2023-09-03 08:33:00
For the second time, Andrés Calamaro seriously thought about starting over. Arriving in Madrid in September 1990 with his Yamaha DX7 keyboard and about 900 dollars, the musician who had surprised, not so much his own as strangers, as the star composer of Los Abuelos de la Nada during the first half of the 80s, left a Buenos Aires that had decided to ignore his solo works from the second part of the decade with songs like “Fabio Zerpa”, “Loco por ti”, “Por mirarte”, “Cartas sin marcar” and “Pasemos a otro tema”. However, and although the critics treated him well, the support of the public was not as expected. Basically, he didn’t sell records.
The same day he arrived in Madrid, where his friend Ariel Rot was waiting for him, he found himself making music with Rot himself and a handful of Spanish rock outlaws who would soon become his companions, including the legendary Julián Infante, in a new project: The Rodriguezes. The band was taking shape throughout 1991, with the incorporation of Germán Vilella on drums and Guille Martin on bass (mobile position, since it was a band without a permanent bassist). This formation recorded “Buena suerte”, the band’s debut album that included “My illness”, but the good luck did not last long since after a few days the publishing label of the album went bankrupt and left the group with no chance of having money for diffusion and a tour.
Although the group had generated good impressions both in Spain and Argentina, the economy of its members was making more and more noise. It’s just that, although it was a new band, its musicians were guys who were already in their 30s and it was urgent that they get going. It was enough to row it, it was time to start sticking it. And that is what was going to happen with the next album, although, as was the custom in Los Rodríguez, not without chaos.
With Spain in crisis, with a band that they liked but had not yet made the leap, and on the other side of the Atlantic an Argentina that seemed to be recovering, Calamaro had in mind the idea of returning and starting over a second time. He was averaging 1992 and Los Rodríguez was shipwrecked without a record contract or tours or anything. They immediately needed a record that gave them the place they really deserved, songs that matched their individual talents. All of this happened in a handful of months, between the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993.
Although it seems incredible today, the demo with the songs from Sin Documentos was rejected over and over again by the record companies until it fell into the hands of a certain Alfonso Pérez, from the Gasa label, a Warner subsidiary, which he finally released on September 3. from 1993, the second album by Los Rodríguez. Now yes, this group of veterans who rocked as teenagers had before them the great chance to live (well) doing rock and roll.
The band, which was characterized for being a composing machine (a trait that Calamaro would take to the extreme), found its highest creative point up to then. “Little somersault”, “Until sleep comes”, “Sweet damnation”, “7 seconds”, “Salud (money y amor)”, “Mi rock perdido”… we could go on until mentioning the complete setlist of the album because everything Without Documents it could work as the greatest hits of any band. For Los Rodríguez, on the other hand, it could be an inspirational afternoon, to put it in some way.
But let’s say something about “Without Documents”, the song. As often happens (someone will have to explain why this is the case sometime), no one saw it as a hit. What’s more, one of the musicians tried to boycott it so that it wouldn’t stay. Germán Vilella, the musician in question, said that he added an arrangement to make it ugly enough for it to be discarded. However, that arrangement, which marks the beginning of the song, was, is, the hallmark of the hit. A band that throws back a song and does nothing but improve it is, without a doubt, a band in a state of grace.
That was their first song to get rotation on the main radio stations and the hit that allowed them to sell 70,000 records in the first three months alone. A great number in the case of a band that until then had not managed to sell records. And Calamaro, who had been about to return to Buenos Aires, finally found the massiveness he was looking for and deserved. Massiveness that would give him enough tailwind to promote a “second” solo stage that continues to this day.
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