In the midst of one of the most brilliant moments in his four decades of professional career, whose next step will be two shows at the Vélez Sarsfield stadium scheduled for April 1 and 2, Fito Páez celebrates 60 years this Monday, March 13.
These are 60 years of a life that might be reconstructed in all its aspects through his profuse and -for the most part- superb repertoire, likely to be further enlarged judging by his prolific latest movements.
Well, although he never slowed down his productions, the artist from Rosario has released himself in the last three years, when the echoes of his successful album have not yet died down. the city liberatedfrom 2017, with four albums (three of them as part of a trilogy), while he finalizes the details of his new version of the acclaimed The love following Love30 years following its publication.
The great particularity in these cases in that all of them had the general acceptance of the public and critics, which led him to star in massive concerts in our country and other parts of the world, to lead music festivals.
At the same time, he received numerous awards from the industry, including the Grammy -the highest award in the field- obtained by the conquest of spaceof 2020.
It happens that, although from his first steps in the ’80s, Fito established himself as one of the great names of Argentine rock, natural heir to a musical line that has Charly García and Luis Alberto Spinetta as its greatest exponents, many of his productions, especially in this century, sometimes they went unnoticed among the general public and were questioned by the specialized press, so this luminous present seems to be the great harvest of unwavering work and recognition of his inexhaustible talent.
Beyond the high and low logics in his production, the truth is that throughout all his work, Fito Páez narrated his life and the different moments he was going through.
From the “sad and enchanted boy” who astonished with his precocious talent in the midst of the fury of the Trova Rosarina, through the formal letter of introduction that the verses of from 63 (first cut of his self-titled debut album), his forced loss of innocence in city of poor hearts y Ey!and his personal revival following darkness thanks to love and the conquest of the mass public with Third World, The love following Love y Circo Beat.
The vicissitudes of his life, his childhood in Rosario, his love affairs, the arrival of his two children, the permanent tribute to his musical heroes, his social and political points of view, and his love for cinema and literature (areas in which he he also dabbled) were also duly explained by Fito through songs or complete albums.
They made him the target of a level of demand rarely demanded from other artists, the fact that he was a figure recognized by the rock public when he had not yet reached the age of 20 and that a short time later he already accumulated productions with Charly on his curriculum, Spinetta, Caetano Veloso; compositions that have become classics -in the voice of Juan Carlos Baglietto or in his own voice-; and records that were among the best in the history of Argentine popular music.
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Fito Páez and the influence of his mother Margarita
Fito’s musical heritage seems to come from his mother Margarita, a piano teacher who died a few months following his birth. Despite the fact that he did not know her and was raised by his father, his grandmother and a great-aunt, in a house where music of all styles was consumed, little Rodolfo showed great facility in front of the keys from an early age, although little attachment to the rigid methods of the academies.
After integrating various youth groups, he was summoned by Juan Carlos Baglietto to join a band with which he would land in Buenos Aires in the early 1980s with great force, in a movement that became known as the Trova Rosarina. There he excelled as an arranger and author, with classics like life is a coin, act to live, trying to grow y A madman in the carouselAmong many.
Charly García, a generous reference with Fito Páez
The world of local rock opened the big door for him when Charly García summoned him to his band at the time of the presentation of Modern Clicks and gestation of Piano bara platform that allowed him to record his first solo album from 63. In that work he projected his enormous future, especially from the great theme three needles.
The big confirmation came with twists (1985), the most complete compendium to date of the crossover between rock and Argentine popular music, with songs like I come to offer my heart, 11 y 6, DLG y ground wireto name just a few.
Fito Páez and lost innocence
The good luck for Fito continued with the EP clandestine heart, which included the participation of Caetano Veloso; the joint album with Luis Alberto Spinetta la la la; and life as a couple with Fabiana Cantilo. But the crime in Rosario of the two women who raised him, on the occasion of a robbery, plunged him into depression and darkness.
Although turned to a darker style, Fito’s compositional quality remained intact, as demonstrated on the cathartic album city of poor hearts (1987) and in Ey! (1988).
Con Third World (1990) “colors” began to appear in his life, as he himself said in an interview with Télam on the 30th anniversary of that production, in which he also showed a higher level of sophistication. There is your great classic And bring joy to my heart.
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Fito Páez and the return of light
The arrival of a new love, the actress Cecilia Roth, brought the definitive light and was a source of inspiration for the consecration El love following love in 1992.
Big stadiums, diffusion in the most important commercial radios and successful tours marked that stage, which continued with Circo Beat (1994), although it also earned him the estrangement and criticism of “purist” fans and journalists, in an ambivalent relationship that continues to this day. However, Fito kept accumulating classics, such as Mariposa Technicolor y It is to give.
After a bittersweet meeting with Joaquín Sabina on the album intimate enemies (1998), the end of the century finds the Rosario focused with open (1999) and the arrival of his first son, Martín, reflected in sun king (2000).
But there was also space for the description of a society that was bleeding to death following the neoliberal party of the ’90s through the raw the devil of your hearton which he returned live in recent times of explicit macrismo.
From there, Fito added one album following another, although many of them were forgotten and did not even release great classics, as had inevitably happened up to that moment.
Proof of this is that almost no songs from that stage appear at concerts in recent years nor do they survive in the collective memory. nature blood is perhaps the exception to the rule.
However, he continued to give an account of his love breakups, meeting new loves, the birth of his second daughter Margarita (the result of his relationship with actress Romina Ricci), his points of view and his permanent tribute to his musical idols. -as it happened in discs like fashion and town (2005), song for aliens (2011) o Rock and Roll Revolution (2014).
Fito Páez, facing this bright present
The city liberated in 2017 began to place him on the path of absolute and definitive recognition, which places him in this luminous present.
With Charly García away from public life and the early deaths of Spinetta and Gustavo Cerati, Fito currently shares with Andrés Calamaro the title of great reference of the local rock tradition, although with more solid steps compared to the former Los Abuelos de la Nothing and Los Rodríguez.
Product of tireless work and inexhaustible talent, the Rosario boasts a catalog full of large pages, fills stadiums, is pampered by the local and international press and has the devotion of a massive audience. And that is barely 60 years old.
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