Tanguito
Encyclopedia
José Alberto Iglesias better known as Tango or Tanguito, was an Argentine
rock
composer and singer. His short career was pivotal in the first years of Argentine rock nacional
, the earliest incarnation of rock en Español
.
, Buenos Aires province
. His family lived in a modest house in the town of Caseros
, close to the city of Buenos Aires
. His sister Carmen was five years his junior.
Iglesias showed no interest in school, and after flunking out at age 13 he tried different apprenticeships, including gardening school, but did not persevere. The only issue that held his interest was rock and roll. At age 17, José was a fixture of social ballrooms in the Mataderos
and Flores
neighborhoods, singing mostly rock and roll covers. He also gained local fame as a rock and roll dancer, while most people in the suburbs were tango dancers. To highlight this contrast, his friends started calling him "Tango" or "Tanguito" (the diminutive of "tango").
With his first band, Los Dukes, he recorded a few covers and one original song in 1963. Commercial success did not follow, Tanguito began looking for a new outlet for his creative energy.
district. The club was to become the cradle of Argentine rock, with celebrities-to-be such as Moris
, Sandro
, and Litto Nebbia
performing regularly, and other figures such as Pipo Lernoud, Miguel Grinberg and Miguel Abuelo
sharing the limelight. Many of them were struggling with writing rock lyrics in Spanish
, and Tanguito was initially perceived as a novelty act, who could sing energetic Elvis Presley
covers in broken English.
The musicians would end the night by walking up Pueyrredón avenue together to have late supper or breakfast in café La Perla del Once in the Balvanera
district. When Tanguito once ranted in the café's washroom about being alone and sad in the world, Nebbia encouraged him to write a song based on his refrain. Tanguito obliged, and Nebbia added a choir with a vaguely bossa nova
air. That song would become the first mega-hit of Spanish language rock and roll: La Balsa ("The raft"). Nebbia's band, Los Gatos Salvajes, recorded it on June 19, 1967, and got a significant amount of radio play that helped the single sell over 250,000 copies. Both the name and the lyrics of the song may refer to José Feliciano
's La Barca, and many of Tanguito's friends acknowledge that Tanguito had Feliciano's song on his mind http://www.jardindegente.com.ar/index.php?nota=prensa_405_1.
Tanguito's own rendition was not immediately recorded, but was broadcast on national television a few months later, in a segment about the Buenos Aires version of the hippie
phenomenon. The success of "Los Gatos" and Tanguito's status as co-composer of "La Balsa" hinted that a career break was around the corner, yet his first single, recorded January 18, 1968, was not marketed effectively by RCA
and sales floundered.
During 1968, several songs by Tanguito, notably Amor de Primavera ("Spring Love"), were being covered or borrowed by emerging artists in the Argentine rock and roll scene. Tanguito would also take credit for other people's songs, including the ribald song "Errol Flynn" which was popular in the summer of 1968.
All of Tanguito songs are credited to "Ramsés VII", one of his many pseudonym
s, after the Egyptian Pharaoh
Ramesses
and Tango's affectation for seventh chord
s. Other pseudonyms he used from time to time include Susano Valdez and Drago (after a then-popular seltzer machine
).
When Tanguito broke with RCA he found a new home in Mandioca, a label dedicated exclusively to rock, which immediately arranged for studio time. But he had trouble motivating himself to complete an album. Typically, Tanguito would record one or two song sketches alone with his guitar, or jam with available musicians, and disappear for days. By that time he had switched from alcohol
and casual marijuana use to hard drugs, and was injecting amphetamine
s whenever he could afford them.
In those years, Argentine's police used hard-line tactics against drug addicts and had very little education about how to deal with them effectively. Tanguito would get arrested repeatedly for vagrancy or inebration
and be left unattended in a detention cell. One such episode in late 1970 was so damaging to his mental health that Tanguito became unable to recognize his friends, and was taken home by his mother for recovery.
Tanguito escaped from the hospital on the dawn of May 19, 1972. He managed to reach the Pacífico train station, where he apparently hoped to board a train to his parents' home in Caseros. At 10:50 AM, he fell on the tracks and was fatally hit by an oncoming train.
