La balsa
"La balsa" is the debut single by the Argentine band Los Gatos, released on July 3, 1967 on Vik, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. Formed in 1967 after the disbandment of Los Gatos Salvajes, Los Gatos were the house band of the bar La Cueva, which became a popular meeting place for rock enthusiasts and the birthplace of Argentine rock—known locally as rock nacional. During the mid-to-late 1960s, Buenos Aires was experiencing a cultural blossoming characterized by innovations in modern art, literature and cinema, largely driven by a burgeoning youth subculture that adhered to the countercultural phenomenon of the decade. The underground had its center in La Cueva, Plaza Francia and the Torcuato di Tella Institute, and identified with British Invasion music. "La balsa" was written by Litto Nebbia—lead vocalist of the band—and Tanguito on May 2, 1967, in the men's toilet of La Perla de Once, another bar frequented by the group. At the time, Argentina was under a military dictatorship led by Juan Carlos Onganía, which regularly imprisoned and persecuted these young bohemians.
Released alongside the B-side "Ayer nomás"—written by Pipo Lernoud and Moris—"La balsa" became a major hit in Argentina and various Latin American countries, selling around 250,000 copies. It is a melodic, beat-influenced song, with prominent use of a Farfisa electronic organ and bossa nova elements attributed to Nebbia. Its sound—and commercial impact—reflected the loss of popularity of the nueva ola phenomenon and American rock 'n' roll, which began to be perceived as trivial. The success of "La balsa" was an unprecedented feat for Spanish-language rock, as it established its commercial viability at a time when the use of Spanish lyrics was frowned upon. Its release is generally considered to be the origin of Argentine rock, paving the way for bands such as Almendra and Manal—along with Los Gatos, these bands are considered the founders of the style. The popularity of "La balsa" turned Argentine rock into a widespread youth culture phenomenon, and was followed by the appearance of the first magazines, independent record labels and music festivals of the movement. The song also became an anthem for the burgeoning Argentine hippie movement, which grew in size and influenced this first stage of rock nacional.
The song has also been the subject of controversy, which prompted Nebbia to not perform it live until 2001. The 1973 release of Tango, Tanguito's only studio album, established a myth which suggested that he was the most important author behind the song, and that Nebbia had taken advantage of his fragile state of mind. The polemic was revived with the 1993 film Tango Feroz, which made Tanguito an icon but was criticized for its historical inaccuracies. The success of the single and the stardom of Los Gatos was also followed by a complex debate on "commercial music" and the negative implications that the creation of a mass market could have on the authenticity of rock acts. "La balsa" continues to be acclaimed in retrospective, being considered one of the most important and influential releases of Spanish-language rock music. In 2002, it was listed as the greatest song in the history of Argentine rock by MTV and the Argentine edition of Rolling Stone. In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the single's release in 2007, Los Gatos reunited and underwent a Latin American tour. It was also performed by Nebbia joined by several artists in 2010, as part of the Argentina Bicentennial celebrations.
