Willie Colon Ballad Single “Vida Mas Simple”

Salsa icon Willie Colon released the single “Vida Mas Simple”, a guitar-led ballad that previews is upcoming recording. I’ve included the official video below.

“Vida Mas Simple” (la de ayer) was written by Cuban-American artist Nil Lara, and becomes the leading single of Willie’s next album, which he has been working on and announcing for the last 2 years.

Willie Colon Next Album “Barrio de Guapos”

The tentative name for Willie Colon’s upcoming album is “Barrio de Guapos”, and will include 10 songs, a mix of old Willie hits and songs he always wanted to sing, as is the case of “Vida Mas Simple”. Willie talks about “Barrio de Guapos” as an album to put people to dance, with longer versions of the songs, like those performed in live concerts or shows.

Ironically, “Vida Mas Simple” is an acoustic guitar-led ballad that reminisces on yesteryears, on how simple life used to be. Most of us older folks remember that life without Facebook, iPhones, email, and when family time meant getting to talk, joke, and play together, rather than have each one sunk on their electronic screen device of choice.

I say ironically, because for a dance album, this is not precisely what I would have in mind as the leading single. But then again, I’m not a Salsa and Latin music icon, and Willie Colon is.

Video of “Vida Mas Simple”

The official video of the song takes us through a collection of photographs of Willie Colon’s life since he was a kid, with other portraits related to the times shown in the photographs timeline. Early on, there’s a photo of the Teatro Puerto Rico, announcing Bobby Capó and Juan Boria, the great exponent of black poetry in Puerto Rico.

I also assume the woman in the photo that start the video must be his beloved grandmother Toña, to which Willie Colon dedicates a song in the album “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” (1975).

Enjoy the video..