This Sunday, when I found out that Espinàs had died, I looked for a song by Yves Montand called ‘Clopin-Clopant’ and I listened to it as a tribute. I chose it because a few years ago, when he had just turned 90, Espinàs went to the radio program ‘Islàndia’, which Albert Om presents on RAC1, and together they reviewed the songs he liked the most. rang ‘Picolissima serenade’, by Renato Carosone, “with that modest adverb in the title& rdquor ;; ‘Garota de Ipanema’, by Vinicius and Jobim, “so unpretentious& rdquor;; ‘Summertime’, by Luis Armstrong, “and life is easy& rdquor;. We also hear the guitar and the voice of Yves Montand, with that round beginning: “Et je me’n vais clopin-clopant…& rdquor;, which we could freely translate as: “And I’m going to go, quietly…& rdquor ;. Then Espinàs told that he would like that song played at his funeral.
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The choice and the comments that Espinàs made, I think now, were also a kind of sound portrait of his leisurely vitality, of a look clean of excess and sentimental display, and yet of a closeness and natural warmth. This friendly sensation, of knowing him from her words as if he were speaking to you about you, is one of the reasons that she made him so popular and loved. For many decades, the name of Espinàs has been a constant presence in our culture, branching out into an endless number of very different projects, but which always came together in a great curiosity about things.
In the 80s, the young people of my generation found Espinàs a bit ‘checo’. He was that gentleman who wrote in the ‘Avui’ about everyday, simple, apparently banal things. However, at least to me, his constancy when writing, his discreet presence and a zeal to preserve his private life, soon made me appreciate him for what he really was: a person of the world, rigorous, without vainglory and at the same time, when necessary, with a fine humor. For all these reasons, his immense work can now be read as a great testament, a report of his passage through our world, perhaps calmly, but without ever stopping for almost a century.