The Cavern
Rock & Words
FITO PÁEZ
“Un tango al mango revoleando la cabeza
como un loco de aquí para allá, de aquí para allá…
después vinieron días de misterio y frío casi como todos los demás
lo bueno que tenemos dentro es un brillante,
es una luz que no dejaré escapar , jamás…”
"C"
Main Decade: 80’s-90’s-00’s
Main Eras:
80s Classic Rock in Spanish.
90s Rock en Ñ: The Golden Age
2000 Rock en Ñ: The Dispersion
Key Members:
Fito Páez
Key Songs:
Tres Agujas, Giros, Yo vengo a ofrecer mi Corazón, Tumbas de Gloria, Si Volvieran los Dragones (con Joaquín Sabina), La Casa Desaparecida Cable a Tierra, 11 y 6, Narciso y Quasimodo, A las Piedras de Belén, Corazón Clandestino, Ciudad de Pobres Corazones, Nada más Preciado, Gente sin Swing, Ambar Violeta, Bailando Hasta que se Vaya la noche, La Ciudad de los Pibes sin Calma, Polaroid de Locura Ordinaria, Dame un Talismán, El Chico de la Tapa, Fue Amor, Tercer Mundo, Carabelas Nada, Y Dale Alegría a mi Corazón, Yo te Amé en Nicaragua, El amor Después del Amor, Dos Días en la Vida, Pétalo de Sal, Un Vestido y un Amor, Brillante Sobre el Mic, La Balada de Doña Helena, Llueve Sobre Mojado (con Joaquín Sabina), Desierto, Es Solo una Cuestión de Actitud, Al Lado del Camino, Circo Beat, El Diablo en tu Corazón, Naturaleza Sangre, Absolut Vacío, Bello Abril, Yo no quiero volverme tan loco (Cover de Charly Garcia), Te Recuerdo Amanda (Cover de Victor Jara), Loco (Cover de Charly Garcia), Sable Chino, Del 63,Tendré que Volver a Amar, She´s Mine, Tema de Piluso, La Vida es una Moneda, Un Loco en la Calesita (versión en vivo).
If there's one artist who can stir up controversy on this page, it's undoubtedly Mr. Fito Páez. It's hard to know which stage of his career to choose to decide which is the best; There are the fans of more complex music who appreciate Fito's 80s work, while his 90s music has greater acceptance among the general public thanks to his unstoppable popularity in Latin America. There's even a group of more extreme fans who believe his best period is from 2000 to the present.
It's not even recognized whether what he makes is truly Rock, giving him the derogatory label of "Pop" when, in reality, Fito's music has a complexity that transcends the label of any genre. Others criticize him a lot for how he sings, saying he can't really sing and is often off-key, but can anyone deny that they don't like some of his songs? Or the drama with which he approaches them?
We also can't ignore (and hate) his public appearances, from his recent support for the current government to his earlier commentaries on most current events. The persona is inseparable from both the person and the musician, based on how he's perceived from the outside, but does it matter? Clearly not, because we have his albums to cover all that up.
So why does the Fito persona generate all this? Well, I couldn't say… perhaps the weight of being an icon is a burden; or quite the opposite, perhaps he's such a good musician that he can come across as a bit arrogant at times. In any case, Fito, unlike most Argentine rock idols who achieved success as solo artists, didn't have a band that made him famous; he became known solely through his music. Of course, he was part of some groups, but his songwriting is a solitary endeavor, with the exception of the songs he gave to Juan Carlos Baglietto.
