Guateque is the name that receives a get-together where young people met during the 60s and early 70s Spain. There was not a fixed place for celebrate a guateque. It could be done at the house of an organizer, at the garage, or at the open area, or even at the basements of a church. Participants heard music in the pick up, or “casetes ” in a tape player (the stereo player was a novelty then). Each one carried his own music, or sometimes music could be offered by two or more, but not all people did it. “El guateque” could be celebrated in any occasion, in a weekend, a birthday, a turn of the Army service, some boy friend celebrating anniversaries, in a local party, a national holiday, or any day off. It could be indoors or out in the open. Participants listened to the groups that I have uploaded in this blog. Or somebody sang with his guitar. The people currently drunk and, less, ate. Sometimes, “el guateque” was not the main part of a party, but complementary, and sometimes could assist majors and children. For example I assisted, toward 1973, and being a little boy, to a summer guateque celebrated at the riverbank of my village, in which my fathers, their friends, my uncles, and more people spent a very nice day together. In fact, the guateque did not have a defined and fixed format. And the most people that were assisting were friends and relatives. In a guateque, there were joy and laughs; and music was only a further complement. It was something like sharing a common privacy. The guateque was reproduced, at least in Andalucía, in the local parties during few days. The Town council usually celebrated the festivity of a Saint, or a Virgen with a-week event. Part of this event was celebrated in an open space given by the town council. In this space, the park in my town, or “recinto ferial”, there were a dance floor and a scene in a side. Each day, a famous band, or singer (depending of the money and the economic capacity of the town), played there during +/- two hours. After the show, a local band (e.g. “Horizontes”, with my uncle Alfonso on guitar), or a regional band, played few hours before the daybreak. In the mid 70s, the guateque as such disappeared, gave way to the boite, and later, to the disco.
Andrés Do Barro Lapique (1947-1989) was the exact image of the tragic feeling that much Galician people has. He physically died by an hepatic cancer, but he began to dye years before in his mind. From 1979 till his dead, he gone down a bit every day. In the mid 70s, he recorded his third LP, called Andrés Do Barro, but the same success he had before did not appears now. So, he moved to Mexico in 1976. He suddenly back to Spain, but he had serious problems, even for a low subsistence. He tried to sell a project for his fourth LP, but it failed. His personal friend Nonito Pereira, told in his book Historias, histerias y anécdotas musicales de La Coruña on the bad impression he suffered seeing to his friend Andrés at the Galician TV, in 1989: «It was pathetic. I had the sad feeling that Andrés, out of control, and attacking all people, he was committing a public suicide». A month later, the singer who reached the Galician pop to the top 1, died.He left behind a career vampirized by the high success of O Tren, an extremely exquisite folk-pop song. It is very difficult that public do not share its shameless felicity, a contradiction that perfectly reflects the Galician "morriña" (see in the blog Siniestro total, Miña terra galega). «Todo o que sexa amor e paz o atoparei e o terei coa miña moza no meu lar», All what love and peace be I will have with my love in my home. All Spanish people knows O tren.Andrés for ever!
Three friends from Sevilla, joined by humour and love to the chant: Eduardo Rodriguez, who travelled by Europe with his guitar, , Luis Moreno (Pibe, guitar), who lived in USA for few years playing with jazz bands, and Josele Moreno, who lived in France, and even participated in an international festival formed Los Payos (The name to whom gipsies call to the others), after back to Spain. With rumba rythm, they versioned "Adios Angelina" by Bob Dylan. Their success made them travel by France and England. "María Isabel" reached so success that became a 1969 disco hymn and tourists were buying this song as a postal card. In 1972 they decided to dissolve themselves. Eduardo was as a member of the famous band Triana, Luis go to band Alameda, and Josele formed a duet known as Yerbabuena.
