Solo le Pido a Dios

León Gieco wrote Solo le Pido a Dios in 1978 at his parents' house in Cañada Rosquín, the small town in southern Santa Fe province where he grew up, and he wrote it alongside his father, who told him it would become known around the world. By Gieco's account he started by trying out melodies on harmonica and guitar, then began writing down personal feelings. Bit by bit these turned into lines shaped by the hard events of the time: the military dictatorship, the exile of Mercedes Sosa, and the threat of war between Argentina and Chile. He almost left it off his record. Gieco found the song boring and monotonous, and only included it on IV LP, released in 1979, after Charly García advised him to. Since then he has closed his concerts with it. The lyric asks not to be left indifferent to pain, war or injustice, which quietly admits how easily we are. The song travelled further than anything else he wrote. Mercedes Sosa, Pete Seeger, David Byrne, Joan Manuel Serrat and Bruce Springsteen are among those who have sung it, and it has been recorded in Portuguese, English and Quechua and even as cumbia villera. It was used in European marches against nuclear weapons, and in 2011 Gieco sang it with U2 in La Plata, dedicated in part to the young soldiers of the Falklands War. Asked in 2009 why it had been translated into so many languages, he said he did not know, calling it one of the mysteries of art.