On January 23, Musician’s Day, chosen in honor of the birth of Luis Alberto Spinetta, we remember “Flaco” with a profile and an interview with director Pablo César, who worked with him on the film gray fire.
More than five hours. That was the duration of the unforgettable concert that Spinetta gave with the Bandas Eternas in Vélez on December 4, 2009. In one epic night, he reassembled all the groups he had led throughout his life: he brought together Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, Jade and The Desert Partners. Much more than a presentation, it was a festival with guest glories such as, among others, Charly García, Fito Páez, Gustavo Cerati, Ricardo Mollo and Juanse.
Spinetta’s art was made of those types of gestures, who rarely returned to his old songs, because he basically looked forward. “Tomorrow is better,” he had written in “Cantata of Yellow Bridges,” as a declaration of principles. And although he took that little break in Vélez, he did it his own way: he concentrated the artistic arsenal in one night, which implied an unprecedented level of preparation and rehearsals, and also did not give any continuity to the project. Without concessions: the Eternal Bands lasted only one night, but the concert was for a lifetime.
Spinetta’s artistic freedom allowed him to always do what he wanted. That fidelity to his thoughts was one of his unalterable characteristics. He could participate in demands for the defense of public education, march alongside teachers, commit to the fight for greater road safety and become one of the visible faces of said campaign. His intransigence often worked against the grain of the cultural industry: he did not like giving journalistic interviews, he was capable of standing up from the stage when someone asked him for one of the “hits” and his art was slowly but surely tasted. . Taking the long road, he achieved what few others achieved: admiration from the public and from his own colleagues, the musicians.
Because of his status as a pioneer, because of the thickness of his work and because of many fundamental songs – a minimal list includes “Muchacha (ojos de papel)”, “Durazno sangrando”, “Cantata de Puentes Amarillos”, “Tema de Pototo (Para to know what loneliness is like)”, “Diamond Soul”, “Barro perhaps”, “Post-Crucifixion” –, January 23, the date of his birth, was established as National Musician’s Day. The initiative, launched after Spinetta’s death on February 8, 2012, materialized in 2015, when the National Congress enacted law 27106, promoted by the INAMU (National Institute of Music), which aims to pay tribute to the importance of the great rock poet.
Among so many aspects, his passion for avant-garde cinema was a standout facet. If at the time of Pescado Rabioso he had participated in some experimental scenes of Rock until the sun goes downby Aníbal Uset, years later, in 1987, he starred in the short film Ballad for a Kaiser Carabeladirected by Fernando Spiner, filmed in Villa Gesell, practically without dialogue and inspired, according to the director, by the atmospheres of Wim Wenders’ films.
He was also the star of a series of documentaries. Spinetta, the videoby Pablo Perel, made in 1986, records the recording process of the album Private, put together from three songs that were left over from the unfinished project with Charly García. Instead, Rabid Fish, an incurable utopiaby Lidia Milani, from 2012, focuses on the live reunion of Pescado Rabioso, thirty-six years after their separation.
“El Flaco” also actively participated with his music in films. Released in 1994, gray fire It is a fantastic film that has no dialogue and is developed through a series of images, linked to the music of Spinetta, who composed seventeen songs from the script, which constitute the axis of the plot. Co-written and directed by Pablo César – whose testimony accompanies this article –, it stars María Victoria D’Antonio, Cristina Banegas, Arturo Bonín, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Alejo García Pintos and Eleonora Wexler.
Spinetta’s commitment led him to become involved in September flowersa documentary directed by Pablo Osores, Roberto Testa and Nicolás Wainszelbaum that reconstructs the stories of young people who disappeared at the Carlos Pellegrini Higher School of Commerce during the last civil-military dictatorship. September flowers It opens and closes with “Crisantemo”, a song of his composed especially for the film.
“I don’t identify with straight lines; I don’t like equidistance,” Spinetta stresses in one of the films, as a tight synthesis of what was his extraordinary musical career.