Everything leads us to Rosario, a city in the province of Santa Fe, renowned for its vibrant cultural scene. The context in which Fito began his career was that of a country gripped by violence in the lead-up to Videla's dictatorship. The young Páez, who started his piano studies at 14 and later became self-taught, played piano in several groups, some rock, others folk. Among these groups was Staff, which, although it didn't make much of an impact on the Rosario music scene, did manage to win first prize in the city's Progressive Rock competition. The jury included several well-known musicians, among them the aforementioned Juan Carlos Baglietto. Baglietto recommended Páez to join "El Banquete," the most popular band in Rosario at the time. By 1981, Baglietto had recruited him as the keyboardist for his group, making him one of the members of the renowned "Trova Rosarina" movement. At the same time, Fito began to stand out as a great composer within Baglietto's group, fortunate enough to be credited as the author of five songs on their first album, "Tiempos Difíciles" (Difficult Times), including the well-known "La Vida es una Moneda" (Life is a Coin). The album's success catapulted Baglietto to the forefront as Argentina's next great troubadour, but it also helped propel the young Fito toward an imminent solo career. During those years, Fito collaborated on two more of Baglietto's albums, contributing the brilliant song "Un Loco en la Calesita" (A Madman on the Merry-Go-Round).
By 1983, another important musical figure had taken notice of him, providing the second key ingredient for Fito's consolidation as a solo artist. Charly García recruited him as a member of his band for the tour of the album Clics Modernos, and later he joined the group that recorded Charly's third solo album, Piano Bar. While he didn't contribute much compositionally, it helped him learn some basic principles for leading a solo band (Fito would later say that his main lessons in polyrhythms came from recording this album and using Charly's drum machine). Fito also fulfilled a dream, as Charly was one of his constant role models and always one of his biggest fans.
By 1984, he had released his first album, "Del 63," his first truly solo endeavor, which included some forgotten but great songs like the incredible "Tres Agujas," and he wasn't afraid to perform rumbas, ballads, or more progressive tracks. Fito wasn't afraid of any genre.
While his first album was a great opportunity for Páez, his breakthrough as a solo artist in Buenos Aires came with his second album, "Giros," released in 1985. This album marked a significant leap forward, with compositions that were even more daring than his debut, delving deeper into Tango and Folklore, and featuring a solid band to support Fito's songwriting process. "Giros" produced one of the biggest anthems of the newly restored democracy with "Yo Vengo a Ofrecer mi Corazón" (I Come to Offer My Heart), and showcased the darkest and most New Wave-influenced sound of the era.
The following year would be marked by another truly remarkable event after recording a single with Caetano Veloso, "La Rumba de Piano." A third major Argentine figure would take notice of him; Luis Alberto Spinetta invited him to record "La la la" with his band. Although the album didn't feature a large number of compositions by Páez, he composed 8 of the 20 songs. It served not only to release a third album of high quality, this time in collaboration with the other biggest name in Argentine Rock, but also to forge a great friendship with El Flaco Spinetta.
As you can see, up to this point, Fito's career would have several positive "breaks," so to speak. Unfortunately, the next turning point in his career would have a negative impact on Fito. While on tour in Rio de Janeiro, he learned that his grandmother and great-aunt, very dear to him and who had acted as mothers to him throughout his life (since Fito's mother died when he was only 8 months old), had been murdered. In any case, this event deeply affected Fito, plunging him into a terrible depression and paranoia. Initially, the police considered him a suspect, but it was later revealed that the murderer of Fito's grandmothers was a frustrated bassist, Walter Di Giusti, who had attended school with Fito in Rosario. Subsequently, the intense media coverage practically destroyed a Fito filled with rage.
His romantic relationship with the singer Fabiana Cantilo was key to his recovery from this low point. In a fit of rage, in which Fabiana participated, he composed "Ciudad de Pobres Corazones" (City of Poor Hearts), almost an exorcism of everything that tormented him at that time. That darkness gave him a tremendous artistic vision for the era. The self-titled album, released in 1987, would become one of his best works, a key album of the 80s, and would truly establish him as a leading figure in the Buenos Aires underground scene.
In 1988, he bid farewell to the 80s with Ey!, a much more polished album in terms of production, and closer to the Fito we would see in the 90s than in the 80s. In any case, he would already begin to change his lyrics, becoming a bit more personal and less universal, creating a kind of Lyrical Pop Art. He would also move away from concepts and concentrate on the songs themselves. Tercer Mundo, from 1990, would complete this lyrical evolution, becoming recognizable throughout the rest of his discography. This series of albums would be marked by greater attention to his backing band, which would include such virtuosos as Guillermo Vadala on bass and Twetty Gonzales on keyboards, among others.
