Manuel de Cabanyes i Ballester was a Spanish-language poet from Vilanova i la Geltrú who died in 1833 at the early age of 25. Among other places, his memory lives on in Poble Sec, since he gives its name to a street that climbs up to Montjuïc from Paral·lel. Poeta Cabanyes grew up Joan Manuel Serrat, born in 1943. And also Jaume Sisa, who arrived on this planet five years later. A beautiful coincidence that led to a no less beautiful picture that occurred in the middle of the Mercè festivities in 2008. Sisa celebrated its 60th anniversary in Plaza Catalunya with an anthological concert surrounded by friends, among whom, late at night, appeared Serrat, author from El meu carrer, a song they sang as a duet.
It has been many decades now that neither Serrat nor Sisa have lived on that street which, the song says, “is not worth two rals / there are cent portals / trencats a trossos”. But the galactic singer-songwriter has vivid memories of those days. “We didn't play together because in childhood five years apart is an abyss, but we lived face to face on either side of the street. When I must have been 15, sometimes from the sidewalk you could hear him play the guitar and sing. As time passed, "one day my mother was coming back from shopping, she told me: 'the son of Maña has engraved a plate! '. I mean, a disk. I also played the guitar with a neighbor, and whenever I had heard him sing from the street, I didn't give it much importance… and it was then that the news spread that there was an artist in the neighborhood”.
Later on, and when Serrat's career had already taken off, Sisa also began to compose songs, which she first showed at home. “I made my debut in the dining room at home before my mother and a neighbor. With great success, although my mother, in an aside, told me: 'I really like what you do, but… Why don't you write songs like Juanito's, who talks about the drapaire, about the aunt…?' What to tell him. Serrat is a master at making love songs and traditional portraits, but this didn't work out for me, because he was a boy who listened to rock
“Joan Manuel and I have always had a cordial and affectionate relationship. A friendship, although not intimate or to call us to meet and go for a drink," says Sisa, who adds that when he released his first single in 1968, Serrat contacted him to see each other: "He told me he was going to launch a label within Edigsa that her name was Òliba, and she wanted to know if she had more songs”. He had them and sang a few for them, and although the operation did not come to fruition, his good relationship continued. “I remember a very pleasant meeting at his house, years later. I sang him songs that I was preparing for Qualsevol nit pot sortir el sol, and he, a song that he had just written, How beautiful is Badalona, which I thought was magnificent”.
"Then -he adds- we have coincided sometimes, always occasionally but with great cordiality". In addition to her personal affection, Sisa professes sincere admiration for the songbook of her former neighbor: “Serrat's work is extraordinary. In the Spanish popular music of the 20th century there are three milestones. The first line is Concha Piquer with the copla and the flamenco song, the second Antonio Machín with the danceable song, and the third Joan Manuel Serrat with the songwriter”.
