Luis Alberto Spinetta was an Argentine musician of high standing and well known in Latin America, revolutionized rock music in his country with "Almendra", played heavy blues rock with "Pescado Rabioso", with "Invisible" exploded his creativity with progressive rock and jazz.
Well, we will not see an album of him in these groups today, today we will review what was his first solo album, called at first for his album "Almendra", then "La búsqueda de la estrella" and "Spinettalandia y sus amigos". The story behind the release of Luis Alberto Spinetta's first solo album is a bit strange, and it shows clearly two different mentalities: the honest -even innocent- artist and his work, and the underhand and merely commercial company that releases and distributes that work. The aim of the artist, if there is something valuable in him in the first place, will be the hallucination and the beauty just for the sake of it, and justified in it, without any second intention.
On the other hand, the responsibility of those media (labels, companies, men in suits, CEO's, technocracy, commercial plausibility, numbers) should be reduced to a simple distribution and diffusion of the artist's work, nothing more, respecting the work as the artist conceived it and created it to be showed to public consideration.
On the late 1970 Spinetta disbanded his project Almendra,
they recorded two albums for RCA Victor Argentina, the RCA (Argentine
branch) said to Spinetta that the band still owed the company one album,
according to a contract (contract which apparently was for three
albums), Almendra didn't exist anymore in the early 1971, but they
insisted, so Spinetta decided to record an album, exclusively to solve
the contractual demand.Is interesting how this story continued, cause for me, it shows two clear vital philosophies: the cold commercialism vs. the simple art.
Spinetta was back then involved in a loose project "that some day could come true" with guitarist Pappo, and drummer "Pomo" Lorenzo, it was a heavy psych power trio, "Agresivos", Pappo on guitar, Pomo on drums & Spinetta on bass and vocals; the RCA contract gap was the opportunity for "Agresivos" to crystallize their LP, so Luis penned a bunch of songs in a weekend, plus some Pappo's tracks that were added, and there the album was created, and they quickly recorded it, with the help of a friend: Miguel Abuelo, on tambourine, flute & backing vocals.
The album was presented to the RCA authorities, including 11 tracks, an artwork, and a title: "Spinettalandia y sus amigos", and it was not an Almendra album.
Actually Spinetta was pretty fed up with all this affair of the contract, debts etc, and decided to record something rare, experimental and acid that, in his own words "they (the RCA) couldn't sell to anybody".
The RCA declined the release of this stuff, the album was archived, and Spinetta, tired of Argentina, flew to Europe, that was March of 1971.While Spinetta was in Europe (April, May, June, July?) the RCA released the album suddenly, but in their own terms: they 'entitled it' "Almendra" unilaterally, and the cover showed a photograph of the Almendra's members, who didn't participate in the record at all, an absolute nonsense with commercial intentions, and especially, a clear example of the disrespect that the corporations showed for the rock musicians (and for the fans) back then in Argentina, selling a misleading and false product.The rest of the Almendra's ex-members, Rodolfo García, Emilio del Güercio & Edelmiro Molinari, along with a returned -and surprised- Spinetta took legal actions, the album was withdrawn from the record stores.
And that was, basically, the turbulent solo debut of Luis Alberto Spinetta... the record was reissued as "La búsqueda de la estrella", "Luis Alberto Spinetta" and, finally in the digital era, it was released on CD with the cover and title that Spinetta originally gave it: "Spinettalandia y sus amigos".
Listening to this album is, in part, like listening to the first Pappo's Blues, the Pappo's additions and presence are too imperative here to ignore them, especially on the hard rock cuts penned by him, "Castillo de piedra", and "Era de tontos".
Strangely, in the copy I own (a vintage
tape of "La búsqueda de la estrella"), "Castillo de piedra" is credited
as a Spinetta's song... Pappo would record it, as well, with different
lyrics and arrangements on his second LP "Pappo's Blues 2", as "Tema I",
months later.This album, intended in the first place by Spinetta to be a simple contractual obligation (mixed with willingly experimental pleasure with friends), is divided among the hard rock, the psychedelia and a considerable acoustic element... the Spinetta's usually great lyrics are not so inspired here, though the rocks featured have a cool and groovy feel a la Black Sabbath of "Master of reality", sounding like some insane 1971's stoner rock.
The psych-folk and nightmare-like "Vamos al bosque" is possibly the climax of the LP, track which is spiritually linked to the dyonisiac journey "Estrella".
This LP, with its multiple titles, issues and album covers, it's like a wild testament from the Argentine rock 70s' scene, mixing in a same bag, musicians whose own environmental deficiencies extracted, surely by force, a huge potential in creativity ideas and poetry, and a local industry, idiotic, flat, mediocre, old, pathetic, commercial and horrible, which was surely obstacle for the pure development of the spirit, obstacle that created muscle and hardened carcasses.
Today, Luis Alberto Spinetta is not that post-adolescent that the RCA fucked anymore, he's a sort of national symbol in Argentina, a nationwide bard decorated by the authorities, sort of Borges of the rock music, the Sony-BMG CEO's are younger than him today, and wouldn't dare to modify a comma of his albums, now you tell me who won.
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| Original Cover |
Here
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