Seven Songs By Dimensión Costeña (Nicaragua)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: January 2, 2022

This pancocojams post showcases seven Dimension Costena songs as well as information about this Nicaraguan group, comments, and my (incomplete) transcriptions of a few of these songs are also included in this post.

The Dimension Costena recording of "Tututulu Pasa" is also featured in this pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/bluefield-nicaraguas-tulululu-songs.html. That post also features two other Tutululu songs and lyrics of a Tututulu song along with comments about that song.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/seven-videos-of-maypole-festival-in.html for the first post in this series. That post provides general information about Bluefield, Nicaragua as well as some information about its May Pole celebrations.

The content of this post is provided for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Dimensión Costeña for their musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. In addition, thanks to those featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these YouTube videos.

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INFORMATION ABOUT DIMENSION COSTENA (COAST DIMENSION)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_Coste%C3%B1a
"Dimensión Costeña is a Nicaraguan group that came together in the Caribbean coast of the country in Bluefields....

Dimension Costena consists of eight members, all of whom are from the coast area.
The main band member is called Luis Cassells, who dubs himself as the "Director Artistico" or the Artistic Director. Anthony Mathews and Anthony De Costena on vocals."

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From https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060909004313AAc2SzX
"Palo de Mayo is not only a song, but refers to a kind of traditional songs and dances from Nicaraguan Caribbean coast. The song you're familiar with (Tululu-pasa) most probably is played by a group called Dimension Costeña and his lead singer, Anthony Matthews, and as far as I understand they sing it in a combination of Spanish, English and Misquito, a local languaje. Other groups that play this kind of songs are Macoya and Mocuanes, both from Nicaragua."
-snip-
The name Dimensión Costeña "Coast Dimension" refers to fact that all of the group members are from the (Atlantic) coast area of Nicaragua.

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FEATURED YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting date on YouTube, with the oldest examples given first.

Example #1: Dimensión Costeña - Money Money



gilsomen, Uploaded on Nov 10, 2008
-snip-
partial transcription:
money money money
everybody has money
money money money
I have money fever
-snip-
Here's a comment about this song:
baptist70, 2010
"yo baile esa rola en 1986 en la piñata managua viva mi patriaaaaa
-snip-
Google Translate's translation into English was "off": "I dance the dime in 1986 in viva pinata managua my patriaaaaa".

I think a more correct English translation is "I danced [to] this [a slang term meaning record or song] in 1986 at a Managua festival. Long life my country!"
-snip-
I'm interested in that comment because it helps date this song since unfortunately I've not found much information in English about this group such as the decade that they started performing.

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Rxample #2: Dimension Costena - The Bluefield Express HD



Felipe Gutierrez, Uploaded on Jul 29, 2009

Aqui les dejo este gran tema de una de las agrupaciones mas famosas de Nicaragua Dimension Costena no habia visto este video en buena calidad asi que decidi subirlo dejen sus comentarios..
-snip-
English translation from Google Translates
"Here I leave this great subject of one of the most famous groups Costena Dimension Nicaragua had not seen this video in good quality so I decided to upload it leave your comments."
-snip-
Bluefield, Nicaragua, on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, is the heart of that nation's May Pole celebration. Information about Bluefield, Nicaragua can be found  at 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluefields

Here's my incomplete transcription of that song (with the words I'm not sure of written in italics):
Come take a ride on the Bluefield Express
Sit down inside on the Bluefield Express
She comin down the creek you will see
The Bluefield Express
Her black smoke comin out of the chimney
The Bluefield express
The Bluefield express
The Bluefield express

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Example #3:  MANAGUA, NICARAGUA DIMENSION COSTENA BLUEFIELDS.mp



Flor Mtus, Nov. 29, 2013

-snip-
Here are a few comments about the words to a song in this video:

1. 77musica, 2021
""Come down brother Willy come down
Come see what the man have done
A he take up the knife
Stabbed up the wife
Now see how the blood down run...
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aaaaaa. Aaaaaaaaa..."

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2. Gema Smith, 2021
"Como se llama esta canción. No la encuentro en ningún lado"
-snip-
"How is this song called? I can't find it anywhere."