Background
Previous developments in Argentine rock
Between 1955 and 1957, the porteño youth was introduced to rock 'n' roll music through films like Blackboard Jungle, Rock Around the Clock, Don't Knock the Rock and Rock, Rock Rock; becoming acquainted with American artists such as Bill Haley & His Comets, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. Mr. Roll y sus Rockers, a band led by Eddie Pequenino, recorded the first rock 'n' roll music of the country, covering various songs by Bill Haley and also writing original compositions in English. Like Billy Cafaro, another of the first Argentine rock 'n' roll musicians, Pequenino limited himself to imitating foreign artists. As it grew in popularity, rock 'n' roll music began to be embraced by young people, who began to veer away from tango, jazz, and the dance halls that until then they shared with their parents. According to Yanko González, "this initial rock represents, basically, a space of youthful fun that expresses itself through a dance with very provocative corporal movements for the time. There its transgression is established: in the audacity of its movements, in the expressive use of the body". In the early 1960s, Mexican band Los Teen Tops, originally led by singer Enrique Guzmán, gained popularity in Argentina and were influential in the development of an Argentine scene by introducing rock 'n' roll songs with Spanish lyrics. Other popular Mexican acts were Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Loud Jets, and the solo work of Enrique Guzmán. Until the release of "La balsa", singing rock music with Spanish lyrics was generally frowned upon, being considered "tacky" and "uncool", as the style was strongly associated with the English-speaking world.The early 1960s were also characterized by the emergence and success of the nueva ola, a phenomenon driven by the TV show, El club del clan that revolutionized the national youth music scene. Based on foreign music shows, each episode showed a group of friends that got together to perform various styles of music including rock 'n' roll, bolero and cumbia. Highly popular, El club del clan turned its young cast—which included Palito Ortega, Billy Caffaro, Violeta Rivas, Lalo Fransen, Nicky Jones and Cachita Galán—into the first national teen idols. The show was cancelled in 1964, with the similar Sábados circulares being its successor. Over time, there was a repudiation of the nueva ola, as it began to be overshadowed by the popularity of British Invasion bands. A feeling nonconformity also grew among the youth, that saw nueva ola music as too carefree and lacking in ideology. More transgressive than the singers from El club del clan, Sandro rose to stardom with the debut of his band Los de Fuego in 1963, which covered foreign rock 'n' roll songs in Spanish. With obvious inspiration from Elvis Presley, his popular performances on television caused accusations of immorality. Sandro abandoned rock 'n' roll in 1967 and turned to romantic ballads, although he had already established himself as a pioneer of Argentine rock.
By 1964, after The Beatles' performances in the United States, Beatlemania also reached Argentina, generating the appearance of several bands that imitated their sound and fashion. Local groups began to move away from the American and Mexican rock 'n' roll model in favour of a Beatlesque style and, gradually, Spanish-language songs. Billy Bond's band Los Guantes Negros, continuation of the Bobby Cats, is an example of this transition, featuring a new name and lyrics in Spanish and a sound inspired by the Beatles. However, the most successful band in using Beatles aesthetics were the Uruguayan Los Shakers, who were formed in 1963 and arrived to Buenos Aires two years later. Along with Los Mockers, they were part of the Uruguayan Invasion, a wave of bands from the neighboring country to find success in Argentina. They emerged as one of the first genuine rock products from the Río de la Plata, performing their own compositions. Although their decision to sing only in English prevented their popularity from extending beyond the decade, Los Shakers had a decisive influence so that rock music began to be produced in Argentina. Hugo Fattoruso of Los Shakers later stated: "It never occurred to us that we could make lyrics in Spanish. That was an Argentine invention." The TV show Escala musical "monopolized the whole beat music movement." It became the only program in the region to feature obscure local bands, and helped popularize the South American garage rock movement that had emerged in response to the Beatles, among them Los Gatos Salvajes, Los Larkins, and the Uruguayan Invasion bands. These groups could not find their place in El club del clan, which focused on a much more "sweetened and light" style than the new rock that emerged from London and the United States.
