Under the roof Raimon. This me that I amRaimon himself can't help but show a mixture of surprise and irony. Now over eighty, he looks at the image of that 25-year-old who sang at the Olympia in Paris in 1966 and realizes that six decades have passed since that snapshot that made him a generational icon. Between laughs and a few wry comments, he acknowledges that the book by Valencian journalist Miquel Alberola portrays him with a fidelity rarely seen in this type of portrait.
The volume, published by Ara Llibres And presented at Abacus's headquarters in Barcelona to a packed house, it arrives with the ambition of going far beyond the cliché of the black-and-white singer-songwriter. According to both author and protagonist, it is a work that, from a place of intimacy and knowledge accumulated over years, attempts to account for a A complex figure, uncomfortable for both the dictatorship and democracy, who has made coherence and personal independence his way of being in the world.
A complete biography of a European classic
Alberola describes Raimon as “an indomitable character” and “an absolutely disruptive singer”On par with the great classics who have built their work in languages with a solid literary tradition: names like Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, and Violeta Parra appear as natural references to place the Valencian creator on a broader cultural map. He is not just a troubadour of an era, the biographer emphasizes, but an artist who has traversed very different political and aesthetic contexts without abandoning his own voice.
The work is presented as the first biography that covers the author's career from beginning to end. for saleFrom his first recitals to the farewell concerts he gave in 2017 at the Palau de la Música. Far from being a mere chronological overview, the book proposes a a blend of narrative journalism and essay, with stylistic and analytical freedom, supported by exhaustive documentation work in which the work of Annalisa Corti, Raimon's life partner and guardian of a personal archive of enormous value, has been key.
In the presentation, Raimon himself is full of praise: he asserts that, upon reading these pages, he recognizes himself without reservation, something not easy for figures about whom so much has been written, and so biasedly. He sums it up with a powerful statement: if anyone wants to know who he has been up until now, In this book you will find a “perfect and crystal clear” portrait, developed from honesty and not from complacency.
The text also draws on previous bibliography that serves as its intellectual foundation. Alberola cites as a cornerstone the portrait that Joan Fuster published in 1964, simply titled Raimon, when the singer was barely 23 years old, and the volume of Antoni Batista The construction of a song (2005), a more academic work that has provided him with musicological and contextual keys to interpret the work of the man from Xàtiva from new perspectives.
Tear the black and white photo
One of the book's central aims is to dismantle the fixed image of Raimon as a singer exclusively associated with a time of repression and protest. Alberola proposes “to break that black and white photo of Raimon as a singer of an era”A snapshot that made sense at the time, but doesn't do justice to the artist's subsequent evolution. The story begins even before the first recital and extends beyond the last concert, intertwining personal biography with the vicissitudes of contemporary history.
This journey details the metamorphosis of his musical language: from the almost bare and existential singing of his beginnings to a much more sophisticated sound palette, where there is room for rhythm and blues, melodic counterpoint, free jazz, contemporary minimalism, pop and rockThe image of the austere troubadour is nuanced with examples of risky formal explorations that distance him from the cliché of the monolithic singer-songwriter.
The author employs a dual approach: on the one hand, he focuses on the contradictions of the man, exploring how collective commitment coexists with a staunch defense of his autonomy; on the other, he zooms in to analyze the sociopolitical context that shaped each stage of his career. From the Franco dictatorship to democracy, including the Transition, each historical phase impacted the musician's artistic and personal decisions, a point the book elaborates on with numerous examples.
It is precisely at that intersection between biography and history that the idea of Raimon as “highly complex phenomenon”In the words of Salvador Espriu: not only a singer, not only a composer, not only a poet, but a figure who influenced the language, literature, music, and civic and political movements of his time. The work insists that his influence goes far beyond the repertoire of songs that everyone recognizes.
In this broad portrait, one constant trait emerges clearly: the discomfort he generates wherever he goes. For the dictatorship, he was a troublesome element that needed to be neutralized; in democracy, his refusal to conform to partisan agendas made him a difficult presence to categorize. That a vocation to go against the grain, both in the artistic and in the public sphere, is one of the narrative threads that runs through the entire book.
Commitment to the language and international projection
Another essential aspect of the biography is Raimon's commitment to the Catalan language and to the Valencian dialect of his native Xàtiva. Alberola emphasizes that he developed his work in one language. “Discredited, if not persecuted, and always uncomfortable” in the context of the Franco dictatorship, which gave each recital and each record a symbolic charge that went far beyond the strictly artistic.
Raimon himself, in the book's prologue, expresses his satisfaction at having fulfilled his mission "in the language of Xàtiva, both in Tokyo and in New York or Paris." This internationalization is no small detail: the book reviews a a tour career that took him to Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Central Europe and several countries in Central and South America, positioning him as the Catalan singer with the greatest international reach of his generation.
This international dimension is combined with a pioneering role in the relationship between music and poetry. The volume recalls that Raimon was the first to record an album entirely dedicated to the verses of a specific author, Salvador Espriu, with Songs of the wheel of time (1966). That gesture, which united musical avant-garde and high literature, paved the way for other later projects of the singer-songwriter in Spain, such as the works of Joan Manuel Serrat on Antonio Machado and Miguel Hernández.
Beyond the settings, the book articulates the biography as the story of a a track record of commitment, integrity, consistency, and loyalty both with himself and with a cultural community encompassing the Valencian Community, Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands. The defense of this linguistic and cultural community, so often fragmented by centralist inertia, appears as one of the driving forces behind his artistic activity.
