Charly García

Charly García ranks among the most gifted and pivotal creators in Argentine and Latin rock history. He wrote numerous songs that defined generations while relentlessly pushing the limits of pop expression and rethinking what it means to be a musician. During his teenage years in the early 1970s, he and Nito Mestre launched Sui Generis, which produced three studio albums before dissolving. García next appeared in the PorSuiGieco collective and in La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros. From 1978 through 1982 he belonged to Serú Girán, an essential ensemble of the Argentinian rock scene that rose to prominence amid military rule. In 1982 he scored the film Pubis Angelical while simultaneously cutting his own Yendo de la Cama al Living; the resulting double album earned strong critical praise and launched his long solo trajectory. Over the ensuing decades he issued dozens of recordings that traversed styles ranging from the concise pop of 1987’s Parte de la Religión and 1994’s La Hija de la Lágrima to the experimental indie rock of 1996’s Say No More and the nocturnal electronic textures of 2007’s Cronicas. He returned in 2010 with Kill Gil and followed it with the triple-disc live set 60 X 60 in 2012. In 2017 García resumed studio work and delivered Random.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1951, García displayed musical gifts from an early age. At three he received a toy piano and astonished his mother by improvising complete melodies; she later enrolled him at the Thibaud Piazzini conservatory, where he earned a degree as a Music Professor at twelve. He also developed absolute pitch during childhood. While attending high school in the early 1970s he met Carlos Alberto “Nito” Mestre; the pair merged their groups to form Sui Generis, which released three widely admired albums and disbanded in 1975 after drawing 20,000 fans to Luna Park Stadium. That same year García assembled the symphonic-rock outfit La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, whose self-titled debut appeared in 1976 and whose second album, Películas, followed in 1977; the band’s outspoken criticism of the junta led to unofficial suppression of its recordings. After the group folded in 1977, García and his girlfriend withdrew to an off-grid existence in São Paulo, Brazil, before he returned to Buenos Aires to found Serú Girán alongside guitarist David Lebón, bassist-keyboardist Pedro Aznar, and drummer Oscar Moro. The band’s self-titled debut arrived in 1978; between then and 1982 it issued several albums, among them Bicicleta and Peperina, plus numerous singles on Columbia.

In 1983 García produced Los Twist’s La Dicha en Movimiento and recorded his own Clics Modernos at Electric Lady Studios in New York. The album adopted a straightforward pop-rock framework markedly simpler than his earlier output, sold briskly, and sparked debate among reviewers for its stylistic shift, yet it inaugurated his enduring partnership with producer Joe Blaney. Later that year he generated his most notorious public incident by dropping his trousers before an unreceptive crowd—an episode that inaugurated a series of controversies and elevated him to national prominence beyond musical circles.

The essential trilogy concluded with Piano Bar, issued at the close of 1984 and performed by a touring unit that included members of GIT and Fito Páez on keyboards. Audiences and critics alike embraced the record, which yielded anthems such as “Demoliendo Hoteles” and “Raros Peinados Nuevos.”

In 1985 García attempted a collaboration with Luis Alberto Spinetta that yielded only the track “Rezo por Vos.” He also appeared at the Rock & Pop Festival alongside Nina Hagen, INXS, and John Mayall. With Pedro Aznar he issued the six-song maxi-single Tango in 1986, which integrated electronic elements. Parte de la Religión, released in 1987, was performed almost entirely by García alone, save for “Rap de las Hormigas,” which featured Os Paralamas do Sucesso; the album, widely regarded as a masterpiece, bore Prince’s influence and spawned Top Ten hits including “No Voy en Tren,” “Buscando un Símbolo de Paz,” and “En la Ruta del Tentempié.”

An Amnesty International concert concluded in Buenos Aires in October 1988 before more than 80,000 spectators, with Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N’Dour sharing the bill; León Gieco and Charly García represented Argentina. After scoring the 1988 film Lo Que Vendrá—in which he also portrayed a nurse—García assembled the solo album Cómo Conseguir Chicas, largely drawn from older unreleased songs. Filosofía Barata y Zapatos de Goma appeared in 1990 and contained a Spanish-language reading of the Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” yet also provoked scandal when authorities charged García with offending national symbols for including a version of the Argentine anthem.

He reunited with Pedro Aznar for Tango 4 in 1991; an intended project with Gustavo Cerati of Soda Stereo produced only a pair of unfinished tracks. Mid-year rumors of an overdose were later confirmed when García entered rehabilitation. In 1992 Serú Girán reconvened to record Serú Giran ’92 and to stage concerts in Córdoba, Rosario, and Buenos Aires; a live double album followed but met with limited success, prompting García’s return to solo work.

July 1994 brought the rock opera La Hija de la Lágrima, which featured extensive instrumental passages and numerous guest musicians; the public responded enthusiastically to both the record and its live presentations.

Between 1995 and 2001 García explored increasingly abstract and avant-garde territory through the Say No More persona. Although concerts remained sold out, the associated albums sold modestly and drew mixed critical notices. Estaba en Llamas Cuando Me Acosté (1995) consisted largely of covers; the same year he issued MTV Unplugged, a brief return to more conventional songcraft. Say No More arrived in 1996, and in 1997 he reinterpreted several of his compositions with Mercedes Sosa on Alta Fidelidad. At this peak of apparent disarray he nonetheless attracted a new teenage audience even as some longtime fans drifted away.

Matters appeared to shift in the summer of 1999 when García gave a free concert before more than 150,000 approving listeners; the performance was documented on that year’s Demasiado Ego, his strongest seller from the Say No More period. He again drew controversy by performing for President Carlos Menem; the show was released in limited edition as Charly & Charly but never reached wide distribution.

March 2000 brought further headlines when García leapt from a ninth-floor hotel window into a pool in Mendoza. Later that year Sui Generis reunited, issuing Sinfonía Para Adolescentes and staging a comeback concert preserved on a heavily studio-revised double CD.

With Influencia in 2002 García reverted to a classic song-oriented approach that abandoned prior sonic experiments, effectively closing the Say No More chapter.

The following year longtime guitarist María Gabriela Epumer died of a heart attack before recording began. García pressed on to complete Rock and Roll, Yo, notable for its covers of “Pretty Ballerina” and Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love” as well as its original material, yet his engagement was visibly diminished. Epumer’s absence created a palpable void in live performances. García released no new album for six years and appeared in public only twice during that interval, though a raw demo of Kill Gil circulated online in 2006; EMI declined to issue it. A polished version finally appeared in 2011, accompanied by a live DVD. In 2012 García curated the 60 X 60 box set to mark his sixtieth birthday and published the book Parallel Lines: Artificio Imposible. He returned to Sony with Random in 2017; the album attained gold status in Argentina and yielded the Top Three single “La Máquina de Ser Feliz.” EMI reissued 60 X 60 in multiple formats at the end of 2019.