101 songs that marked Portugal #96: ‘Borrow’, by Silence 4 (1998)
101 songs that marked Portugal is a section that aims to honor the songs, composers and performers that have marked the history of Portuguese music in Portugal. Without strict chronological order, they are a personal portrait (focusing on the short story) of the author. More than a contextualization and an inventory of known facts, it is above all an association of stories and many unrecorded episodes. They are stories with stories beyond the music. Sometimes the wrong side of songs. Especially the wrong side of the songs.
‘Borrowed’, Silence 4 (1998)
On November 18, 1993, Nirvana entered Sony Music studios in New York to record their MTV Unplugged. Kurt Cobain presents, as a backdrop, an inordinate amount of lilies and candles. The producer vented that the scenario, like this, would look more like a funeral. Kurt Cobain assumed that was exactly the environment he intended – in what would become one of his last concerts, five months before he committed suicide. The brooding Kurt Cobain was already the model of a generation – for his vigorous songs, for the lyricism of his lyrics, for his pose, for his dark inner ambience. your equipment (jeans, t-shirt, checkered flannel shirt – all three sizes too big – and Converse sneakers) was adopted by young people who identified with that magnetic figure.
David Fonseca was no exception. He was 20 when Kurt Cobain died and spent his teens imbued with the same musical aesthetic that influenced Nirvana, namely Black Francis’ Pixies. the concerts disconnected on MTV spurred interest in an acoustic musical aesthetic and in stripping Academic or electric originals—by sugaring them out. David Fonseca dressed like Kurt Cobain, had plenty of magnetism and a sensitivity (and obstinacy) to understand the path he wanted to walk. However, he was influenced by ‘his’ Silence 4 to see the epic success they achieved: they were from a place far from the capital (Leiria), they sang in English and the genre was not the one that abounded on the radios. However, glory is also (and a lot, in most cases) made of chance.
They started out as a cult band in their city. They made circular double yellow cassettes with their models recorded in one of the rooms of the Royal Palace, in Castelo de Leiria. On that cassette, three songs later included on their debut album were already included: ‘Borrow’, ‘Goodbye Tomorrow’ and ‘Breeders’. They already had a legion of followers – who preferred that Silence 4 remained kept in their intimate sphere; however, Silence 4 – beyond perseverance, destiny and fortune – had other plans. And those plans led to a 1988 song by Erasure. They participated in the 1996 edition of the Festival Termômetro, started two years earlier – promoted by Fernando Alvim –, inspired by the Unplugged concerts on MTV (back to coincidences with Nirvana). The participants had to interpret four themes – three originals and one version – all of them acoustic. Silence 4’s victory in that edition was largely due to their alternative variation of ‘A Little Respect’, created for that festival.
That was the song that changed its direction. They had to take advantage of the current and they did. The following year, they performed at the BLITZ Awards Gala: they sang ABBA’s ‘One of Us’, the original ‘Borrow’ and inevitably ‘A Little Respect’. The story seemed to be written, even though in fact it wasn’t. ‘A Little Respect’ was just the preface to the commercial boom to come. Before that, his version by Erasure was a single from the compilation “Sons de Toda as Cores”, which António Sérgio insistently covered in his ‘A Hora do Lobo’, at Comercial. Silence 4 started to populate the radios, our ears, our empathy. One day, David Fonseca, at two in the morning, driving through the streets of Leiria, heard his voice on the radio for the first time, which was playing ‘A Little Bit of Respect’. He stopped the car, opened the doors, turned up the volume and enjoyed his first moment of popular recognition. He had waited for this moment for a long time.
Portugal woke up to the phenomenon Silence 4, which is no longer the phenomenon ‘A Little Respect’ Silence 4 version. Wake up to its own album “Silence Becomes It”. He woke up to the powerful and velvety voice of David Fonseca, in which even ‘Malhão’ would sound like a champion. He had good looks, to help; it was a print, after all. Magnetic. Success is explained by a succession of accidents, but also by objective factors; one of the factors behind these objectives is the elegant production by Mário Barreiros – who gave the band’s first album from Leiria a semi-acoustic ambience, both introspective and extravagant. Silence 4 were far more than the organic song that made them stand out; they were a construction, an influence – far more than a fluke.
The single ‘Borrow’ is a simple song, with a simple arrangement – but intense, charismatic and catchy. He made the album “Silence Becomes It” sell an astonishing 240,000 copies. 240 thousand! Six platinum records. One of the best selling albums ever in Portugal. Proving that they were the exception to a rule that was, after all, possible to reverse. They had heard many rejections for the foreign language in which they insisted on singing – but their reputation was irreducible and (this time) it worked. At a time marked by Delfins, Paulo Gonzo, Netinho or Daniela Mercury, its success was ‘viral’, even though the term was not yet associated with success. In a pre-internet era. Perhaps very inspired to happen in the present, in this era of social networks and platforms of streaming.
After the epic success of “Silence Becomes It”, after hundreds of concerts, veneration and acclaim, the path would inevitably be descending in Portugal. And excluding exceptional cases of Portuguese bands or singers who managed to penetrate outside Portugal (all singing in Portuguese and imposing themselves above all because of that Portugueseness), Silence 4 knew that it would be difficult to reverse this evidence. “Only Pain Is Real” followed “Silence Becomes It” and still managed to sell (an astonishing) 100,000 copies. Silence 4 withdrew the following year. They went down in the history of Portuguese music for the strength of their music, the simplicity of their lyrics, the charisma of David Fonseca, the sweet voice of Sofia Lisboa and the preference for the chords of Rui Costa and Tozé Pedrosa. Silence 4 represent the end of the 90s. Due to the improbability of their success and the timelessness of their songs, they are the symbol of a time when it was possible to have successes like this: as striking as they were transversal.
Put me on your grocery list
I’m here, I’m real, it’s true, I exist
You might feel a little sleepy today
Maybe the morning is too early
listen too: ‘Sixth Senses’ (1998). One of two unique songs on this album sung in Portuguese. With Sérgio Godinho sweetening it up.