Complete Leftovers: stories from musical intrahistory – Dirty Rock Magazine

Miguel de Unamuno coined the concept of “intrahistory”. More or less, it represents the set of events with hardly any significance in their time and a backdrop that complements and explains the visible history, to which historians are dedicated. This territory of shadows sometimes emerges outside of its time and its weight in the “eternal tradition” is confirmed. The recent book and albums titled Skinny Barral, Complete Leftovers, by Allanamiento de Mirada, reconstruct with precision and overwhelming documentation the history of the legendary musician of Uruguayan origin. It was time.

The author and editor, Paco Espínola, has been right with the approach of the work, in a long interview format, and offers the reader a very complete and easy-to-read text. The extensive conversation is very revealing and in it all kinds of “intrahistorical” lessons are revealed through the narration of the composer’s experiences. In his introductory article, Espínola points out that “it is about 60 years of musical life, 116 albums in which he can be the author of music or lyrics, or both; multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, sound engineer, cover designer…” And he adds: “We have organized and dated most of the 1,700 files that he himself has been in charge of selecting with infinite patience and unforgettable affection at impossible times.” Aside from the documents, the protagonist of the book demonstrates a prodigious memory for names and situations that occurred a long time ago.

In the prologue by the writer Fernando Peláez, it is recalled that the song Give me your crazy smile It is the first in the history of Uruguayan music in which marijuana is mentioned. They were times of youth rebellion that some young people of that time (Barral was born in 1945) channeled through their musical passion. And the work shows the zigzagging evolution of a musician in his different times. Sometimes the number of names that cross the path of this “restless ass” is overwhelming, capable of evolving from blues to orientalism or all kinds of musical styles.

The book is structured into different vital and/or professional stages: the first covers from 1945 to 1963; and the closing from 2016 to the present 2023. In these sections, the artist explains his early hobbies, his musical beginnings, the first skirmishes to orient himself towards professionalization, anecdotes, his Argentine period and a thousand other adventures, sometimes as somber as the loss of his son, in 2005. Of particular interest are the periods in Opus Alpha (1971), including his famous “funeral” (a last waltz before The Band), and Blues Days (1972), a peak moment in the musical history of Uruguay, in pioneering times where Flaco and his power trio could be assimilated to what Miguel Ríos represented in our country: very excited young people who cleared unexplored paths of music.

The coup d’état in Uruguay came in March 1973. Flaco moved to Spain and had to reinvent himself, since making a living from music was very complex then (and it’s not exactly easy now). He supplements his musical income with craft work. He had no contacts in Spain, he starts from scratch and little by little he makes his way. He hits the pubs with live music, sniffing out the new territory, and starts getting gigs.

From there he went on a tour of several European countries. As in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Flaco says: ““I had never seen snow and when we went through the Swiss Alps I was impressed”. He begins to establish relationships with such relevant names as Gato Pérez or Mike Kennedy.

He settled in Menorca (Cutaina des Pou), his “second land” for a couple of years. There he meets Hilario Camacho in a surprising way and the singer-songwriter from Chamberí settles into his house for several weeks. Both collaborate for Hilario’s third album, The Morning Star, with other greats like Jorge Pardo. He composes some pieces like My Feet Step on the Rock, My Head Above Clouds They Float. At that moment he meets the producer Gonzalo García-Pelayoprelude to new projects.

An important moment came in 1977, with the formation of Afternoon. Next to Álvaro Valls, Dick Zappala and Gustavo Ross. Flaco contacted García-Pelayo and, together with Ross, they presented him with their “flamenco, almost Arabic” style recordings. They incorporate instruments such as the mellotron or El Solina. They sound in a similar vein, but different, to groups like Triana or Granada, strong at that time. On that album appears the legendary How Bad Is It, Mr. Judge, an anti-prohibitionist anthem and one of the first successful rock titles in Spain where violence against women is denounced. Several cuts of that masterpiece by Azahar show the hippy and anti-militarist current that Barral never abandoned.

The group lasts a while and splits. Barral and Ross ride Azabache, along with Hermes Calabria and Daniel Henestrosa. Already in the eighties, he played with Emilio José, the Argentine Moris, Sergio y Estíbaliz, Labanda (where Flaco played bass, bouzouki, banjo and mandolin), Hispano-Uruguaya, David Gwynn, Cañones y Mantequilla, Kevin Ayers, among many others , and simultaneously embarks on production work for emerging studios. In the mid-eighties, venues like the Coquette Blues Bar began to emerge where he could perform and compose more frequently.

Already entering the nineties of the last century, the blues once again gained ground in his music and he worked with Carey Bell y Louisiana Redof the bluesmen of high level who had collaborated with Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker. The blues path continues with Naco Goñithe Argentine guitarist Claudio Gabis Fede Watery y Manuel Torrego, with whom he founded La Destilería. It makes the music of the Delta compatible with a thousand other adventures where musicians like Osi Martínez or Armando Marcé or Raimundo Amador or Víctor Aneiros or Amar Sundy or Gino Tunessi or Esteban Leivas (who contributes a very significant text to the book) or a thousand more names participate.

