DRIVING WITH LA MOVIDA: THE ROCK ‘N’ ROAD AESTHETICS OF LOQUILLO'S ROCK IBÉRICO1

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. I would like to thank Yajaira Padilla, Paul Sneed, and Alberto Villamandos Villamandos , Alberto. “Paseo con la negra flor: Sujetos subalternos en la canción popular de la movida.” Memoria colonial e inmigración: La negritud en la España posfranquista Rosalía Cornejo Parriego. Barcelona : Bellaterra , 2007 . 103 23 . [Google Scholar] for their useful feedback on earlier versions of this article. 2. The project “La Movida”, organized by Blanca Sánchez Berciano Sánchez Berciano , Blanca. La Movida . Madrid : Comunidad de Madrid , 2007 . [Google Scholar] and funded by the Comunidad de Madrid between the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, brought the movida again into public view. The activities of the project included: a Ciclo de Cine (at the Círculo de Bellas Artes between 1 December 2006 and 17 February 2007), a series of concerts at the Sala Sol (between 8 and 31 January 2007, including bands such as Aviador DRO, Burning, Loquillo y los Trogloditas, and Siniestro Total), and a series of roundtable discussions on arts such as photography, sculpture, music, and film. See the volume La Movida, edited by Blanca Sánchez Berciano Sánchez Berciano , Blanca. La Movida . Madrid : Comunidad de Madrid , 2007 . [Google Scholar], for an account of all the activities of this project. 3. Many accounts on the movida have focused on mapping the general atmosphere of the times, relying mostly on personal memories and interviews with some of the participants (Gallero Gallero, José Luis. 1991. Sólo de vive una vez: Esplendor y ruina de la movida madrileña, Madrid: Ardora. [Google Scholar], Grijalba Grijalba, Silvia. 2006. Dios salve a la Movida, Madrid: Espejo de Tinta. [Google Scholar], Laiglesia Laiglesia, Juan Carlos de. 2003. Ángeles de neón. Fin de siglo en Madrid (1981–2001), Madrid: Espasa Calpe. [Google Scholar], Lechado Lechado, José Manuel. 2005. La Movida: Una crónica de los 80, Madrid: Algaba Ediciones. [Google Scholar]). Within academia, the field of Spanish cultural studies has produced compelling inquiries, such as the study of the figure of Alaska (Allinson “Alaska”; Bermúdez Bermúdez , Silvia. “Rocking the Boat: The Black Atlantic in Spanish Pop Music from the 1980s and the 90s.” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 5 2001 : 177 93 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] “La apuesta”), and the magazines La Luna (Larson, Smith) and Madriz (Pérez-Sánchez Pérez-Sánchez, Gema. 2007. Queer Transitions in Contemporary Spanish Culture: From Franco to la Movida, Albany: SUNY UP. [Google Scholar]). 4. Aside from a few articles that analyse concrete songs, mostly along the lines of studying the representation of gender (Pavlovic Pavlovic , Tatjana. “Travistiendo La voz: la poética de la movida madrileña.” Sexualidad y escritura (1850–2000) Raquel Medina and Barbara Zecchi. Barcelona : Anthropos , 2004 . 235 45 . [Google Scholar]), racial issues (Marí, Villamandos Villamandos , Alberto. “Paseo con la negra flor: Sujetos subalternos en la canción popular de la movida.” Memoria colonial e inmigración: La negritud en la España posfranquista Rosalía Cornejo Parriego. Barcelona : Bellaterra , 2007 . 103 23 . [Google Scholar]) and immigration (Bermúdez Bermúdez , Silvia. “Rocking the Boat: The Black Atlantic in Spanish Pop Music from the 1980s and the 90s.” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 5 2001 : 177 93 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Carlos José Ríos Longares's Ríos Longares , Carlos José. Y yo caí…enamorado de la moda juvenil. La movida en las letras de sus canciones . Alicante : Editorial Agua Clara , 2001 . [Google Scholar] Y yo caí…enamorado de la moda juvenil (2001) and Héctor Fouce's El futuro ya está aquí (2006) are, at least to my knowledge, the only two wide-ranging academic studies of the movida from a musical point of view, in both cases focusing on the lyrics of the songs. Recently, as part of the nostalgic revival of the movida, a few books have appeared concentrating on specific bands and artists, such as Alaska (Cervera Cervera, Rafael. 2003. Alaska y otras historias de la movida, Barcelona: Mondadori. [Google Scholar], Vaquerizo Vaquerizo, Mario. 2001. Alaska, Valencia: La Máscara. [Google Scholar]), Gabinete Caligari (Rodríguez Lenin Rodríguez Lenin , Jesús. Gabinete Caligari. El lado más chulo de la movida . Madrid : Temas de Hoy , 2004 . [Google Scholar]), Loquillo y los Trogloditas (Koska, Puchades), Mecano (Adrados and del Amo Adrados , Javier , and Carlos del Amo. Mecano. La fuerza del destino . Madrid : La esfera de los libros , 2004 . [Google Scholar]), Nacha Pop (Fernández de Castro Fernández de Castro, Alejandro. 2002. Nacha Pop: Magia y precisión, Lleida: Milenio. [Google Scholar]), and Radio Futura (Puig and Talens, Tango Puig , Luis , and Jenaro Talens. “Los motivos del rock: La propuesta sonora de Santiago Auserón.” Canciones de Radio Futura . Santiago Auserón. Valencia : Pre-Textos , 1999 . [Google Scholar]). However, most of these monographs—with the exception of the studies on Radio Futura—are biographical instead of analytical, presenting the bands within the overall context of the movida but lacking detailed analysis of their musical and cultural impact. 