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Ven, Devórame Otra Vez

Lalo Rodríguez · 1988 · written by Palmer Hernández, from the album Un Nuevo Despertar

He's tried other lovers and none of them compare: a man begs a woman to come back and devour him again, in salsa's most openly sexual hit.

The story

  1. 1.Since you left

    Since she's been gone he has filled the empty time with other adventures, and all they've given him is nostalgia. He has even said her name with someone else, without meaning to: he's looking for her in everyone.

  2. 2.Nobody compares

    He dreams she's with him. In his bed, he says, nobody is like her: he hasn't found another woman who knows him the way she did.

  3. 3.Come back

    So he asks her to come back and devour him again. He has saved himself for her, he can still taste her, and he's desperate for her.

Key phrases

  • “Ven, devórame otra vez”Come, devour me againThe title and the chorus, and there's no second meaning to find: he means exactly what it sounds like.
  • “En mi cama nadie es como tú”In my bed, nobody is like youThe comparison at the heart of the song.
  • “Ven, castígame con tus deseos”Come, punish me with your desiresCastígame, “punish me”, keeps the song's language of hunger and appetite going.
  • “Que el vigor lo guardé para ti”I saved my strength for youVigor is vigor, energy. He's been keeping it for her.

Context

Lalo Rodríguez from Puerto Rico was a teenager when he sang on Eddie Palmieri's The Sun of Latin Music (1974), the first Latin album to win a Grammy. Then came eight years without a record, until Un Nuevo Despertar, “a new awakening”, in 1988.

Its big hit was written by the Dominican songwriter Palmer Hernández. In 1989 it won Tropical Song of the Year at the first Premio Lo Nuestro awards.

It's the most openly sexual hit of late-1980s salsa romántica, the stretch sometimes called salsa sensual, and it's still the song that fills a room when the DJ plays it.

On the dance floor

Slow-burning and sensual, with a steady, unhurried beat. It's a song for close hold and smooth, connected movement.

The chorus comes back again and again, and in the last part the coro repeats the title while Lalo improvises around it: the build to save your turns for.

This is our own retelling of the song, not its lyrics or a translation of them: the few short phrases quoted are there to explain what they mean. The song belongs to its writer, Palmer Hernández.