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Discography
Members featured in the album
CHARLY GARCÍA - Keyboards and vocals
DAVID LEBON - Guitar and vocals
PEDRO AZNAR - Bass
OSCAR MORO - Drums
Members featured in the album
CHARLY GARCÍA - Keyboards and vocals
DAVID LEBON - Guitar and vocals
PEDRO AZNAR - Bass
OSCAR MORO - Drums
Members featured in the album
CHARLY GARCÍA - Keyboards, electric and acoustic guitar and vocals
DAVID LEBON - Electric and acoustic guitar and vocals
PEDRO AZNAR - Bass, keyboards, electric guitar and vocals
OSCAR MORO - Drums and percussion
Biography
Usually called the "Argentine Beatles " Seru Giran biggest virtue was to turn the rock into a massive phenomenon.. Although it was not the first "super-band", it was the first that succeeded both in the lower class and in the upper middle class, "for the rockers and the snobs as well" according to the vocabulary of the moment. With records in terms of sales and number of spectators in their shows, this group was able to mix various musical styles, achieving a unique sound, typical of the transition between decades.
The popularity of this group can also be seen in the - now traditional - surveys of the magazine Pelo. Serú Girán was winner in the category of Best Guitarist, Best Keyboardist, Best Bass player, Best Drummer, Best Composer (García) and best live Group in the years 1978, '79, '80 and '81. Besides they were awarded Revelation Group of 1978; Best Singer (Lebón) '80 and '81; best song of '78 ("Seminare") and '81("Peperina") and Best Album of 1978 ("Serú Girán"). This phenomenon has never been equaled so far.
After some arguments in La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, Charly García decided to leave the band and traveled to Brazil with |David Lebon1, his friend from the time of Sui Generis. With the money they collected in the Love Festival (Luna Park Stadium, 11/11/1977) they rented a house for three months in Buzios, north of Río de Janeiro. Due to their lack of money to pay the customs duties, all their equipment was retained by the customs
Two months later Charly returned to Buenos Aires to sign a contract with Oscar Lopez and |Billy Bond|. One night, in a pub where Pastoral used to play, Charly was dazzled by Aznar’s ability at playing the bass. He waited until the end of the show and went to talk to him behind stage. It didn’t take him too long time to convince Pedro to travel with him to Brazil and to become a member of the group that was being born. «...When I saw the way Pedro played the bass, my jaw fell to my knee. I thought this guy is very good, he is almost better than me», recalls David.
With the money they had been given in advance for the contract, they bought their tickets to San Pablo as well as Oscar Moro’s, whom they had already convinced to accompany them. There they met with |David Lebon|. «That very night we played together for the fist time and we decided to form Serú Girán» (Charly García).
Despite the economic problems, it was a very creative and fruitful phase: they wrote more than 15 songs, from which they chose the best to make they first record.
The recording sessions started in the studio "El Dorado" of San Pablo, and finished in ABC Recording Studios of Los Angeles, USA.
For the album "Seru Giran" (1978) they had the collaboration of Daniel Goldberg, who was in charge of the musical arrangements as well as conducting the orchestra of 24 musicians which participated in songs like "Eti-Leda" or "Seru Giran". The harmonic complexity of the project demonstrates that, from the beginning, the ambitions they had were higher than those of the rest of the national musicians of the moment.
The final result of the album encouraged them a lot: it sounded like a jazz- rock fusion with Brazilian Music. Pedro recalls: «...when the album came out, the press paid a lot of a attention, it was a hell of a case... it was a great success». Pelo magazine, one of the specialized publications of the moment, said: «" Seru Giran" is a compact album, with an extremely polished production, though it is less compact than |La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros|. (...) Seru Giran starts with a good album. Music that surpasses the new horizons of García and with new musicians to play with.» (Pelo Nº104).
The first Seru Giran’s live concert took place on the De La Plata River, on board an anchored ship. This concert attended only by journalists, musicians and friends – aimed to see the feedback of the specialized press. That night the group proved to be solid and meaningful, it was apparently opening doors to the massive public immediately. The first live concert of the band before the public of Buenos Aires took place two weeks later, on July 28 1978, at Luna Park Stadium, with an orchestra (string and wind section) and a closed TV circuit. At the back of the stage, there was a huge screen that showed the musicians on their way to the stage. David, Pedro and Oscar came out totally dressed in white, while Charly chose to wear black trunks, a coat and sneakers. The beginning of the concert, with the whole orchestra playing the powerful introduction to the song "Seru Giran", it forecast a unforgettable night. It was not like that. When they played the song "Disco Shock"- a satire of disco music, on fashion at the moment – the people thought they meant it and after booing at the song, they asked García to play "Blues del Levante", the song he had written when |Sui Generis| said goodbye. The public was stunned and during the rest of the concert there was a general indifference. Either the people had not understood the message or Seru had been unable to communicate it.
