The incredible life of Gabriela, the first woman of Argentine rock, from hostess to artist admired by her peers

A busy life and a pioneering hierarchy which fortunately has begun to be re-evaluated in recent years. In this way, the trajectory of Gabrielthe first woman of Argentine rock.

But summing up his career and experiences is unfair, because it is such a rich history that it is worth having. an autobiographylike brand new The thousand lives of Gabriela – Memoirs of the pioneer of Argentine rock.

Daughter of diplomats, she spent her childhood living in Portugal, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil, always attentive to the music that surrounded her. In the mid-1960s she was hostess at Pan Am, just 19 years old. In 1967 she lived in Paris, where she worked as a waitress in a Montmartre bar, did theater, attended the French May and began her musical career influenced by musicians such as the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. .

Back in Buenos Aires, in 1970 he started going to outdoor recitals and festivals. He always walked with the guitar on his shoulder, singing where he could. He went to Almendra’s manager and got him shows and recordings.

The rest is history: their first single, a BARock performance that remained in the film Until sunsetand a five-decade career that included albums with Bill Frisell, David Lindley and Argentines Edelmiro Molinari, Pino Marrone, León Gieco, David Lebón, Pedro Aznar and Gustavo Santaolalla.

Except among the youngest who only know her now, Gabriela It was always a name without a surname. Neither father, mother nor husband. When she was first asked what her stage name would be, she simply replied “Gabriela”. And so it was, even if today the surname “Parodi” appears from time to time, also signing the book.

a pioneer

-There is a re-evaluation of what you did 50 years ago, and surely for a long time you thought that nobody remembered those songs, right?

-Nobody! I suffered a lot from being ignored here, even with the records I made with Bill Frisell, which I knew were very good. Nobody wanted to distribute them and they didn’t give him a ball. Let’s arm with Pine (Brown, his partner 40 years ago) a band and we went out to play, but it wasn’t the time. Instead now I feel like a surfer on the crest of the wave. I am very grateful for what is happening to me.

-When did you notice that this reassessment started?

-Recently. A year, more or less. In the pandemic, I went on Instagram for the first time, because my daughter told me it would be better for me than Facebook, and I started making younger friends. There too I met a writer who put me in contact with the Marea publishing house, which published the book. The generation of young women gives me a lot of energy and love for Instagram. I like to communicate with her and know what they think.

-Are you shocked or embarrassed when they describe you as a pioneer, even if you are?

-The word “pioneer” seems a bit big to me. You feel like San Martín but without having crossed the Andes! But I’ve thought about it a lot and I wish I didn’t have to use it, but it’s a word that has its meaning. There were women who sang before, like Tita Merello or Donna Carroll, but at the beginning of the rock movement I was the only one who understood us. I was the first to compose my own songs and record an album. It is documented.

Didn’t you have references of someone who had done something similar here?

-No. I’ve never seen any. I know there was a single by Cristina Plate but I never met her and never saw her on a rock stage. I thought that the stages where I went were all male groups. Only later did Carola Cutaia arrive, who also made compositions of her. There was no one else.

-Although it can be said that the first woman of rock was Dana, who was the spiritual guide of Arco Iris, she did not make music.

-Of course, it wasn’t music. During that time I met the four Rainbow, who were great musicians, but she was a guru. Only a long time later did she play a bit when she was in Los Angeles with Ara Tokatlian.

Did the public treat you well? Patricia Sosa always says that in the 80s they yelled at her at everything when she went on stage. She types “Go wash the dishes!”

-Everyone treated me first. When I went to the BA Rock festival they cheered me and asked me for another one, and I had no songs left! I had a great time with Oscar Moro, David Lebón, Emilio Del Guercio, Rodolfo García and all the Vox Gods. I’ve had a lot of friends in rock. I regretted once that there was no one else of mine to befriend.

I like to clarify that Edelmiro Molinari helped me a lot because he had a lot of musical experience. But if he hadn’t been, he would have done it anyway, because he had a contract with Almendra’s coach before he was Edelmiro’s partner.

exquisite discs

– Does it bother you that they almost only talk about your first album, even if you have other really nice ones, with good reviews abroad and made with extraordinary musicians?

