"Paraíso" is a very special piece for Superelvis. Written in 1987, it is one of the first compositions of the band. It is also generally the only piece that the band does in Spanish. Superelvis has played "Paraíso" in all its shows (save maybe half a dozen). For the last five or six years the band has been using the song to close the show (or as an encore). Often it has been the only thing that could be called "a song" in the whole show.
As it might be expected, the song has been played and recorded in many different ways since then:
SUPERELVIS (C30, Doppler Effect Music, 1987)RESISTANCE EMOTIONAL MUSIC sessions (unreleased)Recorded on July 27th, 1987. This is almost the original version. The song had been written (but not recorded) a couple of days before. Raimon Aymerich plays the infamous Elepian (which stands for "Electric Piano") while Meteo Giráldez indulges himself in some weird drumming. By the way, the lyrics to the song had been written by Anki Toner in a winter morning of 1984 or 1985, long before Superelvis existed.
ROCKE'N'BABIA (LP, Babia Rock-Bar, 1991)
In 1990, while recording the Resistance Emotional Music cassette, Superelvis did a beautiful slow version of the song. Unfortunately, they failed to record a nice faster version and, at the last minute, the decision was taken not to include the slow version on the cassette. No doubt, this version will surface someday.
EN CASO DE DUDA, ROCK'N'ROLL.
Recorded live, on August 30th, 1991, at the Babia Rock-Bar in Valencia, this was the first Superelvis recording to saw the light on vinyl. In the released version, Raimon played piano and Meteo was on guitar. That same night the band played another version of the song with Meteo on piano and Raimon on guitar. It was another slow version that, again, was not released. That time the fault was the club's owner (and album compiler) who prefered the "straight" version. As all the live versions, it includes the "Walk On The Wild Side" excerpt.
LIE AGAIN: NECESSARY LIES (CD, Por Caridad, 1994)
In the fall of 1991, while completing the "EN CASO DE DUDA, ROCK'N'ROLL" LP, Superelvis decided to record a "canonical" version of the song. It was supposed to be the definitive version. Instead it was simply an uninspired take. Nevertheless it was included on the LP and is probably the best-known version of the song. It is the version included in the POESIA PALEOPOETICA sampler.
HAVING FUN ON STAGE (CD, Por Caridad, 1997)
The opening song of the "NECESSARY LIES" CD is just the Paraíso chord progression played in a 3/4 arpegio. The vocal part, of course, is completely rewritten. Meteo plays piano on that one.
DIRECTOS 97 (K7, Sala Nirvana, 1997)
The 1995 concert which turned into this 1997(?) CD ends, naturally, with "Paraíso". That one is not a bad take.
BAM 97 Festival (unreleased)
Another fairly decent live take.
ACCIDENTS POLIPOETICS
For the BAM97 festival (probably the most important show up to date in Superelvis career, the band played a 40-minute piece-de-resistance based, again, on the Paraíso chord progression. This time, both Raimon and Meteo were on pianos while Jakob Draminsky Højmark doubled on bass clarinet and sopranino saxophone. Similar versions were played at Tarragona the night before and at El Prat the following week. Alfredo joined in on accordion for the El Prat show.
That Paraíso suite starts with the full lyrics to the song spoken on a soft piano pattern to, after some five minutes, burst into a polirhythmical politonic poliphonic "andante" which is only modulated by a few excerpts (one of which is, of course, "Lie Again"). About thirty-five minutes later the players find themselves rushing through the original Paraiso theme.
The lyrics written by Anki Toner for the suite include some wicked self-hommage ("It takes years to get here", "Look at me / Keep looking!"), bur are generally based on the "What about beauty?" concern and on the "that's what makes it so strange","that's what makes it so difficult","that's what makes it so dangerous" choice.
The most famous poetry recording act in Spain, long time friends of the band, will hopefully include a long-awaited version of the song in their 1998 "Todos Indios" CD.