Contrasting with the backwards and authoritarian government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, Argentina and specially Buenos Aires were undergoing a cultural blossoming, based on new art expressions; the new generation, the sons of the middle class, was immersed in an effervescence that would not reappear in Argentina until 1983. Spinetta was part and later an exponent of that blossoming and rebellious youth that would express itself both through the arms and the arts. Spinetta devoted fully to the latter path, although he briefly became involved with left-wing political movements.
It was 1969 and his band, Almendra, recorded their first album. The band started recording and playing intensely and it became successful almost overnight. Almendra composed its own songs and the lyrics were in Spanish (something radically new). The subtlety and beauty of their sound would be one of the milestones (maybe the first) of Argentine rock. After two albums that enjoyed radio diffusion and deserved fame, the band split. Spinetta composed and recorded a new solo album, but an inadequate environment (he would later say that the mood of Argentine rock and rockers of those times were too "heavy" and negative for him) and the vast changes that success effected on his life made him leave the country.
After a lengthy stay in Europe, he returned to Argentina and formed a new band: Pescado Rabioso. It was destined to be as mythical as Almendra. With a far more powerful sound and expressing the tension in the streets of an increasingly violent Argentina, Pescado recorded its first album in 1972. It was both a continuation of the creative stream of Spinetta and a drastic change in the style of his music and lyrics. The band recorded a second album; although a third one carried its name, Pescado was by then dissolved; Artaud, recorded in 1973 and mostly a solo album by Spinetta, was a major breakthrough. Partly based on the writings of Antonin Artaud, Spinetta exorcised many of the demons of his past in this album. This process would open the door to a new era in his music.
In 1974 he formed a new band, Invisible. With his new band he recorded three albums; Invisible I, Durazno Sangrando (together with Artaud, hailed as his best album ever), and El Jardín De Los Presentes. With Invisible, he left the powerful and rough sound of Pescado; the new tunes were more harmonic, soft and mellow, yet his work remained essential and revolutionary. Following this line, he embarked on a solo project, A 18' del Sol, after dissolving Invisible in 1976-77. By then, ten years later after starting his career, his style had became a delicate amalgam of old and new; the old pop and (proto) heavy rock had merged with various elements of jazz and bossa nova. That unique flavour would become his style during the next half decade.
After recording and editing a failed album in the United States in 1979 (the only album that Spinetta lamented ever doing), with lyrics in English and destined to the US market, Spinetta returns to Argentina and starts a prolific era: he would record two albums with a short-lived Almendra Revival (one with original songs and the other live), and embark on a new project: Spinetta Jade.
Spinetta Jade would prove to be a successful and innovative band; Spinetta was joined by some of the greatest Argentinan musicians of those and all times to help him build the new sound he was building since Invisible. The product: a blend of jazz and rock that was unseen in Argentina and that escaped the boom of symphonic rock that reached both the world and Argentina in the early 1980s. These four albums, Alma de Diamante (1980), Los Niños que Escriben en el Cielo (1981), Bajo Belgrano (a homage to the neighbourhood where he grew up, 1983) and the unforgettable Madre en Años Luz (1984), represent a defined style as well as the footprints of Spinetta´s evolution. Towards the last two albums, the sound became a little bit more "pop", and embedded with electronic elements (samplers and synthesisers with "artificial" textures). Something worth remarking: the overpowering influence and fame of Spinetta in the Argentinian rock world was only equalled by that of Charly García. Many fans and critics shared the feeling that the two musicians represented antagonistic styles and values. To show otherwise, Spinetta and Charly (with their respective bands at the moment, Jade and Serú Giran) joined efforts and gave what was probably the most important show in the history of Argentine Rock.
Dissolving Spinetta Jade in 1984, Spinetta shortly engaged in an album to be made together with Charly; yet, this would-be mythical work was abandoned. Of this interrupted work, two songs remained: "Rezo por Vos" and "Total Interferencia".
By 1982, Spinetta had restarted his solo projects, and from then on would never leave them. Kamikaze (1982) puts together a number of previously unreleased songs (one gem is a very old song he composed in 1965 called "Barro Tal Vez"). In Mondo Di Cromo (1983) Spinetta prefigures the style of his solo projects during the second half of the 1980s. His new production, from 1986 to 1993, would include four solo albums (Privé (1986), Téster de Violencia (1988), Don Lucero (1989), Pelusón of Milk (1991)), a joint album with Fito Páez, another giant of Rock Nacional (Sólo la la la (1986)), and the soundtrack of the movie "Fuego Gris" (named after the film, 1993). It is hard to describe this collection of wide albums with a single adjective. The style, the sound, the themes that Spinetta picks and uses with the dexterity of a veteran musician are broad enough to encompass rock, pop, some tango, jazz and bossa; they all sound 1980s like; they all sound Argentinian and reflect the difficult years of the new democracy (1983 onwards) and the contemporary thought about Argentina that is being made. Hope and failure, they are covered with the Porteño melancholy maybe more than Spinetta´s previous work.
After a long silence, produced mainly by Spinetta´s conflicts with the recording companies, he finally opens a new period in his music with his new band: Spinetta y los Socios del Desierto. Three years (1997-1999) and four albums later, Spinetta had created yet another legend in Argentinian rock. Two studio albums, the double Socios del Desierto (1997) and Los Ojos (1999) would bring along a new sound, much more dry and 1990s sounding. The band made an MTV Unplugged, Estrelicia (1998), that because of its softness and acoustic nature, wildly contrasts with their live album, San Cristóforo (1998). As Spinetta said at the beginning of the first concert, "Fans de lo acústico, abstenerse" ("Fans of acoustic music, refrain"). The speed and roughness of the sound recalls Pescado´s sound. Also, in 1998, Spinetta chose the featured songs and artwork of a Greatest Hits album called Elija y Gane, edited the same year.