Counterculture, La Cueva and La Perla
In June 1966, the self-proclaimed Argentine Revolution overthrew Arturo Umberto Illia and established Juan Carlos Onganía as the de facto president. The military dictatorship aligned with the United States' National Security Doctrine, and began to control universities, trade unions and cultural events. In this context, the Argentine middle class youth was deeply impacted by Beatlemania, the international non-violence and anti-authoritarian movements, and the sexual revolution; symbolizing their identity with rock music and a unisex point of view, with long hair on men as one of its most prominent exteriorizations. The years leading to the 1960s had been characterized by an increase in the cultural activity of the city. For instance, the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1956; while 1958 saw the creation of the National Institute of Cinematography, the Fondo Nacional de las Artes and the Torcuato di Tella Institute, while the construction of the Teatro General San Martín advanced, which would be inaugurated in 1960. This, coupled with the high quality of university education at that time, left an enduring imprint on the artistic and intellectual development of the country during the following years. A generation gap begun to be evident, characterized by young people's rejection of tango and the double standards of their parents' traditional sexual morality. An underground youth subculture began to appear in Buenos Aires, with its epicenter in the triangle formed by a precarious musical bar called La Cueva in Avenida Pueyrredón, the Torcuato di Tella Institute in Florida Street, and Plaza Francia. Today considered the first hippies of the country, they adhered to the youth-led counterculture of the decade, which was spreading throughout much of the Western world. Deemed immoral and suspicious, these people — especially long-haired young men — suffered frequent police detention, media criticism, and the rejection of the intelligentsia and the mostly conservative population. Pipo Lernoud stated in 1996: "That is the particular thing that Argentine rock has. Not only was it a musical style but it was a culture that always faced repression by the system."Under the direction of art critic Jorge Romero Brest, during the decade the Torcuato di Tella Institute became a leading center of avant-garde art production, with young artists venturing into pop art, happenings, installation art, and psychedelic art, as well as featuring folk and beat musical performances. It was a central part of the "manzana loca", which " nearby art galleries, book shops, and university buildings". The area also "served as a human showcase of the latest fashions and styles". On the other hand, the rock music scene mostly met in La Cueva or gathered in parks such as Plaza Francia to play their guitars, something musician Miguel Cantilo described as, "an act of affirmation and identification," because until then, traditional guitar-playing gatherings were reserved to folk music. In Víctor Pintos' biography of Tanguito, Rocky Rodriguez recalled: "La Cueva was totally like a Babel, it was like those biblical stories of the desert, where caravans come from various sides, and they all land in the same place." Among the group were musicians such as Los Gatos, Moris, Javier Martínez, Billy Bond, Los Búhos, Las Sombras, Tanguito, Miguel Abuelo, Pajarito Zaguri; writers like Miguel Grinberg, Juan Carlos Kreimer and Pipo Lernoud, and other bohemian artists and poets. In 1966, this generation created a new style of urban youth music, which tried to reflect an everyday reality absent from popular music since the tango era. It was initially known as "beat music" and later "progressive music", and is now considered the origin of rock nacional. They mostly emulated the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, although there were also influences from Los Teen Tops, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Frank Zappa. They were also influenced by the Beat Generation writers. La Cueva was very popular among porteño bohemians, and its existence even came to be known in Paris, prompting Juliette Gréco to visit the bar while in Buenos Aires. It has been compared to The Cavern Club of Liverpool, England. In 2005, Lernoud reflected:
It was in La Cueva where rock nacional really started. Without La Cueva's ferment, that mixture of musical, literary and ideological influences, rock would have been one more on the continent, another pale reflection of English ideas. There is no history of rock, poetry, and struggle in the continent, with the exception of Brazil, as in Argentina, nor in Europe outside England. Because the cultural isolation imposed by the successive dictatorships and the multiplicity of rock influences, produced an original hybrid that was born there, in the late 1965 and early 1966...
As a quieter alternative to La Cueva, its musicians also began to go to La Perla de Once, a bar facing Plaza Miserere that remained open throughout the night. It was frequented by students and several members of the rock underground, and was a site of ideological and artistic discussion. Lernoud recalled in 2017: "We had no choice but to get together because we were arrested in the street, for our long hair, for our clothes... And our parents did not want to know anything about those friends. Only in La Perla we could be calm, between equals." In addition to "La balsa", well known songs such as Manal's "Jugo de tomate" and Tanguito's "El hombre restante" were written in La Perla. Unlike what happened in North America or the United Kingdom, illegal drugs had a marginal place within the Argentine youth movement, which was more oriented towards the sexual revolution and the guidelines on personal presentation. Nevertheless, various rock musicians began to experiment with amphetamines, a drug that was frequently used by the students in La Perla. Tanguito was one of the first of the group to take drugs, and developed a serious drug dependence that would affect the rest of his life.
