Humble Giants

My partner and I were once in the car and the radio was on, a song was playing, something seemed quite familiar to me, a specific voice, a nice instrumental, a pleasant sound, meaningful lyrics...
"Do you know that this voice is very familiar to me from somewhere?", I said involuntarily. "Wait a minute," I listened. "Allegro... Yes, that's right. Allegro was the name of this band.", I continued happily. "Do you know that in the past I..."

In the past, many years ago, I heard a song on the radio. Back then, there were no things like Shazam, phones weren't as advanced as they are now... I don't even remember if there were mobile phones yet, because you know, I've said it before that mobile phones came to Bulgaria later than in other countries. But the important thing is that I don't even remember what year it was. When I heard a song on the radio and wrote down the name of the band on a small piece of paper. I managed to find out this, probably from the host of the show. I had also written down on that piece of paper one word as the name of this song - Sunflower or Sunflowers, I don't remember anymore, because maybe the song was about sunflowers. I wrote this down on a piece of paper, which after so many years I can't tell where it is. But I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget it. And here I am, years later, I still remember it, because no matter how many times I tried to search, in today's Google, YouTube, etc., for the name of a song called Sunflowers by the band Allegro, I couldn't find anything.
I never heard that song on the radio again, nor any other song recognizable by that voice. Until that day. Because that voice cannot be forgotten. The style, the arrangement and the lyrics too.

A lot can be said about Bulgarian music. Perhaps most of all, just as we are not good at playing football and making films, we are not particularly good at music. The topic is complex, long, psychological, a lot of money is involved, even conspiracy theories, but I will not surprise you if I tell you that I do not listen to Bulgarian music. I mean music made by Bulgarian musicians.

I remember, I had a short period when I lived abroad, I guess everyone does, when I rediscovered some old Bulgarian rock songs, due to some imaginary nostalgia.
However, one must be very careful with older Bulgarian songs, because most of them are rearranged foreign songs, English, Italian and all sorts, stolen during the time when the Iron Curtain did not allow anything to come out of these miserable, unhappy countries, so that normal people around the world could know what was going on in them. So you can imagine how much I appreciate all of this.
On the other hand, songs in Bulgarian sound a bit strange. I don't think it's a language for music and I can imagine how "melodious" it sounds to a foreigner's ear. But...

In Bulgaria, as in every country, not the most appropriate, and certainly not the most capable and talented people, become famous. This is not something that a person can fight against. Sometimes it is just fate, other times it is simply: This is life.

And here, against the backdrop of the country's music crisis, absolute profane people have become famous, some of whom can't even sing, while a few geniuses once appeared on the music scene, made one or two albums, and then disappeared. So much so that you can't even hear their songs on the radio anymore. Why?

By the way, now that I've found their discography on some archival site, (containing three whole albums! - so many!), I haven't found a song called Sunflowers. 😅 So I'll really never hear that song, whatever it is, again.😭

I managed to find 2-3 of their other songs on YouTube and I've picked one out that I want to show you. I even tried to write down (as far as possible to identify all the words) and translate the lyrics without rhyme, because I lack the gift of a poet, simply so that you can gain some idea, albeit modified by the different sound of the foreign language and the different meaning that words can carry...

So, the band Allegro, formed in 1991, released their last album in 2000 and hasn't been mentioned anywhere since. The style is alternative rock.

I also want to show you this song so you can tell me if it sounds familiar to any of you and sounds like some other singer, some other band... I'm betting a lot that they don't sound like anyone else, because I'd be very disappointed otherwise.

"By day I build sandcastles,
by night I wander in them in my dreams.
You would run away, but the night stops you,
and your spirit is already outside.

How many times have we touched
the forbidden fruit, and I know
that in the season of long fogs
I will no longer be alone.

I see, I see through you.
Every thought of good and evil
in your brain of glass.
I see, I see through you.

Draw me a real sky,
I want birds to swim there.
If you write the word "No",
I will easily erase it myself.

And I will set the sand on fire in me,
You will marvel at this flame.
But as soon as the sand starts to boil,
It turns into glass, I know.

I see, I see through you.
Every thought of good and evil
in your brain of glass.
I see, I see through you.

I see, I see through you.
Every thought of good and evil
in your brain of glass.
I see, I see through you.

On painted towers I will stand,
chained in feathers and down.
If you want, come and warm me,
or run to someone else..."

---

"Humble Giants!"
This was left as a comment under one of their songs.
This is my opinion too.
Oh yes, I am a collector of such bands, over the years I have encountered (mainly on cassettes) many of them.
But is this really how it should be in life? 🤔
Apparently, yes.

P.S. I hope this time you don't miss the random photos that accompany the texts of my posts, often used solely to add something more of my own to my posts. This time there are no photos so as not to distract from the song...

Thank you for your time! Copyright:	@soulsdetour
	Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you.

Personally, I am a sensitive soul with a strong sense of justice.
Traveling and photography are my greatest passions.
Sounds trivial to you?
No, it's not trivial. Because I still love to travel to not so famous destinations.🗺️
Of course, the current situation does not allow me to do this, but I still find a way to satisfy my hunger for knowledge, new places, beauty and art.
Sometimes you can find the most amazing things even in the backyard of your house.😊🧐🧭|