Sandie Shaw (born Sandra Ann Goodrich, 26 February 1947) is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win theEurovision song contest. She has been described as "the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s".Long Live Love is a Chris Andrews composition which in 1965 afforded the second of her three UK #1 hits.She is, along with a lot of singers and bands, international stars that sung in Spanish, looking for a presence in Spain, and due to the high and efervescent moment that Spanish fashion had in music.
Los Hermanos Carrión is a 60s Mexican vocal band, hardly influenced by The Everly Brothers, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka and Del Shannon. Here is the version of Everly Brothers Unchained Melody.
María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz, (Madrid-Cuatro Caminos, October 4, 1944-Madrid-Torrelodones, March 25, 2006), was a Spanish actress and singer, artistically known as Rocío Dúrcal. She was the Spanish solist who sold more dics (75 millions till today). She was recognized as the main voice of the music style "rancheras". This song is one of her rare times she sing pop, and the main soudtrack of the Argentine-Spanish movie "Amor en el aire" (1967).I knew her a december 24 when she asked me for a photograph camera. She was driving in Hoyo de Manzanares with all her children at the bak seats. A beautiful woman.
Los Brincos is, possibly, one of the most famous pop-rock bands of the Spanish sixties. The band fristly tried the name of "Las ovejas negras"(black sheeps), the shame of the family, in reference to the opposite opinion of their fathers to their music activities. They started in 1964 in Madrid. Flamenco is one of their hits.
LOS MISMOS was a pop band from Valladolid composed by Elena Vázquez Minguela (Helena Bianco in her own music career), Antonio Pérez Gutiérrez, and Benjamín Santos Calonge. Founded in 1968, they recorded with Belter Company. They get a lot of hits, such as "El hombre del tiempo", "El domingo en mi pueblo", "Voy a pintar las paredes con tu nombre", "Don Juan", "Mil amores", "Catalina", "Pon una cinta en el viejo roble", "Lo hice por María", and "San Bernardino".They belonged to the Spanish style of doing pop music during the Sixities. That is, the mixed folk tunes with pop and rock rythms. They were a lot of bands and singers doing exactly the same, assuring by this way a base success, at least, in Spain. For more success they versioned international hits. Los Mismos themselves performed the 1973 Tony Orlando hit "Tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree" ("Pon una cinta en el viejo roble") (forthcoming)
Los Bravos playing Bring a little lovin. The original song was played by the Australians Easybeats (also known by the good stuff Friday on my mind). As for me, I prefer this song, better than Black is black, even being a performance. For your knowledge, Manolo Fernández (organ) commited suicide in 1968 by a shotgun, after the dead of his recent wife Low Rey ("Loti") in a car crash when he was the driver. Recently, Ricky Martin versioned this song. Enjoy!
Janette Anne Dimech, (London, October 5, 1951) is a British singer naturalized Spanish. Known as Jeanette, she sing in Spanish, but also in Catalan, English, Japanese, Portuguese, German, and French. She has 7 LP, and more than 70 Gold, Platinum and Diamond discs. She has duets with Julio Iglesias, José Luis Perales, Mocedades, Sacha Distel, Raphael, and Formula V. Also, she received a proposal for a duet with Michael Jackson, but she refused this saying that she sing another music. In 1974 she accept a new composition done by José Luís Perales (a famous Spanish composer and singer), singing the song I offer you all today: "¿Por qué te vas?". This beautiful song passed in silence during the next two years, till 1976, when it became the soundtrack of a famous Spanish movie, directed by Carlos Saura, and called "Cría cuervos". This year, Jeanette was invited to the Parisian Olympia, sharing scene with Julio Iglesias. "¿Por qué te vas?" sold 6.000.000 copies all over the world.By the way, "Cria cuervos" is the first part of a Spanish proverb (Cría cuervos, y te sacarán los ojos: Raise crows and they'll peck your eyes out) . It means that if you are raising children, then it can happens sometimes that those children will give you the cold shoulder once they're grown up. In general, it means that favors made to ungrateful persons will always be time lost.Enjoy this sweet voice.
