With a marathon of concerts, exhibitions and special broadcasts, Buenos Aires celebrates Charly García’s 70th birthday this Saturday.
Charly Garcia, one of the founding symbols of Argentine rock, this Saturday celebrates 70 years preserving the love of four generations of fans, who continue to cheer him despite the excesses of the past.
Author of historical songs like Demolishing hotels, I pray for you and They keep hitting us down The Buenos Aires musician has been away from the stage for almost two years due to his poor health, a circumstance that never disturbed his visceral love for music.
“If there is no music, even if it’s television … It’s like I’m a fish. Music is my oxygen ”, He recognized a few years ago about an art, that of composing songs, necessary to stay afloat.
A MONTH OF TRIBUTES
Without Charly García it is impossible to understand the last half century in Argentina: a staunch opponent of the last civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983), he consolidated his popularity as a soloist in the 80s and 90s, before suffering the worst effects of drug addiction and copar the front pages of the newspapers for their out of tune.
Due to the historical significance of his figure, which today appears more or less purified of every rugged detail, the city of Buenos Aires launched during the last month various activities to honor his 70 years, such as photographic exhibitions, literary meetings and recitals.
The finishing touch will be this Saturday with a tribute “megaconcert” at the National Auditorium, which will feature the presence of more than one hundred artists and a broadcast by streaming To the whole world.
MUSICAL STYLE
Owner of an “absolute pitch”, that is, the ability to identify musical notes without any sheet music, Charly has almost thirty studio albums behind him, including fundamental pieces of Latin American rock such as Modern clicks (1983) and Say No More (1996).
Now, what is Charly really like as a musician? In the opinion of the musicologist Diego Madoery, who analyzed his most prolific period as a composer (1972-1996), Charly’s greatest particularity is the conjunction he makes between the “classical-romantic harmony”, derived from his early piano studies, and the rock.
“The ability to mix these languages generated a very important part of his style, and that at least in Argentina he is the one who has brought it with more personality,” he underlines. EFE by videoconference the expert, who compares Charly with the Beatles in this regard.
Like other artists with a long career, Charly evolved to the rhythm of his musical career: although in his early years “danceable” compositions prevailed, as a soloist he devised much “more austere” songs.
CONTRADICTIONS AS AN ARTIST
In this sense, the seven decades of Charly’s life are traversed by an enormous contradiction, apparently unsolvable: how to be a mass musician, capable of filling stadiums and reaping the highest awards, without losing an iota of genius?
This “tension” marked a large part of his artistic production, according to Diego Madoery in his book ‘Charly and the music-making machine’ (Gourmet Musical, 2021).
“It seems to me that it is a trait that has it as different, quite analogous to what a Spinetta, a Cerati or a Páez can be,” says the expert.
That internal dispute with Charly caused him innumerable conflicts with the specialized press and with his own followers, to the point of conditioning his musical creation: after the publication of albums criticized for their “high stylistic exploration”, other more “rockers” always came to lift up the flight.
A search that is intimately related to Charly’s “romantic spirit”, understood not only as an artistic direction, but also as a “life in conflict”.
“I think that Charly is a very romantic artist, in the sense of having a lot of desire to advance and call himself the avant-garde and, on the other hand, have a certain melancholy that the new that is coming is not what he likes”, asserts Madoery.
CHARLY’S LEGACY
Catapulted into the category of national myth, both for its lights and, above all, for its shadows, Charly García is venerated by several generations of Argentines.
“When you go to Charly’s recitals, in this last stage, you see very young people. Those same guys who are listening to some ragpicker out there also like Charly ”, observes Madoery.
In fact, at 70 years old, Charly “has exceeded” the national rock category, with artists from tango and folklore who “fully” recognize him.
“Today I would dare to say that he is recognized almost as a Piazzola, musicians who, being within a particular scene, overflowed it with their music”, concludes the musicologist. (AND)
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