In 1970, Argentine viewers started listening a melody that was ingrained in their hearts. In the advertisement – as it was called then – there was a sailboat, some girls, fabrics and a brand: Mixcell by Estexa, under the protective umbrella of Sudamtex, the gigantic textile company from Villa Ortúzar that dominated the market. But above all a voice prevailed: that of Luis Alberto Spinetta who sings girl (paper eyes).
Few knew of the existence of Argentine rockand even fewer from Almendra, but it wouldn’t take long for them to find out what all the fuss was about when the RCA single became a minor hit, boosted by propaganda and its inclusion on the compilation More rhythm in the basement from the same stamp.
Spinetta’s trembling voice, exciting, almost breaking, sounded from the modest speakers of the black and white television. girl (paper eyes) was a heartfelt love song that Luis Alberto had written to his girlfriend at the time: Cristina Bustamantea brave and feminist doll at a time when there were few specimens of this species in Argentina.
the friend of a friend
She was the daughter of the manager of the Montañeses 1910 building, where Emilio Del Guercio, Almendra’s bassist and Spinetta’s classmate at the nearby San Román school, lived.
“I was friends with Emilio and Ángel Del Guercio,” said Cristina, “and one day I saw Luis and it was like I had instant love.” The feeling was mutual, but they were two personalities destined to collide: It was not an easy courtship. It hasn’t even been that long.
According to Cristina’s memory, the song may have been written in Mar del Plata: he connects her to that unforgettable summer of 1969 when Almendra went to make his first palotes as a regular group in a nightclub called Matoko’s, which competed against the big names . Avenue of the Constitution.
“It may have been written on the beach,” he says, “but he did it in front of me.” Without imagining the dimension that the song would reach, nor the stature that Spinetta would acquire as an artist, he was encouraged to make a correction, a good correction: “Put the breast.” Luis had written breastsmore modest and respectful, according to the sensitivity of those times AP (Prima Perreo).
Cristina, who now lives in Los Angeles, felt it was just another song. “I think Luis was an artist who lacked inspiration and he wrote about whatever inspired him. Artists like him don’t depend on a muse, I don’t believe it; if his inspiration fell and you were sitting in front, that’s where you were ”. And it was her.
Almendra premiered the song in the Beat Baires cycle which took place at the Coliseo theater on June 22, 1969 with Cristina sitting in the front row, who when she heard girl (paper eyes), She got up and went crying down the hall..
“Where are you going, girl?” Luis yelled into the microphone and it sounded like completely spontaneous choreography or art. Nobody knew that Cristina was “Girl”.
Why was the girl crying? “The truth is, I don’t remember, I suppose I would have cheated on someone. I felt the waves around him as soon as we entered a place. So surely if I ran away crying it’s because he had done something bad to me. I’m sure I ran away many times in outrage.”
A courtship without calm
The relationship between Luis and Cristina has never been serene, not even when They decided to rent a house together in Florida to escape their parents.and they turned it into a hippie house which they shared with drummer Pomo and his wife at the time, plus Víctor Kesselman and a few other unstable inhabitants, which were there in quantity.
That place has been the scene of jamming, make-ups, fights and reconciliations. As far as Luis Alberto fell in love with a French woman which took the place of Cristina’s bed, and with which Spinetta would later embark on a journey.
“We had a really bad fight and he kicked me out,” recalls Cristina; that was my home too! When I go back to look for things, he takes my bags, throws all my clothes on the street and goes to hell ”. or al shits: Luis will spend a few months in France in 1971.
Upon his return there was a brief reconciliation with Cristina, but as the theme of Pappo’s Blues said, “something changes”.
“I was no longer the same; she had started working as an actress in Hair and lived in the hotel opposite the Teatro Argentino, next to the hippies. I went to Luis’s house one night to see him and he had already cut himself.”
Luis Alberto Spinetta had composed another song with her as the lead in a very different band: Pescado Rabioso. the theme was Chris blues Y oblivion was proposed in iteven though the lyrics said “Cris’s voice reaches me and doesn’t stop”.
Cristina Bustamante didn’t know about this other song until she heard it infesting usthe recording debut of Pescado Rabioso released in September 1972. Even Spinetta was not the same.
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Source: Clarin
