Lluis Llach has long been a reference among protest singer-songwriters in Catalonia, ever since the last years of General Franco’s regime, in the early ’70s, which he spent exiled in France. His political engagement has predictably been centered on the pursue of a Catalan independence – he had a tenure as MP in the Catalan parliament – but also touched on other geographies. One example of that is his song “Abril 74” – an ode to Portugal’s Carnation revolution – released in its aftermath in 1975 off the album On “Viatge a Itaca, otherwise inspired on the work of Greek poet Kavafis.
The events in Portugal are thus described on “Abril 74”, a song which was also covered by Silvia Perez Cruz (translated from the Catalan original):
Comrades, if you long for the free springtime
With you, I would want to go
To be able to live with them
For I’ve become a soldier
And if bad luck stops me and I fall to the ground
Bring all of my songs
And a bouquet of red flowers
That I care dearly so much
When we win the fight!