In the middle of that decade, in Sobras Completas details of his project are revealed. Three Pianos with Kike Jambalaya, Reverend and Jesús Redondo. It is just another milestone to contemplate the almost unfathomable dimension of this talented Uruguayan. As he explains in the book, “I have always been a person of joining groups, creating them, or if they were already established, being another member and fighting for them. I have killed myself looking for performances, doing advertising, comics and I don’t know how many other things. Well, now I was going to invest all that energy in myself. “The time had come.” That moment is 2010 after the impulse of Perro Flaco (with the corresponding video of him) and he takes a turn towards oriental music. He contacted the sitar player Ricardo Chiappe or Carlos Guerra (bansuri), and participated in the recording of Raga & Blues, also with the tabla player Navaraj Gurung.

This process of personal maturation leads to the recording of ¡UyyyUyUy!! (2016), with the help of many friends along the long professional path. He calls this long-awaited work “cajon music,” with songs composed four decades earlier. The cover is a drawing by his father, who died in 1986, which is titled La Codicia del Oro. “I was always very restless and I don’t like stories to last too long,” he confesses in the interview, although it is well known in the industry. that Barral is a very serious and responsible musician. And he adds: “I always have something to learn in every musical project I start. “If I spent my whole life making the same music it would be terrible.”

Explains the project in the final stretch of the volume 100 Years on the Roadon the writer’s centenary Jack Kerouac, and his most recent adventures. Hundreds of photographs dot the volume, press clippings, posters, comics, tickets, illustrations, concert posters and all kinds of documents (recording sheets, lyrics…). Very commendable is Flaco Barral’s record catalogue, located at the end of the book, with a very well thought out anthology that appears on the two accompanying discs.

Two outstanding albums

The two albums provided by Sobras Completas reach a very notable musical weight, both for their quantity and quality. There are a total of 41 songs of tremendous variety for which the FJR Studios in Granada have been used. On the disc it can be seen, as indicated Spinolathat “the repertoire of his songs is as unorthodox as his life: rock, soul, blues, R&B, folk, country, pop, oriental music, candombe, tango, classical music…”.

Between the oldest song and the most recent there is a time span of 57 years. The first disc includes 24 cuts, in chronological order. Start with Daydream Believerfrom 1966, along with The Crabs, a piece that is followed Gray Mud (with Trio Yes), published two years later. In both you can perceive the naivety and innocence of the first bars, the result of a time of great drive and enthusiasm tempered (or enhanced, depending on how you want to look at it) with ancient recording techniques. Compositions by Flaco Barral appear in that initial block along with Godberg o Antunezamong others, and his pieces such as Illusion (with Opus Alfa) o Stock Market Corner (from the album The I unpluga work that comes from a concert recorded in 1972 and which took 48 years to be published, something worthy of being included in the Guinness Book of Records).

Some well-known classics alternate below (Solitude and Silence, A Love Like You y Clear Feelingsthe three with Hilario Camacho What’s wrong, Mr. Judge? of noon, o Noche de Meigas Galopantescomposed together with Gustavo Ross for Jet) to give way to compositions in the group Raza (We’re Out of Control, Calling Everyone) and interpretations with Labanda (Underpass), David Gwynn, Cañones y Mantequilla, Gonzalo Farrugia, Hada Guldris Pablo Traberzo y Miguel Ríos&Ñaco Goñi (Things I Owe to Madrid).

CD 2 adds another 17 songs to the historical-musical ocean. It covers from 2008 to today and begins with Flaco (on bass and Talkbox) along with Gilson in Dancing on Hot Bricks. Another piece follows in tandem with Gustavo Rosscompanion in the adventures of Afternoon y Jetin Prudence in Womento finally reel off a succession of cardinal bocattos: Love love (The City Blues), The House of Mathematics (whose emotional genesis is explained in the pages of the book), Give me your crazy smile (from Días de Blues), recorded in 1973 and published 43 years later, or My Village is Dying (Bye). The stage with marked oriental aromas is reflected in In a place in spring (Raga&Blues), from the 1968 vintage, the same year they were released So far away, Shot Magician From (also very Asian) and Juancito. One Third is Enough (with Female Jambalaya) dates back to 2019, while 2020 adds El Tardón (with Osi Martínez), Dreams of Sherezade (next to Jose Martos y Hervas), an unpublished song.

The double album concludes with Honey Lover (of Macu Ta Cantado), Dreams (from the booklet 100 Years on the Roadalready in 2022) and Global Warming (La Tabare).

Many of these songs have been heard throughout last November in Flaco’s homeland, during an intense reunion tour with his American friends and with the book under his arm. The intense sessions and the affection shown to Flaco Barral have shown that this universal Uruguayan is a prophet also in his land.

Photos Ana Hortelano.