; Tanguito provided the first real hit of that movement as well as many sketches that were freely used by others. His brief but brilliant trajectory is recalled by many elder statesmen of Argentine rock as a main force in the early days, and as a sad remainder of the damage that drugs can wreak. Argentine author Miguel Grinberg, who was involved in that scene, has said http://www.dospotencias.com.ar/rebelde/aldia/16.htm that Tanguito influenced the transition of Argentine rock from English to Spanish more than anybody else.
In 1973, Tanguito's Mandioca recordings were published in an LP album named "Tango". This album was released again in 1982 and 1993. The album's rendition of La Balsa has a spoken word introduction by Manal
's Javier Martínez
in which he repeats: "you composed La Balsa in the washroom of La Perla del Once". Martínez was in the studio for the recording but did not participate, and uttered the words for dramatic effect. The emphasis created friction with Nebbia, who felt that Mandioca was claiming Tanguito was the song's sole author. The rift subsided over time, but Nebbia remained a jealous custodian of his own rights.
Luis Alberto Spinetta
covered Tanguito's Amor de Primavera and made that song a highlight of his concerts during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1989, a television show named "Tanguito" starring Emilio Bardi was aired in the "Especiales de ATC" program on (Canal 7).
Director Marcelo Piñeyro
directed his first feature film Tango Feroz
("Fierce Tango") in 1993, which became the top-grossing movie of the year in Argentina. The movie dramatized the life of a rock singer, obviously based on Tanguito, referring to the political and social climate of Argentina in the 1960s and early 1970s. Piñeyro did not obtain permission to use Tanguito's songs in the soundtrack, and was unable to get Nebbia to help researching Tanguito's life. He took artistic license in the plot of the movie, since the real-life Tanguito was not active politically and did not comment on the events that shook Argentina such as the 1969 Cordobazo
, even though his "hippie" image might have influenced his ordeals with the police. His turbulent personal life and drug-related issues were also sanitized in the screenplay.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
composer and singer. His short career was pivotal in the first years of Argentine rock nacional
Argentine rock
Argentine rock , is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists, in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a major popular genre, and it is considered part of the popular music tradition of Argentina alongside Argentine Tango, and Argentine folk music.The moment when...
, the earliest incarnation of rock en Español
Rock en Español
Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
.
Early days
José Alberto Iglesias was born September 16, 1945 in the industrial town of San MartínSan Martín, Buenos Aires
Ciudad del Libertador General Don José de San Martín, more commonly known as San Martín is the head city of the General San Martín Partido in the Gran Buenos Aires metropolitan area.-Geography:...
, Buenos Aires province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
. His family lived in a modest house in the town of Caseros
Tres de Febrero Partido
Tres de Febrero is a partido of the Greater Buenos Aires conurbation area in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.-Districts:* Caseros* Churruca* Ciudad Jardín Lomas del Palomar* Ciudadela* El Libertador* José Ingenieros...
, close to the city of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. His sister Carmen was five years his junior.
Iglesias showed no interest in school, and after flunking out at age 13 he tried different apprenticeships, including gardening school, but did not persevere. The only issue that held his interest was rock and roll. At age 17, José was a fixture of social ballrooms in the Mataderos
Mataderos
Mataderos is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, belonging to the 9th comuna .Located in the west end of the city, its name stem from the livestock market and slaughterhouses ....
and Flores
Flores, Buenos Aires
Flores is a middle class barrio or district in the centre part of Buenos Aires city, Argentina. Flores was considered a rural area of the Province of Buenos Aires until 1888 when it was integrated to the City....
neighborhoods, singing mostly rock and roll covers. He also gained local fame as a rock and roll dancer, while most people in the suburbs were tango dancers. To highlight this contrast, his friends started calling him "Tango" or "Tanguito" (the diminutive of "tango").
With his first band, Los Dukes, he recorded a few covers and one original song in 1963. Commercial success did not follow, Tanguito began looking for a new outlet for his creative energy.
