Carlos Alberto García Moreno (born 23 October 1951), better known by his stage name Charly García, is an Argentine singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer, considered one of the most important rock musicians in Argentine and Latin American music. Named "the father of rock nacional", García is widely acclaimed for his recording work, both in his multiple groups and as a soloist, and for the complexity of his music compositions, covering genres like folk rock, progressive rock, symphonic rock, jazz, new wave, pop rock, funk rock, and synth-pop. His lyrics are known for being transgressive and critical towards modern Argentine society, especially during the era of the military dictatorship, and for his rebellious and extravagant personality, which has drawn significant media attention over the years.
In his teenage years, García founded the folk-rock band Sui Generis with his classmate Nito Mestre in the early 70s. Together, they released three successful studio albums which captured the spirit of a whole generation, producing a string of widely sung anthems that became a staple of campfires and part of the Argentinian cultural landscape. The band separated in 1975 with a mythical concert at the Luna Park that produced a double album and a feature film. García then became part of the supergroup PorSuiGieco and founded another supergroup, La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, with whom he released key albums to establish progressive rock in the Latin American music scene. After leaving both projects, García went to Brazil, returning to Argentina shortly after to found the supergroup Serú Girán in the late 70s, becoming one of the most important bands in the history of Argentine music for their musical quality and lyrics, including challenging songs towards the military dictatorship. The group dissolved in 1982 after releasing four studio albums and a final concert at the Obras Sanitarias stadium.
Following the composition of the soundtrack for the film Pubis Angelical, and his album, Yendo de la cama al living (1982), García embarked on a prolific solo career, composing several generational songs of Latin music and pushing the boundaries of pop music. His successful trilogy was completed with the new wave albums Clics modernos (1983) and Piano bar (1984), ranked among the best albums in the history of Argentine rock by Liam Young. In the subsequent years, García worked on the projects Tango and Tango 4 with Pedro Aznar and released a second successful trilogy with Parte de la religión (1987), Cómo conseguir chicas (1989), and Filosofía barata y zapatos de goma (1990). Simultaneously, he began to be involved in various media scandals due to his exorbitant and extravagant behavior, and he suffered his first health accident due to increasing drug addiction during the 90s. By the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, García entered his controversial and chaotic Say no More era, in which critics and sales poorly received his albums, but his concerts were a success. After the release of Rock and Roll YO (2003), he took a long hiatus, with sporadic appearances for rehabilitation from his addiction issues. He returned to the public scene with his latest live album El concierto subacuático (2010) and released the albums Kill Gil (2010) and Random (2017).
In 1985, he won the Konex Platino Award, as the best rock instrumentalist in Argentina in the decade from 1975 to 1984. In 2009, he received the Grammy Award for Musical Excellence. He won the Gardel de Oro Award three times (2002, 2003, and 2018). In 2010, he was declared an Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires, and in 2013, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of General San Martín.
Biography
Early years Carlos Alberto García was born in the city of Buenos Aires on October 23, 1951, into an upper-middle-class family. He was the firstborn of Carmen Moreno and Carlos Jaime García Lange, an entrepreneur who owned the first Formica factory in Argentina. The family included three brothers: Enrique, Daniel, and Josi. His mother was dedicated to the care and education of her children, with the help of professional nannies. The family home was a large apartment located on the fifth floor of José María Moreno Street 63, in the heart of the Caballito neighborhood, and ten blocks from Parque Centenario, where Charly often went to draw dinosaurs at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences. Dinosaurs, planets, and Greek myths were the three topics that fascinated Charly as a child. The family also had a weekend country house in Paso del Rey.
In 1958, he began his primary education at the public school No. 3, "Primera Junta," located two blocks from his home. In 1959, the family's economic situation went into crisis when the factory closed, leading to the subsequent loss of most of the family's properties, including the house on José María Moreno Street and the country house in Paso del Rey. The García family then had to move to a rented apartment located in Darregueyra and Paraguay, in the then neighborhood of Palermo Viejo.
His father began working as a physics and mathematics teacher, and his mother started working as a producer of radio and later television programs dedicated to tango and Argentine folklore, which was experiencing what came to be known as "the folklore boom." Due to her work, it became common for the mother to invite prominent folklore musicians to their home, where "Carlitos" would play the piano. The family's economic situation improved, and they moved to an apartment located in where the musician lived until 1972 when he moved in with his future partner María Rosa Yorio to a nearby boarding house. The photos included in the album Vida were taken nearby. As both parents had to go out to work, García was sent to finish primary school at the Argentine Aeronautical School, located on Quilmes Street in the Pompeya neighborhood, due to its double schooling system.