Los Gatos were formed in Buenos Aires in 1967, deriving from the band Los Gatos Salvajes. Originally called The Wild Cats, they were formed in 1964 and eventually translated their name into Spanish and "began performing songs in their native tongue". Basilio "Turco" Adjaydie, Guillermo Romero and Juan Carlos "Chango" Pueblas had decided to leave the band and return to hometown Rosario, following the cancellation of TV show Escala musical in 1966, where the band performed, as well as the commercial failure of their 1965 debut album, which led to the record company going broke. In Rosario, Nebbia had become acquainted with foreign rock and pop through his admiration of the Beatles and Neil Sedaka. With Rosario being a port city, the group also had access to recordings by English bands such as the Kinks, the Zombies and the Hollies, as well as the magazine Melody Maker. Through his musician parents, Nebbia was also knowledgeable of jazz artists such as Chico Hamilton, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck and Eric Dolphy, and was aware of Brazilian bossa nova since its emergence. Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that " music reflected their enthusiasm for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds; the major British groups had a following in South America, but the few Argentine rock acts were older and had yet to embrace the new sounds in music, putting the young band ahead of the trends." Regarding the music of Los Gatos Salvajes, Nebbia recalled in 2006:
In that time of adolescence, the music that got played in the radio was very commercial, a music that was not representative of what one wanted sound-wise. Neither the lyrics, they were European or American songs with a Spanish version that did not sound the way we spoke, plus they did not talk about the things we needed, that happened to us as teenagers. So when we started playing with Los Gatos Salvajes and I took my first compositions, those songs were very puerile because of the age that I had, but they did have a sound, a rhythm and a way to engage the lyrics that was totally different for the time. The point was the merseybeat, the beat we gave to the guitars.
Only lead singer Litto Nebbia and organ player Ciro Fogliatta stayed in Buenos Aires, and slept for months in public squares while trying to put together a new group. Eventually, they were joined by guitar player Kay Galiffi and drummer Oscar Moro, who were also from Rosario. Alfredo Toth, from Avellaneda, became the final addition to the group after Nebbia taught him how to play the bass. Los Gatos became the house band of La Cueva, performing every night from ten in the evening until four in the morning, and receiving a small salary with which they could pay a crowded pension in Once and barely eat. "La balsa" co-writer Tanguito, born José Alberto Iglesias de Caseros, was one of the most influential figures within the La Cueva underground. He made his musical debut in the spring of 1963 as the fronmant of Los Dukes. After leaving the band and aborting a solo project under the stage name Ramsés VII, Tanguito came to know La Cueva through friend Horacio Martínez, and throughout the following years became a fixture of Buenos Aires' rock scene. Tanguito was an admirer of Donovan and Bob Dylan, and his musical style was rooted in Mexican artists like the Teen Tops and Enrique Guzmán. There was a strong mutual influence between Nebbia, Moris and Tanguito; the latter making an impact in the scene for his emotion-driven, less intellectual approach to music, as well as his uncompromising ideas and personal style.
Besides rock music, the new generation "was nurtured by and participated in" renovative musical movements such as tango nuevo and nueva canción. The city's cultural blossoming of the mid-1960s also extended to literature, as part of the Latin American Boom. It consisted of a blossoming of book publications, readership and literary criticism. The city also became a "cinephile capital". In particular, the Lorraine cinema became popular among college students for its art film cycles, which included French New Wave and Ingmar Bergman movies. Another place of interest for film culture was Núcleo film society, created in 1954 and led by Salvador Samaritano and Héctor Vena; they also published the film magazine Tiempo de cine since 1960. This diffusion of foreign cinema's new trends led to the emergence of the Generation of the 60s, a new wave of young directors who created Modernist films. The movement included Manuel Antín, Fernando Birri, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson and Rodolfo Kuhn. The latter's 1963 film Los inconstantes was filmed in Villa Gesell, and its depiction of young, modern people with a free lifestyle prompted many teenagers to go the coastal city. Several members of La Cueva headed to Villa Gesell, where Los Beatniks were formed and recorded their 1966 debut single, "Rebelde". The rebellious, antimilitarist song failed to make an impact, but became the first Argentine rock release.