La Cueva
In 1965, Tanguito and his friend Horacio Martínez became regulars of a night club named La Cueva ("The Cave") in the RecoletaRecoleta
Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there...
district. The club was to become the cradle of Argentine rock, with celebrities-to-be such as Moris
Moris
-Given name:* Moris Carrozzieri , Italian football defender* Moris Farhi , vice-president of International PEN* Moris Pfeifhofer , Swiss figure skater* Moris Tepper , American musician...
, Sandro
Sandro de América
Roberto Julio Sánchez , better known by his artist names Sandro/Sandro de América , Gitano , and the Argentine Elvis, was an Argentine singer and actor.-Biography:...
, and Litto Nebbia
Litto Nebbia
Litto Nebbia is a singer, songwriter and producer prominent in the development of Argentine rock.-Life and work:Félix Francisco Nebbia was born in Rosario to Martha and Félix Nebbia, in 1948. His parents were struggling musicians, though during his early teens, Litto left secondary school to join...
performing regularly, and other figures such as Pipo Lernoud, Miguel Grinberg and Miguel Abuelo
Miguel Abuelo
Miguel Angel Peralta, known by his artistic name Miguel Abuelo, was an Argentine rock musician and singer.-Early days:...
sharing the limelight. Many of them were struggling with writing rock lyrics in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Tanguito was initially perceived as a novelty act, who could sing energetic Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
covers in broken English.
The musicians would end the night by walking up Pueyrredón avenue together to have late supper or breakfast in café La Perla del Once in the Balvanera
Balvanera
Balvanera is a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Origin of Name and Alternative Names:The official name, Balvanera, is the name of the parroquia centered around the church of Nuestra Señora de Balvanera, erected in 1831.The zone around Corrientes avenue is known as Once after Plaza Once de...
district. When Tanguito once ranted in the café's washroom about being alone and sad in the world, Nebbia encouraged him to write a song based on his refrain. Tanguito obliged, and Nebbia added a choir with a vaguely bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
air. That song would become the first mega-hit of Spanish language rock and roll: La Balsa ("The raft"). Nebbia's band, Los Gatos Salvajes, recorded it on June 19, 1967, and got a significant amount of radio play that helped the single sell over 250,000 copies. Both the name and the lyrics of the song may refer to José Feliciano
José Feliciano
José Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...
's La Barca, and many of Tanguito's friends acknowledge that Tanguito had Feliciano's song on his mind http://www.jardindegente.com.ar/index.php?nota=prensa_405_1.
Tanguito's own rendition was not immediately recorded, but was broadcast on national television a few months later, in a segment about the Buenos Aires version of the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
phenomenon. The success of "Los Gatos" and Tanguito's status as co-composer of "La Balsa" hinted that a career break was around the corner, yet his first single, recorded January 18, 1968, was not marketed effectively by RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
and sales floundered.
During 1968, several songs by Tanguito, notably Amor de Primavera ("Spring Love"), were being covered or borrowed by emerging artists in the Argentine rock and roll scene. Tanguito would also take credit for other people's songs, including the ribald song "Errol Flynn" which was popular in the summer of 1968.
All of Tanguito songs are credited to "Ramsés VII", one of his many pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s, after the Egyptian Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
Ramesses
Ramesses
Ramesses is the name conventionally given in English transliteration to 11 Egyptian pharaohs of the later New Kingdom period. The name essentially translates as "Born of the sun-god Ra"....
and Tango's affectation for seventh chord
Seventh chord
A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a major triad with an added minor seventh...
s. Other pseudonyms he used from time to time include Susano Valdez and Drago (after a then-popular seltzer machine
Carbonated water
Carbonated water is water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, a process that causes the water to become effervescent....
).
When Tanguito broke with RCA he found a new home in Mandioca, a label dedicated exclusively to rock, which immediately arranged for studio time. But he had trouble motivating himself to complete an album. Typically, Tanguito would record one or two song sketches alone with his guitar, or jam with available musicians, and disappear for days. By that time he had switched from alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and casual marijuana use to hard drugs, and was injecting amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
s whenever he could afford them.