The criticism of the media against the group was total. The newspaper La Opinión, for example, wrote that it was the worst group of Argentine, and they stated that they had « homosexual voices». Those statements were part of a campaign to criticize the group while they were in Brazil rehearsing. The vanguard of that campaign had been the headline: «Charly García, idol or what?»
For their second album, "La Grasa de las Capitales" (1979), Serú chose a more direct proposal. They eliminated the orchestra, which had not been widely accepted by the public, and they wrote simpler and more direct songs.
The critics of Pelo magazine were quite positive: «"La Grasa..." is a record that will create admirers and detractors alike. On the one hand, some will welcome a new García who left the complexity and returned to the social critic, very well developed in the past. On the other hand, some will condemn the simplicity as a lack of progress. Anyhow, it is one off the best achieved albums of the year.» (Pelo No 122).
The break-up rumors turned useless when they presented the long-play, by means of six concerts held at the Buenos Aires Auditorio, after touring the cities of Córdoba, San Luis and Mendoza. After their initial frustrating experience, not to be highly exposed and the chose a small place.
The show started with complete darkness, while it was heard the playback the introductory choir to the song "La Grasa ...". After that, all the light were turned on and the band appeared on stage. "Viernes 3 AM" , " Perro Andaluz" and "Los Sobrevivientes" were the songs most celebrated by the public. There was also a moment of nostalgia: "Seminare" and "Eti-Leda" were highly accepted by the people, during the encores. Due to the many concerts and their tenacity, Seru was able to revert the opinion of the critic and the public as well. From then on a massive phenomenon was born and is still alive today.
The next album by Seru Giran was called "Bicicleta" (1980). Some years later, such album was considered the best record of the group, it was even compared to "Abbey Road", the innovating twelfth LP by the Beatles. However, at that moment, the specialized media» did not give too much importance to the record. For example, Pelo commented: «...the third album by Seru Giran will probably follow the success of the previous ones, but it is hard that "Bicicleta" represents the power of the band fully. (...) Seru Giran reached their highest point on stage, but they still need a long way to go in the studios». (Pelo No 139).
The album "Bicicleta" – name originally proposed by Charly as a possible name for the group, was rejected by the rest – it was presented at Obras, on June 6 and 7 1980. On stage the public could see bicycle wheels, rabbits and flowers, which caught the attention of the audience and the press, because it was the first group who really cared about their show on stage. That happened because Seru Giran had hire a Renata Schussheim, an old friend of Charly’s, to be in charge of the stage production, As from "Bicicleta", Seru Giran started with their big shows.
One month later, in August 1980, they played at Monterrey Jazz Festival, in Río de Janeiro. Traditionally, the argentine representatives in that festival were more connected with jazz or tango than with the progressive rock offered by Serú. That year the concert was divided in two parts . In the first, Seru, the guitarist Pat Metheny and George Duke played. The success obtained by the Argentines in that show was so big, that the organizers offered them to play again in the second part – the main part – together with John McLaughlin, Hermeto Pascoal, Edgberto Gismonti and Weather Report. «When McLaughlin played, the people skated and threw paper planes. I wanted to die! If the do that to McLaughlin they will eat us alive», recalls García. However, such prediction turned out to be wrong. The main reason of the favorable answer of the public was the variety of shades in the songs played by them and, furthermore, some of them lured the people to dance
This festival marked two very important events for the life of the group. On the one hand, they became popular and they stopped being just a good impression among the Brazilians, also highlighted by the Argentine press (Clarín, 28/08/80). On the other hand, Pat Metheny met |Pedro Aznar| there: the beginning of the end.
At the end of the year, two other landmarks in the History of the National Rock included the group. The first, was two concerts (12 and 13 of September) where they played together with |Spinetta Jade|. It was a historic event that two groups of such magnitude played together on stage.
When |Luis Alberto Spinetta| appeared and started playing the song by |Sui Generis| "Cuando ya me empiece a quedar solo", the people understood that it was not a common concert. Then, out of the darkness, appeared Charly with the song "Que ves el cielo". With an emotional atmosphere, Lebón played "Música del alma" and then entered all the rest: Aznar and Moro, on one side, Spinetta, Pomo, Satragni and Rapoport and Del Barrio on the other. They all played song by the group led by the "Skinny"), and the people applauded to death. The concert ended with both groups together on stage performing "El mendigo en el andén" and "Crisálida".
The performance of Spinetta Jade had a great feedback form the audience, despite its difficult style. It was notorious Spinetta’s effort to simplify his music so that the audience of Obras could understand his message. Seru Giran, instead, was cheered from the very beginning, demonstrating once again the «feeling» they had with the people.