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Reply
3. Marlon MacBelho, 2021
"Se llama "Come Down Brother Willie"."
-snip-
It's name is "Come Down Brother Willie".
-snip-
This video replaces one with the same title that is no longer available. That video was published on YouTube by Dante Legacy on Sep 26, 2009. These comments are from the discussion thread of the video that is no longer available:

1/ Comment from Leticia Ramirez, 2011
"el grupo se llama dimencion costeña y la cancion tulululu"
-snip-
English translation: The group is named Dimencion costena and the song is “Tulululu”.

end of quote. If this song is called "Tulululu" it's quite different from the other Tulululu songs that I've heard.

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2. Comment from 77musica, 2011 (in response to q request for the words to this song:
"Come down brother Willie come down come see what the man have done he take out the knife stabbed up the wife and see how the blood down run...

Viva Nicaragua!!! Musica para recordar."
-snip-
The gruesome words to this song may recount an incident that happened at a May Pole festival, the same way that words to Calypso songs and Mento songs recount actual experiences.

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Comment from 77musica, 2013
"come down" significa VENI AQUI en creole de Nica”
-snip-
My translation:
“Come down means the same thing as “Veni Aqui” in Nicaraguan Creole.

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Example #4: Mayaya Lasinki Dimensión Costeña Concierto en Vivo



chavalopuntocom, Uploaded on Feb 24, 2010
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/seven-videos-of-maypole-festival-in.html for lyrics to an old version of this song. According to an article quoted in that post, the song was called "Mayaya Lost Her [or "The"] Key" (Creole: "Mayaya lass im key"). That article also includes comments about how that singing game was played, including this excerpt (given with my translation of its English translation):
"Mayaya" ("Maia") is the name of a fertility goddess. However, the song recounts an incident that had actually happened at a festivity. A woman lost her key [to her home] and couldn't open her door.

Originally, this song was played in a circle with one person in the middle. The people forming the circle passed a hidden key hand to hand, and the person in the middle had to guess who had the key. If she (or he) guessed correctly, the person in the middle rejoins the group and the person who had the key was the new middle person."
-snip-
It seems to me that the words to contemporary versions of this song have distinctly sexual allusions. Given that Mayaya (Maia) was the goddess of fertility, I wonder if the words to that singing game originally had those sexually allusions.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-does-mayaya-lasinki-mean.html for a pancocojams post about the song "Mayaya Lasinki".

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Example #5: Dimension Costeña- Rikitiki/ Madah Say Do Redo



TicoNicaX4, Uploaded on Jul 21, 2011

Palo de Mayo [May Pole]
-snip-
Palo de Mayo = May Pole

Madah Say Do Redo = Mother said do [it and] do it again.

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Example #6: Dimension Costena MELANCOLIA



nicoyaenusa , Uploaded on Nov 7, 2011

Dimension Costena interpretando Melancolia Una Cansion Que hizo sonar a muchos Nicaraguense en aquella epoca de los 80"
-snip-
English translation:
Dimension Costena playing Melancolia ; A Nicaraguan song that was popular in the 1980s.

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Example #7: DIMENSION COSTENA grupo gamma TULULULU PASA



efranz55, Published on Aug 10, 2012
-snip-
Here's a comment from that example, from flor cardenas, 2013
"este es el palo d mayo original"
-snip-
I think that a correct American English translation for that comment is "This is a traditional (Nicaraguan) May Pole song.
-snip-
Here's my incomplete translation of that song, leaving the words "tulululu" and "pasa" in "Spanish" [with the recognition that "tulululu" may not be a Spanish word]if untra l

tulululu pasa [repeat after every line]
that gal and boy they pasa
all of them they pasa
gal and boy they pasa
they hold the gal they pasa
that gal and boy they pasa
pass pass passa
gal and boy they pasa
all of we, we pasa
gal and boy they pasa...
-snip-
Here's a comment that the publisher of another sound file of Dimension Costena recoding of "Tutululu Pasa" wrote in response to a question about the music's genre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPYtIaC3zU
Rafael Guevara, 2014
"Es un ritmo caribeño de Nicaragua... pero no es ni soca, ni punta."
-snip-
English translation: It’s the Caribbean rhythm of Nicaragua. But it’s not soca or punta.

"Soca" is a genre of music that originated in Trinidad/Tobago. "Punta" is a genre of music that originated among the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna people of Nicaragua, Central America

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BONUS EXAMPLE
Example #8: MIX POPURRI CALIENTE-DIMENSION COSTEÑA (Video Oficial HD 2018) By: Elcuco Nica



Elcuco Nica,April 16, 2018
-snip-
This video replaces one that was embedded in this post but is no longer available. 

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