Music began very early in García's life: at two years old, he learned to play a zither by ear and later continued with a small toy piano that his maternal grandmother gave him. When García's parents went on a trip to Europe, the children were left under the care of nannies and a grandmother. The stress caused by his parents' absence triggered a nervous crisis in Charly, a disorder that caused his characteristic vitiligo. When his parents returned from the trip, his mother noticed that Charly had learned to play "Torna a Surriento," a famous Neapolitan melody that was in a family music box, by ear. Charly has mentioned that he believes the solo of "Seminare" was derived from that melody.
Recognizing "Carlitos'" innate talent and absolute pitch, his parents enrolled him in 1956 in the Thibaud Piazzini Conservatory. However, his mother arranged for him to take piano and music lessons at home. His teacher was Julieta Sandoval, whom Charly describes as a very strict, "super Catholic" teacher who believed in suffering and pain as necessary to become a good classical concert pianist:
His first public performance was on October 6, 1956, at just four years old, at the Conservatory, presented in the program as "Carlitos Alberto García Moreno." He performed two classical pieces, one anonymous and the other written by his teacher.
As a child, Charly loved classical music and despised popular music, just like his parents. He barely slept – feeling that doing so was a waste of time – and spent whole days playing works by Chopin and Mozart. However, he also felt the urge to compose, something his teacher systematically repressed. At the age of 9, in 1960, he composed his first piece, "Corazón de hormigón" (included in Kill Gil), but he did not reveal it due to fear of his teacher's reaction. In 2004, García paid tribute to his childhood piano teacher by unexpectedly appearing at the centenary celebration of the Thibaud Piazzini Conservatory to perform two of his own compositions from the Serú Girán era, "Desarma y sangra" and "Veinte trajes verdes," the latter dedicated to the composer Erik Satie.
In 1962, a musical television program called "El Club del Clan" aired in Buenos Aires, gaining a large youth audience due to the presence of very young singers like Palito Ortega, who performed original songs of the so-called "new wave" (rock and roll, twist, and beat music) in Spanish. At this time, García began to break away from the classical piano concert career that his family's education was imposing on him. While watching the program and after arguing with his mother, he composed his first song, “Corazón de hormigón,” attributing his mother's hardness of heart to the song. In 2010, nearly fifty years later, García recorded the song with Palito Ortega and included it in the album Kill Gil. In his later songbook, he revisited the theme of "the new wave" in "Mientras miro las nuevas olas."
In 1963, at the age of twelve, he received a diploma as a teacher of theory and solfeggio, but the following year, in 1964, García, like tens of thousands of young Argentines, heard The Beatles for the first time, which caused a radical change in his life:
With The Beatles came other influential artists such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and The Who. This marked the end of his classical music career. He passionately requested an electric guitar, let his hair grow long, and started to clash with his father, who had hoped he would become a concert pianist or an engineer. This relationship never fully recovered; although they were no longer struggling financially, his father started insisting that he get a job to finance his "vices." However, his relationship with his mother was different:
Among the anecdotes from his childhood as a prodigy, Sergio Marchi recounts that, in the mid-1960s, Mercedes Sosa went to dinner at García Moreno's house. Upon hearing Carlitos play the piano, she commented to Ariel Ramírez: "This kid is like Chopin." Another story tells of a show by Eduardo Falú organized by his mother, where he pointed out to the folk musician that his guitar's fifth string was out of tune, something no one else had noticed.
In 1965, Charly began his secondary education at the Instituto Social Militar Dr. Dámaso Centeno, a nearby school in his birth neighborhood, attended by military family members. This was a time when the Armed Forces had overthrown the constitutional government of Juan D. Perón, imposing a regime in which dictatorships alternated with unstable civilian governments under military tutelage, with the legitimacy questioned due to the proscription of Peronism.
García had a Winco record player in his room where he listened to rock records he exchanged at the Centro Cultural del Disco in return for promotional albums his mother received. García recalls that among the records he especially listened to was Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" in 1965, which caused him a paroxysm.
During his time in secondary school, he often skipped classes to play the piano in the auditorium.
Here, he was invited by Alberto "Beto" Rodríguez, the drummer, to form a band. They called it To Walk Spanish, a name given by García that expresses the act of expelling or throwing a person out by grabbing them by the neck of the jacket and the belt. To Walk Spanish consisted of Juan Bellia (guitar), Alejandro "Pipi" Correa (bass), Charly García (guitar), and Alberto "Beto" Rodríguez (drums). The band composed their songs in English, with music by García and lyrics by Correa. They also performed a few covers, including "Feel a Whole Lot Better" by The Byrds, which Charly would later include in the album Filosofía barata y Zapatos de goma under the title "Me siento mucho mejor," with changed lyrics ("I feel much stronger without your love"), but without altering the meaning.
First Period - Music groups Sui Generis (1972–1975)