Another important event took place at The Rural. On December 30, 60,000 people, according to the Federal Police, met to listen the number one band: «... The Rural was fully packed. A long line (...) reached Pacífico Railway Station. Although the Police did not understand the lyrics to "Alicia en el País", sung over and over again, they detained a bunch of guys. The producers negotiated and finally on that December 30 nobody was detained (Ramos / Lejbowicz, pág.23). García commented: «...as regards concerts and the arrests the people finally realized that the worst thing that could happen to them was to spend the night at the police station but nobody could stop the music ». (Humor, year 1981).
In 1981 the de facto president Roberto Viola tried to reach the musicians intelligently, using their strong influence they had on youth, in order to show the country the "affliction" for the problems of the young.. The musicians could not believe it. Spinetta remembers an anecdote about it: «I told them something and also I suggested them to build the biggest observatory of the world... a delirium, but what was I gonna tell them?» (Berti, pág.60). In the song "Encuentro con el diablo", |David Lebon| made fun of such meeting: «nunca pensé encontrarme con el jefe / en su oficina de tan buen humor / pidiéndome que diga lo que pienso / qué es los que pienso yo de esta situación.» (I never imagined meeting the boss/in his office in such a good mood/ asking me what I thought/ about the situation)
"Peperina" (1981), the fourth album by Seru Giran, which they had started recording in April, was released at the end of the year. The history of Peperina is well known: «Quiero contarles una buena historia / la de una chica que vivió la euforia / de ser parte del rock / tomando té de peperina»(I want to tell you a nice story/ about an euphoric girl, who was part of the rock taking Peperina Tea). The song is about a girl who wrote rock articles in Córdoba. Every time Seru played in such city, she said the show was an «embarrassment ». Needless to say that, despite her terrible critics, they always played in sold out stadiums. It is said that when she heard "her" song for the first time, she said that she still didn’t like Seru Giran but that García was "a good sociologist " (?).
As regards the album, Charly said it was a remarkable advance in terms of its recording quality. However, the magazine Pelo did not like it very much: «Peperina does not impress much as an album. There are songs that clearly differentiate the level, lyrics and music. (...) It has similarities with all the music of Serú: melancholic songs, nice melodies with some hot riff with the same production mistakes they have been making since their first album (...). The record will not let the fans down, but it doesn’t have the homogeneity of "La Grasa..." and asks the same question regarding the future (...) The difficult moment has come: to be on the top and whatever they do can make them fall or settle down». (Pelo Nº154).
On the contrary, Gloria Guerrero, in the issue no. 63 of Humor magazine, said: «The album, all I could listen was great and it doesn’t surprise me». In the next issue, she said: «...probably, "Peperina" does not represent a huge step forward after their previous work. It seems, to be honest, something like a " supplementary album " of "Bicicleta", though a little more loose and spontaneous».
On September 4, 5 and 6 the album was presented at Obras stadium. In honor to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's, Seru Giran came out on stage with a simple show simple. This simplicity made possible that the conjunction music-image had no problem. At the beginning, when Charly and David composed the songs of this record, García thought it was all about a movie and not a long-play. That’s why he had the idea of having a huge screen on stage, projecting videos specially recorded for the event and the idea that the group would play in the twilight, accompanied by those images. Since the ceiling of the stadium was too low it was impossible to carry it out. The screen would cover most of the stage and they would be barely seen. Finally such idea was declined.
In order to say goodbye to that year, they played on December 25, 26 and 27 at the Coliseo Theatre, Downtown. For those shows, Charly hired the group Bay Biscuits, a group of theatre-rock formed with Vivi Tellas, Mayco Castro Volpe, Lisa Wakoluk, Diana Nylon and Fabiana Cantilo (the latter would later become the stable chorister of Charly’s band). Such performance would be in the middle of the concert and they were booed and insulted in every possible way.
In January '81 |Pedro Aznar| was called by the American guitarist Pat Metheny asking him to join his band. They agreed to meet in the USA, since Pedro would travel the following year to study at Berkley University. That event would mean the end of the band.
The critics of the previous records had something in common: Seru, in studios, lacked the strength and energy they had live. It was necessary to wait until the group broke up (at least at that moment the break up was for good) to be able to get such material.
«When Pedro told me he was leaving, I felt really bad - recalls Charly- because we had a group that sounded quite well (...) We had a lot of communication with the people (...) Besides, some doors were opening in Europe and without him we couldn’t do it. On the other hand, Pedro is a musician who is above the level here in Argentina now (1982) and it was nice to play with somebody like him. But at the same time I felt well because Pedro has other life perspectives and other musical tastes. He wants to fulfil himself as a person , and I think that’s great.». (Pelo Nº160).