Alberola himself also speaks from personal experience when he recalls how, in his youth, Valencian was taught in schools as something to be relegated to the domestic sphere, like "slippers for wearing around the house," while Castilian represented the "shoes" to wear into the world. The work contrasts this reductionist view with the Raimon's determination to bring their language to the great international stages, completely reversing that metaphor.
Clashes with power and relationships with elites
The book devotes considerable space to Raimon's clashes with various powers, from the Francoist apparatus to the parties and institutions of the democratic era. During the dictatorship, the regime tried to obstruct his career as much as possible, creating a climate of surveillance and hostility that Alberola compares, due to its intensity, to the harassment John Lennon suffered at the hands of the FBI. Amid vetoes, dossiers, and pressure, the the singer-songwriter's perseverance in the face of attempts to silence him It appears as one of the most tense chapters of his biography.
Barcelona played a decisive role in this regard. The author argues that, had Raimon stayed in Valencia, he would likely have ended up working as a university professor without much public recognition. It was the Catalan capital, with its more open-minded cultural bourgeoisie and elites willing to welcome him into their salons, that allowed his artistic vision to find a favorable climate to flourish even during the dictatorship.
In contrast, the text describes a Valencia of the 1950s, 60s, and even 70s marked by a strong Castilianization, where speaking Valencian could imply automatic exclusion from certain circles. “complicated relationship with Valencia and its ruling class” It is not limited to the Francoist period: according to Alberola, the disagreement with the autonomous power, especially during the years of hegemony of the Popular Party, has maintained a "Martian" and radical character even in democracy.
The mutual discomfort with political parties is clearly reflected in an episode from 1980 recounted in the book, when Raimon rejected invitations from parties like the PSOE, the PSUC, and Convergència Democràtica to sing at their rallies. True to his independent ideals, he criticized them for only remembering cultural figures when election campaigns rolled around. These kinds of decisions reinforced his image as a figure who shunned partisan pigeonholing.
Another significant controversy surrounded the awarding of the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1982. Raimon was reluctant to accept the award, fearing it could be interpreted as a kind of symbolic liquidation of the Nova Cançó movement, as if the new regime wanted to archive the old anti-Francoist figures in a resistance museum. In statements from that time, he acknowledged having gone from fighting against the dictatorship to a “prevention towards the administration and a certain disappointment”, a feeling that the book analyzes in detail.
An unpredictable life script
Throughout its pages, the biography emphasizes the unpredictable nature of Raimon's decisions, which rarely align with expectations. At the height of political turmoil, when everyone anticipates civic anthems, he releases an album of love songs. When the first democratic elections are held, instead of joining the campaign rallies, He's going on tour to Japan.This way of unsettling both friends and strangers has a lot to do with his refusal to be used as a tool.
Alberola defines him as someone who “has fought for the collective, but also to be himself,” a constant tension that runs through both his public discourse and his work. His independence, far from being a pose, has brought him conflicts and misunderstandings, but it has also allowed him to build a unique career, without submitting to external dictates, not even when those dictates came from ideologically aligned circles.
The book details how, even after the arrival of democracy, Raimon remained an uncomfortable figure. His refusal to align himself with any particular party and his insistence on maintaining creative autonomy clashed with institutions that, in many cases, preferred more predictable cultural touchstones. discomfort in democracy This adds to the controversy it had already generated during times of censorship, creating a profile that is difficult to tame.
On a personal level, the work also leaves room for moments of humor and a certain ironic detachment. During the presentation, when asked if he is considering a return to the stage, he responds with a mischievous smile and a half-joking excuse, claiming he has lost his voice. These kinds of gestures show a Raimon who, without relinquishing the weight of his history, maintains a vitality that belies the solemn image sometimes attributed to him.
The collaboration with Alberola is described as a process in which both the singer and Annalisa Corti have been available to answer questions and provide documentation, but without interfering in the approach. According to Raimon himself, the author “He wrote the book that came to mind”, an expression which, beyond the joke, indicates that he has had full freedom to interpret and narrate the story without restrictions or vetoes.
Looking at the present from a life of coherence
In its final pages, the biography doesn't shy away from Raimon's perspective on current politics. When asked how he sees the present moment, he replies that the situation seems "pretty fucked up," with serious problems on multiple fronts. He believes we are governed by people who shouldn't hold those positions, although at the same time he acknowledges the difficulty of reversing the situation when the result comes from the ballot box. a mixture of skepticism and respect for the popular will It reveals someone who, despite the disappointment, does not renounce the democratic framework.
This critical perspective aligns with the consistency that has guided his career since the early days of the Nova Cançó movement. The book emphasizes that there is no radical before and after between dictatorship and democracy in terms of his relationship with power: in both contexts, Raimon remains vigilant against any temptation to co-opt, regardless of its source. The common thread is a healthy distrust of those in power, combined with a firm commitment to the collective.
On a cultural level, the work also serves as a vindication of the heritage that his figure represents. Alberola maintains that Raimon's legacy deserves recognition proportional to its impact: his contribution to the modernization of Catalan song, his role as a bridge between highbrow poetry and popular music, and his status as a civic role model They form a set that is difficult to match. The biography aims precisely to consolidate that awareness, not through panegyric, but through rigorous analysis.
Through anecdotes, historical contexts, and a careful reading of his albums and recitals, Raimon. This me that I am It paints a portrait of an artist who has managed to transform his personal biography into a mirror reflecting the tensions of an entire country. From censorship to monitored freedom, from internal exile to the world's greatest stages, from the language relegated to the margins at home to the Catalan spoken in Tokyo or New York, the book shows how Raimon's life and work encapsulate many of the cultural and political battles of contemporary Spain and Europe.And why his voice, far from being an echo of the past, continues to challenge the present.