Rubén Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of South American "nueva canción" and Cuban "nueva trova" to salsa, telling acidly-rendered stories of devastated lives, but with an everpresent message of hope. After 1980, Blades wanted out of his contract with the exploitative Fania label, but was contractually obligated to record several more albums; these were generally toss- offs and Blades himself tells his fans to avoid them. After signing with Electra, Blades assembled a top-notch band (known variously as Seis Del Solar or Son Del Solar). Then he fell in with a set of West Coast liberals (Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt), started making movies, ran for president of his native Panama (although he hadn't lived there for two decades) and in between still manages to make some excellent music. Note to gringos: Blades is fully bilingual, and does his own translations into English (all his post-Fania LPs come with lyrics in both languages), which makes it possible to fully appreciate the poetry in his best work. And there's a very nice discography of all the songs Blades has written and/or sung. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.