When Aznar told the group he was leaving, they all decided to take some time to think things over. So Charly went to Brazil to work on his first solo album; David took some time off in Punta del Este and Oscar stayed in Buenos Aires. The following month (February 1982), the four musicians met to tour the Atlantic Coast: San Bernardo, Villa Gesell, Necochea, Pinamar, Miramar, Santa Teresita and, obviously, Mar del Plata were the palces chosen by the band. The end of the group was getting closer.
But the history of the group deserved a golden end: it was necessary a Goodbye Seru Giran. It had to be a great concert and it was organized for March 6 and 7 at Obras Sanitarias, the Cathedral of Rock. In that opportunity, the group «...sounded best than ever and the performance of the musicians on stage was unforgettable, though they were recording live. Charly, David, Pedro and Oscar offered a solid show, vibrant and moving, where the public could see a rocker style in the group. |Pedro Aznar| was bid a great farewell, because although his musical tastes were different form the ones from the group and the people in general, he gave Seru (...) a very particular and distinctive sound ». (Legends Nº7).
"No llores por mí, Argentina" (1982) ended up being a live compilation of the hits of the band, except for the song with the same name and "Popotitos", a cover del clásico tema.of a classic
As regards the album, Gloria Guerrero comments: «...there were three reasons (to wait for this LP). The first, to record the last testimony of Pedro Aznar’s participation. The second, to experience the sound of Seru Giran live. The third, to have the new tracks handy: "No llores por mí..." and "Pena en mi corazón" (...) The last piece of work by Seru Giran-quartet, has all the historic value and the quality of the group ». (Humor Nº84).
"No llores ..." is a strong song, which in a way summarizes that moment, a kind of balance – don’t forget it was made in 1982, during the Malvinas War (Falkland), the end of the military government and the appearance of the Democracy – like a protest and reproach at the same time, a style that would bring García a lot of success in the following years.
Although at the beginning the considered the possibility of continuing as a trio (Lebon playing guitar and bass) in the search of somebody else for the live concerts, the lack of motivation was evident and the project was not supported. Lebon was working on his solo project "El tiempo es veloz" and García was working on his double album "Yendo de la cama al living / Pubis angelical".
On May 16 1982, Seru participated at Festival de la Solidaridad Americana, organized for 60.000 people at the hockey field at Obras, to collect elements for the Argentine soldiers that suffered in Malvinas and to thank the countries that had supported Argentina. Broadcast live on radio and television, very important musicians of the moment participated: what were left of Seru Giran, León Gieco, |Spinetta Jade|, Raúl Porchetto, |Nito Mestre|, and many others.
Since the middle of 1991 they started thinking about Seru’s return. «The idea is to overcome a remembrance. - Said García at that time – We have been working for a long time in order not to lose the greatness, so that the person who once saw Seru Giran sees it again an he is not disappointed and so that the teenagers who never saw it has a flash of what the group was». That’s exactly what happened. "Serú '92" is, without any doubt, the worst album of the band. More pop, a bit "light", with lack of commitment.
However it was a commercial success, with sales that exceeded 200.000 copies and packed shows in Rosario, Córdoba and two in downtown, these last two with 160.000 people were released in two new LPs. Although Seru did not want to make a profit with their return – and it was completely outside their plans. «Let’s’ finish the division between the spirit and the matter. It’s all the same: we feel a great pleasure at playing and that has a price that many people will surely pay. One thing does not exclude the other» (|Pedro Aznar| to Clarín, 03/05/92). "Was it for money? Of course it was for money... among other things. We are not going to play in River for nothing. Obviously you have to defend yourself and once you are up there you must do something. And I think we did it pretty well. The money is just one more thing, if you don’t have it, you can’t have the show". (García a Clarín, 21/01/93).
There was also a doubt whether their return would only mean those shows or whether it would continue with a non-stop project abruptly interrupted in 1982. Before the show, nobody dared confirm anything, maybe because they didn’t even know it. During the encores of the second and last show of the band in Buenos Aires, a fight came up between García of strong personality and the natural leader of the group, |David Lebon|.
, fed up with García’s wish to stand out always. |Pedro Aznar|’s mediation was necessary so that the guitarist could go on stage again and everybody, said goodbye for good to the live concerts.
In short, it was a moment where everybody (inside and outside) pretended time had not gone by . In that way, Seru Giran’s return was positive. The explosion of the fireworks closed the show creating some melancholy, burying the band forever.
In 1995 a new compilation came out, "Oro", taking advantage of the release of the movie "Peperina", directed by Raúl de la Torre and starred by Andrea del Boca in the role of Patricia Perea (the real Peperina). This film has some documentay of Seru’s return in 1992.
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