The band dissolved quietly towards the end of 1999. Spinetta started a solo era that spawns until the present. Silver Sorgo (2001), Obras en Vivo (2002), a live album, and Para Los Árboles (2003) combine maturity with boldness. The changing and mostly tragic landscape of current Argentina powerfully affects the background of these works. In them, Spinetta has showed that his creative flame is anywhere but near of being extinguished.
On 23 December 2011 he published on the Twitter account of his son Dante that he was facing lung cancer. He died on February 8, 2012 in his native Argentina, at the age of 62. His ashes were scattered in the waters of the Río de la Plata, according to his last wish, next to the Memory Park built to remember the desaparecidos of the National Reorganization Process.
Sin Abandono
Luis Alberto Spinetta Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
el muñeco de marfil
y el sueña que sueña y se va...
carga con su día
y lo deja al volver,
ya nada lo fascina,
ha perdido su querer...
¿y cuántas lluvias más,
Cuerpo sin destino,
el que aspiras a tener,
se lo lleva el aire, y se lo das...
ya te arrodillaste delante de mí,
¿y qué dirá tu padre al despertar?
y esta vez tu amor será,
será sin abandono...
Todas las aves,
que había en tu alma,
llegaron a mí...
Todas las aves,
que había en tu alma,
llegaron a mí...
Hay un juez sin alma,
y mil ladrones de Abril,
llenan sus bocas con temor,
labra en tus entrañas,
una cruenta verdad,
"alma que se calla,
inundada estás sin mar"
Y el mar se abrió,
y su vino es negro y me atrapó,
y es que todas las horas,
no caen a tiempo,
en el lapso entre un hombre y la luz...
Hoy hace su gracia,
el muñeco de marfil
y el sueña que sueña y se va...
carga con su día,
y lo deja al regresar,
ya nada lo fascina,
ha perdido su querer...
! Y que increíble muerte azul,
para evitar tus ojos !...
The song "Sin Abandono" by Luis Alberto Spinetta tells the story of a person who feels lost and disconnected from life. The lyrics begin with the image of a doll made of ivory, which dreams and then disappears, leaving behind its empty and unfulfilled day. The singer's life has lost its sense of purpose, and nothing seems to fascinate them anymore. And yet, the question of how many more rains they will have to endure before finding rest hangs heavy in the air.
The lyrics then shift to the idea of the body as a vessel without direction, which is taken by the wind and given away. The singer has already kneeled before someone (presumably their lover) and wonders what their father will think when he wakes up. But this time, their love will be without abandonment. The chorus "All the birds that were in your soul, came to me" seems to suggest that the singer has found a place of safety and acceptance.
The third stanza introduces the image of a judge without a soul and a thousand thieves in April, who fill their mouths with fear. Here, the singer is further confronted with the harsh realities of existence, including the idea that when one's soul is silenced, they are drowning without water. The story culminates with the singer again dreaming and disappearing, but this time, their death is "amazingly blue" to avoid looking into someone's eyes.
Overall, the lyrics of "Sin Abandono" paint a portrait of a person who is struggling to find meaning and purpose in life. The song is a reflection on human emotions and how people can feel lost and disconnected from the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Hoy hace su gracia,
Today, the ivory doll is cheerful
el muñeco de marfil
the ivory doll
y el sueña que sueña y se va...
and it dreams and goes away...
carga con su día
carries its day
y lo deja al volver,
and leaves it upon return,
ya nada lo fascina,
nothing fascinates it anymore
ha perdido su querer...
it has lost its desire...
¿y cuántas lluvias más,
and how many more rains
habrá hasta el descanso?
will there be until the rest?
Cuerpo sin destino,
Body without destination,
el que aspiras a tener,
the one you aspire to have,
se lo lleva el aire, y se lo das...
the wind takes it away, and you give it back...
ya te arrodillaste delante de mí,
you have kneeled in front of me,
¿y qué dirá tu padre al despertar?
and what will your father say when he wakes up?
y esta vez tu amor será,
and this time your love will be
será sin abandono...
it will be without abandonment...
Todas las aves,
All the birds,
que había en tu alma,
that were in your soul,
llegaron a mí...
came to me...
Hay un juez sin alma,
There is a soulless judge,
y mil ladrones de Abril,
and a thousand April thieves,
llenan sus bocas con temor,
filling their mouths with fear,
labra en tus entrañas,
carve in your bowels,
una cruenta verdad,
a bloody truth,
"alma que se calla,
"a soul that remains silent,
inundada estás sin mar"
you are flooded without sea"
Y el mar se abrió,
And the sea opened up,
y su vino es negro y me atrapó,
and its wine is black and trapped me,
y es que todas las horas,
and it's because all the hours,
no caen a tiempo,
don't fall on time,
en el lapso entre un hombre y la luz...
in the gap between a man and the light...
Hoy hace su gracia,
Today, the ivory doll is cheerful,
el muñeco de marfil
the ivory doll,
y el sueña que sueña y se va...
and it dreams and goes away...
carga con su día,
carries its day,
y lo deja al regresar,
and leaves it upon return,
ya nada lo fascina,
nothing fascinates it anymore,
ha perdido su querer...
it has lost its desire...
! Y que increíble muerte azul,
! And what an incredible blue death,
para evitar tus ojos !...
to avoid your eyes!...
Contributed by Peyton E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Bosta Cósmica
La canción de todos en esta cuarentena .
Felipe Díaz
Grande Flaco!!!
Carlos Agustin Delbono
Que increíble la cantidad de pasajes bíblicos que hay en este disco.
Acaso quienes son los árboles?
Luis Torres
Los humanos?
Muriel tagle zuñiga
cancion ql mala