Go Tell It to the Rain (Ve y díselo a la lluvia)

Music piece by:
Clan 91
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973

We had a comrade who sang beautifully. He was called Peye and was a student at the State Technical University.

I’d never met him before but later we became great friends in the Compingin Camp on the island.

When I met Peye again in the Alpha Barracks, he started singing the song 'Ve y díselo a la lluvia' ('Go tell it to the rain'), in the most spectacular voice.

He said to Trauco, me and someone else whose name I don’t remember, 'Guys, I play, I sing, and you do the backing vocals'. We sang 'ooooh': those were our backing vocals.

We formed a group called Alpha 4, specialising in more modern songs, mainly rock songs. We played some tremendous shows.

It was really nice because when we returned to the barracks, we felt like true musicians. Peye wrote a song. I remember that he showed it to me. It was written with the Viña del Mar Song FestivalOldest and largest song festival in South America since 1960. in mind.

Music was very important on Dawson Island. People would sing in the evenings, especially Argentinian folk songs and everything that we wrote.


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Published on: 16 October 2015

I know for well that there is something that makes you cry
but in the rain, you can unburden yourself
because only the rain will understand your tears.

Go tell it to the rain
it will comfort you
it will soon take away your sorrow, go,
go tell it to the rain.

But you hear it calling you constantly
telling you again and again that you should go and meet it
because only the rain will understand your tears.

Go tell it to the rain
it will comfort you
it will soon take away your sorrow, go
go tell it to the rain.

Run soon
run soon
run soon.

Go tell it to the rain
it will comfort you
it will soon take away your sorrow, go,
go tell it to the rain.

It will comfort you
it will soon take away your sorrow, go
go tell it to the rain.

Related testimonies:

  • They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)  Sergio Reyes Soto, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974

    This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom. Rolando Alarcón, and later Quilapayún, introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile.

  • National Anthem of Chile  Eduardo Ojeda, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, September 1973

    We arrived at Dawson Island on the afternoon of 11 September. All we knew was that we had been arrested in the morning - nothing else.

  • Far Away (Tamo daleko)  Eduardo Ojeda, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973

    At Compingin Camp on the island, Mario started telling us about the Spanish lyrics of the Yugoslav song 'Tamo daleko'. The song was not Croatian: it was Serbian.

  • Let’s Break the Morning (Rompamos la mañana)  María Soledad Ruiz Ovando, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974

    Music was very important for us (my mother Sylvia, my sister Alejandra and myself) while my dad, Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, 'el Negro Ruiz', was imprisoned during the dictatorship, when Alejandra was seven and I was four.

  • Go Tell It to the Rain (Ve y díselo a la lluvia)  Eduardo Ojeda, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973

    We had a comrade who sang beautifully. He was called Peye and was a student at the State Technical University.

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