Celedonio Flores wrote the song “Milonga fina” a tango song that says: “You declared yourself a milonga fina when you left with that idiot, who lured you in with cocaine and took you to Armenonville”. 

In that same year, González Castillo, along with Griseta wrote: “And one night of champagne and ‘coco’, under the funeral lullaby of a bandoneon, poor thing, she fell asleep…”.

“Tiempos Viejos” (Old Times) from 1926, a tango song by Francisco Canaro and Manuel Romero reads "Do you remember, brother, what those times were. They were other men, more men than ours. They did not know cocó or morphine…”

One of the greatest poets of the genre, Enrique Cadícamo, is the author of “Fanfarrón” (1928) a tango song that reads: “These are mistakes… out of sheer fantasy you dope yourself with cocaine and out of sheer boredom you drive around in a citroén”.

The list continues… many other tangos refer to cocaine in lunfardo (local slang) as “merlusa”, “chabona”, “frula”, “camerusa”, “falopa”, “merca”, etc.

But… what about marijuana?

We sniff, We Don't Puff

When reviewing tango poetry, alcohol is the psychotropic substance that appears the most. It is always said that the tango entourage has always been related to whiskey and cocaine.

“I think that the old ‘tangueros’ used cocaine to be able to continue drinking whisky”, said the musician, producer, and composer Federico Marquestó to El Planteo.

Marquestó together with Pablo Marchetti founded the "Falopa Ensemble" which was part of the tango renewal of the 21st century (until its dissolution in 2016). They were the ones who introduced marijuana (‘faso’ in lunfardo) to tango, through songs like “Latita”, in which they say: “I'll pass, I don't want to cry about my failure, I'm taking my little can of ‘faso’ with me because it's my first-aid kit”

“Tango as a culture does not talk about marijuana because marijuana is happy. Tango poetry is cursed and marijuana is not”, says the musician who today is the lyricist and singer of “A bar in Tokyo”.

In his new project, Marquestó alludes to cannabis in “La Heladería,” a song that tells the story of a group of pothead friends from Villa Santa Rita-Villa del Parque (his neighborhood in Buenos Aires) who opened an ice cream parlor in December and closed it in January.

"Reckless dreamers, builders of a thousand candles... from dusk till dawn, ice cream cone and marijuana", reads the tango written by Marquestó.

"Marijuana is in the tango environment because many consume it but it doesn't become poetic," says the musician.

The People Want To Know

Alfredo Tape Rubín, one of the outstanding names of the tango scene of the new century, told El Planteo that “the generation that entered tango in the '90s was the one that naturally linked both worlds” [cannabis and tango] “Until then there were no ‘tangueros’ who smoked marijuana”.

The founder of the tango group, El Cuarteto Almagro, wrote "Blues de Boedo" a tango song that says "drugs don't progress, the hippie laments,” noted that "those lyrics speak of the fateful merca [cocaine]" and that in his lyrics he makes "no references to pot".

"Luckily marijuana is at a level of generalization in society that penetrates into tango (...), but tango does not raise a flag as in the case of reggae or trap,” noted the bandoneonist Diego Maniowicz, who is a member of the band Astillero, and Nox.

As for cocaine, the musician (who is a bandoneon professor) highlighted that the relationship of the old guard of tango with cocaine “was nothing like what we are used to seeing now, rather, [cocaine] was a kind of 'helper' to endure and continue working all night."

In this regard, Maniowicz states that if we review history “there is no singer, musician or tango dancer who has died of a cocaine overdose. Currently, the relationship of ​​tango and cocaine must be seen through a different lens”.

Acho Estol is the guitarist, composer, and creator of La Chicana, which he integrates with his partner Dolores Solá. In the album Revolución o Picnic (2011) they include a tango of their own called “Tres Hermanos” that says:

Four candles each

and some yellow flowers

four joints were smoked…

The musician told El Planteo that "in 'Tres Hermanos' several joints are smoked but it is more a realistic prop accessory than the topic addressed".

Are they talking about weed?

“Fumando Espero” is a tango composed in 1922, with music by the Catalan Juan Viladomat Masanas and lyrics by Félix Garzo.

In one of the verses Garzo says:

Give me the smoke from your mouth.

Come on, that's how I go crazy.

Run I want to go crazy from pleasure,

feeling that heat

of intoxicating smoke

that ends up igniting

the burning flame of love.

This tango was recorded by Ignacio Corsini, Carlos Gardel, Libertad Lamarque, Argentino Ledesma, and Carlos Dante, among many other tango icons. There are those who, reviewing its lyric, hinted that he could be talking about marijuana or hashish.

It must be taken into account that in the 1920s, in large cities such as Paris and Madrid, neither marijuana nor cocaine was prohibited and its consumption in general, by artists, bohemians, intellectuals ( like Sigmund Freud), and people from the upper classes, was not socially condemned.

Tango critics argue that "the intoxicating smoke" part (which is clearly a poetic allusion) does not refer to tobacco but to some hallucinogenic substance.

In another suspicious paragraph he says:

While I smoke

I don't consume my life

because floating the smoke

I tend to fall asleep.

And, indeed…If we think about the different uses of the cannabis plant, there are people who consume it to fall asleep and relax.

Perhaps the story is too complicated and everything is about the poetry and inspiration of Garzo. Yet, doubts about this tango will linger forever.

Marijuana And The New Tango Generations 

Adrián Ruggiero and Manu Barrios are bandoneon players from the Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro. Before getting on stage on a Wednesday night at the Club Atlético Fernández Fierro (Sánchez de Bustamante 772, Almagro, BA), they took a few minutes to chat with El Planteo about weed and tango.

Marijuana accompanies Ruggiero when he studies and composes. "I'm from the times of brick-weed. The first time I saw marijuana flowers was in 2005."

The bandoneonist, son of an illustrious artist like Osvaldo Ruggiero (who was part of the Osvaldo Pugliese orchestra and one of the founders of the Sexteto Tango), confesses that for him “pot is energy” and one of his beloved rituals is smoking the “morning joint” listening to “Pugliese's [tangos] blasting on the speakers.”

Adrián, who is also a bandoneon instructor in BA, grows his own cannabis from seeds that my friends gave him, “in paint buckets,” to which he dedicates “a lot of love”.

Meanwhile, Manu Barrios defines himself as "a social smoker." He said "he cultivated back in 2017 and 2018" but now, he has no time to grow marijuana, added that his mother "uses cannabis oil for medicinal purposes," and clarified: "I never smoke before playing, always after."

Marijuana is present in the lives of Ruggiero, Barrios, Marquestó, and other central actors of the current tango scene in Buenos Aires, however, pot has yet to enter into the poetics of tango.

Photo Courtesy of La-Chicana (Dolores Sola and Acho Estol).