-Now they talk more about those albums because they are on music platforms and people have more chances to hear them. I never felt resentment for that ignorance, but I felt hurt. I was proud of those records and felt I couldn’t share them with my people.

I remember one day I had a kind of lightning, a revelation. I was walking along Melián Street and I felt that I could not continue to have those wounds and those resentments. And I left that feeling there, on that street. With age you lose energy, and you find that you have to keep it and not wear it out by feeling bad with people who will never understand you anyway. Understand that it took me many years.

what’s coming

-Do you feel like going out to give speeches or do a song when you present your book?

-Monday 5th September I will present the book at the National Library, and then there will be a great concert at the CCK, organized by Margarita Bruzzone, Celia Coido and Gabriel Patrono. They proposed to organize a celebration of my songs, with artists from the younger generation singing my songs. It will be at the end of October and I don’t know who will be there because they want it to be a surprise. And I’m going to quit after many years without singing live.

-When was the last time?

-In 2007. It’s been a long time. But it will be with only one theme.

-And can you imagine going to book fairs, talking and playing?

-I would like to talk more about the book than about the music. I’ve talked a lot about music for years and years! But hey, we’ll see. In the presentation to the National Library, for example, Cecilia will make one of my themes.

-Involuntarily, it seems that the book closes one phase and is already opening another.

-Yup. Creativity is like that, with cycles where you are with stuck energy and moments where it’s unlocked and doesn’t stop. I’m sure something else will come after this. I have ideas for new topics and am writing another little book. I want to resist this moment to get things done.

-Work at any speed.

Yes, at any speed. It also happens to me that I know that no one is waiting for my things. There is no record company waiting for me to deliver a record, or a publisher waiting for a book, so I can take my time and do whatever I want. I see it like this. It is the little wisdom that the years give you. All is not bad when you become an “elder”! (laughs)

There are a number of things you see differently, from another perspective, and you say “It’s not a big deal.” The same thing happens when you go through painful situations or get sick. You realize, as the tangueros say, that life “is a breath”.

-By the way, do you like tango?

-The best Argentine lyrics come from tango. Those phrases like “Life is an absurd wound”! My dad loved tango, so I hated tango when I was a teenager. But I had integrated it, without knowing it. I listened to Gardel all day and thought it was a negative! It wasn’t until the 90s that I began to realize how rich he was musically and lyrically. I love tango lyrics and I love Aníbal Troilo, who says you have to live in a state of poetry.

The why of the book

According to Gabriela, “My daughter had been pushing me for years with the idea of ​​writing a book, but I asked her who might be interested in my life. She insisted there were interesting stories and she knows I love to write.”

– Have you already written episodes of your life?

-No. All my life I have written short stories and have never published anything. But one day I decided to leave a memory of my time on this Earth, without believing it or anything else. I got into that mambo, started writing and I liked it more and more. Also, the pandemic touched me and gave me time to devote a lot, because I couldn’t get out. It took me four years to do it. It was a process like sitting on a psychoanalyst’s couch for 500 sessions.

-It is a very honest and frontal book, and there are also painful episodes about your family or health problems.

-I thought it didn’t make sense to just tell the good things in my life or just talk about music. I wanted to tell the story of a human being to whom everything happens. And so it was, always without low blows and taking care of those around me. Not to mention the scum, which is the fourth. And the pain thing that I tried to mix with some humor.

-Many people don’t like writing an autobiography because they think it implies having stopped doing new things.

-I didn’t take it that way. It’s “my life so far”, and then things will continue to happen. And I will not do a second part! (laughs) It was also very nice to have a small publishing house, where I’m not just a number and they let me write what I wanted. At most they suggested that I shorten it a little, because it had a hundred more pages, and I agreed.

-A great company can seduce you well in advance, but then maybe it leaves you aside.

– Nothing I’ve done in my life has given me much money. And everything is fine. For me art – although it is a big word – is also integrity.

And that’s what’s left too.

– Totally.

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