Translate Spanish at end of CSN song "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (I am yours, U are mine)

Factual Questions
1

I have always wanted to know: just what is the Spanish that Steven Stills is singing at the end of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”?

(That’s the Crosby, Stills song with the lyrics “I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are; you make it hard.”)

When I Googled the song title, I found this as the Spanish he sings:
Que linda me la traiga Cuba
La reina de la Mar Caribe
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi
Y que triste que no puedo vaya
But, when I translated it at AltaVista BabelFish, I got this:
That is contiguous queen of the Caribbean Sea Cielo brings I Cuba sun does not have sangreahi and that sad that I cannot goes.
Obviously, that doesn’t make much sense.

First, is the Spanish correct? I’d like to be able to sing the right words for a change. (I always thought he was singing about Geritol in there.)

Second, and more importantly, what does it mean?

2

I’ve always wondered about that, and I hope someone can come up w/ a definitive lyric. The Spanish you have here can’t be a correct transcription of what SS is singing b/c it makes no sense.

For the 3rd line, I always heard, “Quiero so-lo quedarme alli” (I want only to remain there).

“La reina de la mar Caribe” is probably accurate (describing Cuba as “the queen of the Carribean sea”).

3

Allmusic’s review says it was tacked on because it sounded good, not because it had anything to do with the rest of the song.

This site (warning: obnoxious pop-ups in IE but not in Firefox) translates it as follows:

4

I’m not sure of the first line, but here goes:

What a beauty Cuba might bring to me,
The queen of the Caribbean Sea,
Sky, sun, doesn’t have blood there, (Sample’s version makes more sense)
And how sad that I can’t go.

5

“Smiles of the Caribbean Sea” is definitely incorrect, “smiles” being sonrisas. Reina is queen.

6

I’ve listened to it again several times, and I still can’t make it out, but I definitely don’t hear what you’ve posted, except for line 2.

In line 1, I do not hear “la traiga”, which would make no sense anyhow(subjunctive of “bring” with a feminine object). I think it may end with “pa’ Cuba” (“for Cuba”, as in “toward Cuba” or headed “to Cuba”).

I do think line 3 is very likely “I want only to remain here”, and that line 4 begins with “y que” (“and that”, as in he also wants something else, but I don’t know what) as you have it.

7

This site gives the third line as:

Que cielo sol que lo tengan alli

Or: What a sunny sky they have there

Which makes much more sense that the line in the OP

8

Oh, the ending of line 4 may be “no vaya” (“doesn’t leave”), which would make sense: “I want only to remain here and for [something] not to leave”.

“puedo vaya” makes no sense. It would be like saying “I can goes” in English.

9

Maybe it’s the Spanish lyrics to “'Louie Louie.” :smiley:

10

I’ve always thought this to be the most likely explanation.

Thanks to everyone for the translations (or at least the parts).

What is everyone hearing as the Spanish words he sings?

11

You always risk your sanity trying to dope out CSN lyrics. When you are done with SJBE, try this opening line from “Marrakesh Express”:

“Whoopa, hey mesa, hooba huffa, hey meshy goosh goosh.”

12

Stills has been quoted as saying the “goosh goosh” lines in Marrakesh Express were complete, intentional gibberish. At the time, there were lots of rumors about backwards-masked messages on records, and they were pranking the rumor mill.

13

Unter gleeben glouben globen… is all I want to say to you.

I hope some folks have a better ear than I do. Will keep listening and looking.

It seems to me that line 3 could even be “Quiero solo visitarte alli” (I only want to visit you there), so obviously I need better fidelity.

14

From this thread:

15

They sing some weird stuff, but they’re definitely not singing that.

The Spanish from that thread is ungrammatical, and not in a poetic way or a gringo way. It’s got to be mis-heard b/c no one would write words like that, not even an American getting his Spanish wrong.

16

OK, this is from a Def Leppard song - Pyromaniac. What the hell does were they saying in German? Or is just Louie Louie all over again?

17

Louie Louie is real English, btw, just slurred. According to the band, the intro to the DL song is nonsense that they left on the track cause they liked it. (Like Robert Plant once said of airplane noise, “Nah, leave it.”)

18

That’s surprising. I always thought it was a reference to couscous, a rice-like dish made of steamed semolina which is common in Morocco.

19

First of all, the song is called Rock of Ages. Get it straight, bucko! (I take my early Leppard seriously, yo. It was the soundtrack to my early adolescence.)

I’ve heard the following from many sources: They did about a zillion takes of every song on that album. The producer got tired of starting them off by saying “one, two, three, four,” so he started improvising. The “gunter gleepen glauben globen” was just a bit of gibberish that they liked, so they kept it. It sounds German because the producer was doing a hokey fake-German voice when he said it.

20

Que linda me recuerdo a Cuba.
La reina de la Mar Caribe.
Quiero solo visitarte ahí.
Y que triste que no puedo, vaya!

Guys! If you don’t know, don’t copy and paste others’ mistakes.

It’s beautiful when I remember Cuba,
The queen of the Caribbean Sea,
I want to go visit you (Cuba) alone,
And I am sad that I can’t.
Go!

He sings other verses in concert, but this is on the album best I can tell. The other ones here are definitely not correct. There is no blood, sangre. Put on some headphones, and see if you agree!
If not, reply. He drags out the second word in each line… like Ray-eeh-na for queen.