In those years, Argentine's police used hard-line tactics against drug addicts and had very little education about how to deal with them effectively. Tanguito would get arrested repeatedly for vagrancy or inebration
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
and be left unattended in a detention cell. One such episode in late 1970 was so damaging to his mental health that Tanguito became unable to recognize his friends, and was taken home by his mother for recovery.
Later days
In February 1971, Tanguito was arraigned and charged with heading a drug trafficking cartel. Diagnosed as mentally insane, he was committed to the José T. Borda neuropsychiatric hospital, where he was submitted to insulin shock treatment and other therapies designed to wane him off the amphetamines. Instead of recovering, his mental health deteriorated to the point that in 1972 he was committed to the hospital's long-term care facility.Tanguito escaped from the hospital on the dawn of May 19, 1972. He managed to reach the Pacífico train station, where he apparently hoped to board a train to his parents' home in Caseros. At 10:50 AM, he fell on the tracks and was fatally hit by an oncoming train.
Influence and Legacy
Argentine rock was to become a seminal influence in rock en españolRock en Español
Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
; Tanguito provided the first real hit of that movement as well as many sketches that were freely used by others. His brief but brilliant trajectory is recalled by many elder statesmen of Argentine rock as a main force in the early days, and as a sad remainder of the damage that drugs can wreak. Argentine author Miguel Grinberg, who was involved in that scene, has said http://www.dospotencias.com.ar/rebelde/aldia/16.htm that Tanguito influenced the transition of Argentine rock from English to Spanish more than anybody else.
In 1973, Tanguito's Mandioca recordings were published in an LP album named "Tango". This album was released again in 1982 and 1993. The album's rendition of La Balsa has a spoken word introduction by Manal
Manal
Manal was an early Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock. Portal Oficial del Gobierno de la República Argentina. The band members were Claudio Gabis on guitar, Javier Martínez on drums and vocals, and Alejandro Medina on bass and...
's Javier Martínez
Javier Martinez
Javier Antonio Martínez was a Major League Baseball pitcher.Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 3rd round of the 1994 MLB amateur draft, Martínez made his Major League Baseball debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 2, 1998, and appeared in his final game on September 27, 1998, though he...
in which he repeats: "you composed La Balsa in the washroom of La Perla del Once". Martínez was in the studio for the recording but did not participate, and uttered the words for dramatic effect. The emphasis created friction with Nebbia, who felt that Mandioca was claiming Tanguito was the song's sole author. The rift subsided over time, but Nebbia remained a jealous custodian of his own rights.
Luis Alberto Spinetta
Luis Alberto Spinetta
Luis Alberto Spinetta , is an Argentine musician. He is one of the most influential rock musicians of South America, and together with Charly García is considered the father of Argentine rock. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano...
covered Tanguito's Amor de Primavera and made that song a highlight of his concerts during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1989, a television show named "Tanguito" starring Emilio Bardi was aired in the "Especiales de ATC" program on (Canal 7).
Director Marcelo Piñeyro
Marcelo Piñeyro
Marcelo Piñeyro is an Argentine award-winning film director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Biography:Born in Buenos Aires, Piñeyro studied cinematography at the University of La Plata's School of Fine Arts...
directed his first feature film Tango Feroz
Tango Feroz
Tango Feroz: la leyenda de Tanguito is a 1993 Argentine movie blockbuster, freely based in the life of Tanguito, one of the first artists of Argentine rock...
("Fierce Tango") in 1993, which became the top-grossing movie of the year in Argentina. The movie dramatized the life of a rock singer, obviously based on Tanguito, referring to the political and social climate of Argentina in the 1960s and early 1970s. Piñeyro did not obtain permission to use Tanguito's songs in the soundtrack, and was unable to get Nebbia to help researching Tanguito's life. He took artistic license in the plot of the movie, since the real-life Tanguito was not active politically and did not comment on the events that shook Argentina such as the 1969 Cordobazo
Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, in the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the Rosariazo, and a year after the French May '68...
, even though his "hippie" image might have influenced his ordeals with the police. His turbulent personal life and drug-related issues were also sanitized in the screenplay.