The consolidation of this new stage, in which arrangements and production were paramount, occurred amidst the Latin Rock phenomenon. While Tercer Mundo had already crossed borders and become truly popular in Argentina, El Amor después del Amor was a phenomenal album for the market and cemented Fito's status as an international figure. With this album, Páez highlights, in addition to the arrangements and the selection of guest musicians (Calamaro, García, Spinetta, Mercedes Sosa), his obsession with creating an album truly about love, in which, however saccharine it may seem, he speaks to us of different universes in which this word can appear. The album achieves a Pop Gem, perhaps the best Pop album ever released in Spanish, full of tremendous songs, any of which could be released as a single. According to him, it is the best-selling album in the history of Argentine Rock, approaching one million copies.
Incredibly, during the 90s, Fito's decline began to be noticeable. While Circo Beat remains one of his best albums, a decline is already evident in some songs, but Fito maintained his quality even though the environment he operated in changed. He had ceased to be a leading figure in Argentine Rock, becoming instead a figurehead for the masses and mainstream culture. In my theory, rather than magically losing his songwriting abilities, Fito became increasingly content with his life (at the same time, his drug excesses weighed heavily on him), and he never reached the dramatic heights of Giros or Ciudad de Pobres Corazones. On the contrary, he sought to approach the pop iconography of his best-selling album, Amor después del Amor, but I believe that album is unsurpassed.
Despite all this, until 1996 he would release a string of great songs on different albums, following the recording of Euforia, a great live album. Páez would record his second collaborative album, this time with the Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina. This album truly pitted them against each other and ultimately resulted in the album Enemigos Íntimos (Intimate Enemies). It's clear that Sabina takes the lead in terms of lyrics, while Fito handles the arrangements. I think in this case, Joaquín's voice shines more than Fito's, although Fito achieves one of the album's great climaxes in "Si Volvieran los Dragones" (If the Dragons Returned). As a collaboration, I think it's a good album, perhaps one of the best of these kinds of duet collaborations so often forced by record labels.
In 1999, he would bid farewell to the 90s with Abre (Open), an album in which he returns to socially conscious lyrics, but more inspired by the pop iconography he had developed during the decade. Among the album's standout tracks is the 11-and-a-half-minute narrative, "La Casa Desaparecida" (The Disappearing House), in which he blends the two lyrical styles that defined his career: the drama of the 80s and his Latin American pop iconography of the 90s. He weaves a story through Argentine history, delving into the evolving idiosyncrasies of Argentine society and taking a particular swipe at the middle class, foreshadowing what was to come in 2001—perhaps one of Páez's last truly honest acts of dissent.
In the 2000s, Fito would release lesser works, and following the same path as in the 90s, THAT was the real problem; as I said, he became complacent with his established way of doing things, becoming more known for his media statements than for his music, and focusing on other areas like film. During this decade, we have a range of albums, from pop-oriented releases like Rey Sol in 2000 to rock-oriented ones like Naturaleza Sangre in 2003, albums of reinterpretations and covers like Moda y Pueblo in 2005, others recalling his earlier work like El Mundo Cabe en una Canción in 2006, the autobiographical Rodolfo in 2007, the travel-inspired album Confiá in 2010, and covers for extraterrestrials like Canciones Para Aliens in 2011. He flirted with forced darkness with El Sacrificio in 2013, turned sweet and romantic that same year with Yo Te Amo, and in 2014 released his concept album about Charly García, Rock and Roll Revolution, showcasing a somewhat forced rock and roll sound. Each album, however, held some hidden gems, as Fito's complacency doesn't mask his great skill as a songwriter.
As you'll see, Fito is a truly interesting character, and he raises many questions about why someone becomes who they are. Whether you like Fito Páez or not, he's truly key to the evolution of Latin Rock. If you really delve into his work, you can compare your opinion of the person with that of the artist, and even confront his compositions by comparing the different periods of his discography. So, we still have to ask ourselves, is Fito Páez Rock or not? I don't think so. I think Fito offers something better than that. Call it Progressive Rock, Pop, a fusion of Jazz and Folk, whatever… perhaps all Fito has to offer us is his heart.
By Homer
Dec/24/2014