5. José María Sanz's artistic name, Loquillo, refers to his wild personality—“loco”—and comes from the animated cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker, called “El Pájaro Loco” in Spain. Woody Woodpecker was a character created by Ben Hardway in the Walter Lantz animation studio in the 1940s, and distributed by Universal Pictures. 6. Loquillo y Los Intocables (1980–81) included Loquillo (lead vocal), Sabino Méndez (backing vocal, guitar, and composer) and Xavier Juliá (guitar). They released an album, Los tiempos están cambiando (Cúspide, 1980), and the singles “Rock ‘n’ roll star” and “Esto no es Hawai” (Cúspide, 1981), and “Autopista” (1982). Loquillo y Los Trogloditas (1983–2007) included Loquillo (lead vocals), Sabino Méndez (backing vocals, guitar and main composer), Ricard Puigdomenech (guitar), Josep Simón (bass), and Jordi Vila (drums). Other members throughout the years also include Sergio Fece (keyboard, 1987–2005), Xavi Tacker (guitar, 1988–1993 and 2002–2003), Gabriel Sopeña (composer, guitar, 1991–2007), Jordi PG (guitar, 1994–2002), Enric Illa (drums, 1994–1998), Guillermo Martín (guitar and back vocals, 2003/2006). They released eighteen albums, three of them live: El ritmo del garaje (Tres Cipreses, 1983), ¿Dónde estabas tú en el 77? (Tres Cipreses/DRO, 1984), La mafia del baile (Hispavox, 1985), Mis problemas con las mujeres (Hispavox, 1987), Loquillo & Sabino 1981–1984 (Tres Cipreses/DRO, 1987), Morir en primavera (Hispavox, 1988), A por ellos … que son pocos y cobardes (Hispavox, 1989, live album), Hombres (Hispavox, 1991), Mientras respiremos (Hispavox, 1993), Tiempos asesinos (Hispavox, 1996), Simplemente lo mejor (compilation CD, 1997), Compañeros de viaje (Hispavox, 1997, live), Loquillo y los Trogloditas 1978–1998 (compilation CD, Hispavox, 1998), Cuero español (Emi, 2000), Feo, fuerte y formal (Blanco y Negro, 2001), El ritmo del garaje (re-edition, DRO, 2001), Historia de una actitud (compilation + DVD, EMI, 2002), and Arte y ensayo (DRO Atlantic, 2004), and Hermanos de sangre (DRO Atlantic, 2006, live). Apart from his work with Los Intocables and Los Trogloditas, Loquillo has also recorded six solo albums: La vida por delante (Hispavox, 1994), Con elegancia (PICAP, 1998), Nueve tragos (Zanfonía, 1999), Loquras (EMI, 2000), Mujeres en pie de guerra (soundtrack of Susana Koska's documentary Mujeres en pie de guerra, DRO, 2005), and Balmoral (DRO, 2008). In September 2007, EMI released the album Loquillo: The Platinum Collection, a special edition with three CDs that comprise 57 songs from different stages of Loquillo's career since 1980. 7. At that time, in the early 1980s, military service in Spain was compulsory for all men aged eighteen and over. It lasted fifteen months, but in the case of navy service (as was José María Sanz's case) it lasted eighteen months. Military service, popularly known as “mili”, underwent a process of progressive reduction, from the universal mandatory status achieved during Francoism to its complete abolishment nowadays. The first step took place with its reduction to nine months during the socialist administration of Felipe González (1982–1996), and then with its suspension during the administration of Aznar (1996–2004) on 31 December 2001. Currently, the Spanish army is completely professional. 8. For a thorough account of the trajectory of independent labels in Spain during the 1980s, see Diego Silva (189–212). 9. A survey of the program “Diario Pop” of Radio Nacional de España considered Loquillo y los Trogloditas the best live band of the year 1985, thus confirming their reputation as a live band (Ordovás 244). 10. José María Sanz was born on 21 December 1960, in the Clot, one of the first anarchist neighborhoods of Barcelona, and has often expressed his pride in his origins and, above all, in his father, who fought for the Republicans in the Civil War. 11. In Con elegancia he collaborated again with Sopeña but he needed to find a new company because Hispavox, which edited his first venture with Sopeña, was not interested in this project. They finally released the album with a small local label, PICAP, and with the novelty of singing in Catalan—first time in Loquillo's enduring career—poems by Joan Salvat Papasseit and Pere Quart. The album also included songs adapted from poems by Federico García Lorca, Jaime Gil de Biedma, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (Koska 58–9). Despite the success of the album, Loquillo broke up with PICAP, unsatisfied by the inefficient promotional work of the small local company. 12. Canito died on New Year's Day in 1980. Actually, the homage concert celebrated on 9 February of that year at the Escuela de Caminos, with the participation of bands such as Nacha Pop and Alaska y los Pegamoides, was broadcast live on TVE2, and for many constituted the first official act of the movida (Fouce 24). Eduardo Benavente died on 14 May 1983 in a car accident when his band Parálisis Permanente was on the road after a concert in León and en route to Zaragoza to participate in another concert (Rodríguez Lenin Rodríguez Lenin , Jesús. Gabinete Caligari. El lado más chulo de la movida . Madrid : Temas de Hoy , 2004 . [Google Scholar] 56–7). 13. Loquillo admited that this is an autobiographical element: “A mí me gustan las chicas de barrio alto, como al Pijoaparte de Marsé, como debe ser” (Puchades 50).