PEQUEÑAS ANÉCDOTAS SOBRE LAS INSTITUCIONES

¿Cuántas veces tendré que morir para ser siempre yo?

The influence of Simon & Garfunkel marked the early days of Sui Generis, but that acoustic and almost adolescent stage transformed into a band loaded with synthesizers and very aware of the abrupt changes of reality.

Pequeñas anécdotas sobre las instituciones, Sui's third album (1974), is a brilliant concept work to know how censorship and state terrorism operated, and also a record about the meaning of art in violent times.

Charly García, in search of innovations, traveled to the United States and bought a series of innovative keyboards for the time. The lyrics of the songs have a strong political content and make direct reference to repressive social institutions (family, censorship, military, education, police repression), at a time when political violence and especially the terrorist action of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance Triple A was raging against artists and intellectuals. To moderate its content, the original title, Instituciones, had to be changed; several songs were modified, such as "Instituciones", "Las increíbles aventuras del Señor Tijeras", "Música de fondo para cualquier fiesta animada" and "Para quién canto yo entonces", and two of them, "Botas Locas" and "Juan Represión", had to be deleted and replaced by others.

So that Instituciones could be published, without risking the very serious consequences that the musicians and their producers could suffer in the midst of the escalation of violence during the constitutional government of María Estela Martínez de Perón, which anticipated the dictatorship that would take power a little more than a year later, in addition to changing the title itself to Pequeñas anécdotas sobre las instituciones, Charly García had to modify several texts of the songs, mainly affected "Música para cualquier fiesta animada" and "Instituciones".

"Instituciones" (5/5) The album begins with a celestial atmosphere and a synthesizer that gradually indicates the fall of Nito's voice as the guitar appears. This song was a theme that showed the remarkable progress García had made in the instrumental and in the composition of more adult lyrics, not so adolescent. Lyrics that, on the contrary, already began to "put the finger where it hurts..." as Rafanelli once said. The theme reflected the oppression that the institutions put on the youth: "Los magos, los acróbatas, los clowns... Oye niño las cosas están de este modo... tenés sábados, hembras y televisores...no preguntes más!!!".

"Tango en Segunda" (4/5), as the name says, is a melodic tango, mostly composed of Garcia's synthesizers, half instrumental, half lyrical. This song is defined in; Charly sticking his head into city music and its fusion with progressive rock (booming at the time). The song included the duo's right to complain against their manager Jorge Álvarez: "A mí no me gusta tu cara, ni me gusta tu olor..." (I don't like your face, nor do I like your smell...). At the end, the song presents, for the first time, a melodic leitmotif that would be used again by García in later productions (in the album Películas, by Máquina de Hacer Pájaros and in La Grasa de las Capitales, by Serú Girán).

"El Show de los Muertos" (5/5). My favorite track on the album is, at the same time, one of the most unique, with its metaphorical lyrics and music that is both spooky and enchanting. This track includes a synthesized saxophone solo, which generates an almost "Floydian" atmosphere totally unprecedented in the duo's music.

Immediately afterwards, we hear the rapid scissors of Señor Tijeras, the central character of a brilliant fable based on the story of a famous censor of the time: Miguel Paulino Tato, an obscure official in charge of the Ente de Calificación Cinematográfica, a true inquisitor who decided what viewers could or could not see in the cinema.

"Las increíbles Aventuras del Sr. Tijeras" (5/5) (The Incredible Adventures of Mr. Scissors) contains changing climaxes as well as a quite interesting melodic structure, which includes an imposing and disturbing crescendo, when Mr. Scissors' madness leads him to confuse reality with fiction, murdering his wife, in the same way he "murdered" freedom of expression, with a clean scissors. Musically, top quality progressive rock, in the vein of Italian symphonic rock, like that of PFM or Banco; and lyrically, with verses as comic as they were brutally in tune with the times. They were the first touches of García as a composer of songs that reflected like no one else in rock, and with humor, the difficult reality of Argentine society. As in that part of the lyrics that says: "I'll see you in 20 years on television... cut and boring, in full color...", something that happened in reality with several of the films banned at the time.

"Pequeñas delicias de la vida conyugal" (4/5) opened the old Lado 2 of the vinyl edition of this work. This song was another typical Sui Generis teenage page, but, unlike the previous albums, its sound is very progressive. I find their sound quite friendly and full of good vibes, considering how somber and explosive the whole album can be. As I said moments before, another incisive moment in Sui's classic and youthful style, ending with an incredible and brief drum solo.

"El tuerto y los ciegos" (5/5) is, on the other hand, a little "folk" page, with a great performance by Pinchevsky on violin, and a very beautiful lyric by Charly. The harmonic combination of the violin with the flute, joining and complementing the splendorous bass that sounds behind Charly's voice, is a very powerful and very well achieved combination.

"Música de Fondo para Cualquier Fiesta Animada" (5/5). We come to a pretty interesting moment in the album. This song is a great metaphor for the Argentine reality of the time. A song with unfortunately timeless messages that would be prophetic, very soon after. The whole lyric was replaced by a completely different one, due to the problems faced in those years in Argentina, related to the government and the military.

"Tema de Natalio" (4/5). The only instrumental song on the album. Composed by García and Rafanelli. Supposedly inspired by the "music that Natalio Ruiz, the little man with the gray hat, would listen to".

"Para Quién Canto yo Entonces?" (4/5) A beautiful and melodic closer for this wonderful album, which, without a doubt, is the band's best, speaking of prog and speaking outside of it. At the beginning of the song, I noticed a great resemblance in the guitar riff "Que Ves el Cielo (El Jardín de los Presentes - Invisible, 1976)", and I wanted to comment on it. All in all, a great closing and perhaps Charly García's first public self-reflection on his status as an artist in such a controversial society as Argentina.

Just in 1994, the two self-censored tracks would be added as Bonus Tracks (according to Charly, again by Álvarez's idea): "Juan Represión" (dedicated to López Rega y Cía.) and "Botas Locas".

Conclusion:

Despite the meritorious sonic and lyrical search of this new Sui Géneris, the band could not retrace their steps in the dead end they were going through. The ballads were losing weight before the overwhelming advance of progressive rock, and, at the same time, the themes of Institutions had little to do with the adolescent spirit that gave the duo popularity and success at the beginning. Tired of struggling to impose their new songs, and faced with the prospect of reaching new musical horizons, Charly, in agreement with Nito, decided to put an end to this story. For that reason, in the middle of 75 both announced that Sui Generis was dissolving.

I will always remember how beautiful it was to see this part of Sui so progressive and innovative in the history of rock.

From whatever point of view we look at it, we can't deny how transcendental this stage of the band was for Charly, and indeed of his life, taking into account all he had to go through.

10/10, 5 stars. Definitely one of my favorite concept albums of all time, and a great teaching about the importance of things that come and go, but most of all, that you have to know how to make them come. And a great adventure to know the background of all the bad things that the dictatorship and the government had during those 70's in Argentina.

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