Elephant, 2004

Marcel Marceau (1923-2007)

you said it all.

Little Nuggets from My Collection

Taking advantage of Facebook.com's jukebox, I added some personal, favorite tracks of mine there; but you can also download them from here. Here's a little list of them:

Men At Work: "No Restrictions" (from Cargo, 1983)
Category: Classic Rock

Steely Dan: "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More" (from Katy Lied, 1975)
Category: Greatest Band on Earth

La 33: "La Pantera Mambo" (From the collection Latin Garden 2, 2006)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/33-LaPanteraMambo.mp3
Category: Latin Tropical

Beatles: "Revolution 1" (From their White Album The Beatles, 1968)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/Beatles-Revolution1.mp3
Category: Greatest Band on Earth

Boz Scaggs: "Lowdown" (From Silk Degrees, 1976)
Category: Smooth Bay Area Resident playing with future band called Toto.

Building Factors: "Raffaella" (ah, this is just a single, recorded in 2001 by yours truly)
Category: That's me, there.

Charly García: "No Soy Un Extraño" (From Modern Clix, 1983)
Category: Urban Buenos Aires Blues

Daft Punk: "Rock And Roll" (from Homework, 1996) <--- serious shit

Category: Eardrum Destroyer

King Crimson: "21st Century Schizoid Man (Including 'Mirrors')" <--- serious shit
Category: Unclassified

T-Rex: "Jeepster" (Outtake of Electric Warrior, circa 1971)
Category: Glam Rock

Orquesta Mondragón: "Lola, Lola" (From Cumpleaños Feliz, 1983)http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/OrquestaMondragn-LolaLola.mp3
Category: Pranky Spanish Rock song about a high class prostitute.

Pat Metheny Group: "(It's Just) Talk" (from Still Life (Talkin'), 1987)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/PatMethenyGroup-ItsJustTalk.mp3
Category: Easy on your ears and soul.

Police: "Hole In My Life" (from Outlandos D'Amour, 1978)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/Police-HoleInMyLife.mp3
Category: Band who rocked but not anymore :(


Tequila: "Me Vuelvo Loco" (from Rock And Roll, 1979)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/Tequila-MeVuelvoLoco.mp3
Category: Tequila!


Soda Stereo: "Ni Un Segundo" (from Soda Stereo, 1984)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/SodaStereo-NiUnSegundo.mp3
Category: Argentinean Phenomenon that hooked all South America and Mexico, but nothing else.

Pink Floyd: "Have A Cigar" (from Wish You Were Here, 1975)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/03HaveaCigar.mp3
Category: Showbiz vaudeville.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive: "Give It Time" (from Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, 1973)
http://morenopollarolo.googlepages.com/09GiveItTime.mp3
Category: Rock and Roll

Rolling Stones: "2000 Light Years From Home" (from Their Satanic Majestic Requests, 1967)
Category: Acid trip.

I will have them available until December, 2007. After that date you can contact me and I can personally send you the file.


Enjoy!

Preguntas a Don Cacao: Elvis Señor Feudal

Subject: Questions for Cacao

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:50:08 -0700 (PDT)

Name = pablo

Email =

Country = mexico

Age = 15

Favorite Artist = guns n roses

Favorite Album = appetite for destruction

Visit = Yes, I would visit again

Hear About = Loco Disco

Comments = porque se considera al rey del rock a elvis? siendo que el rey del rock siempre o ha

sido y sera jim morrison

Teniente Gobernador Cacao: Me alegra muchísimo, pero en verdad un montón, ver que hay mocosos de 15 años empilados con el rock and roll y que salen con esta clase de comentarios que realmente me hace pensar en un futuro mejor. (otra vez, no estoy siendo irónico.) Mi cuate aquí nació después del Nevermind y ya lo tiene a Jim en un pedestal, a los Gunners como su banda favorita y a aquel Appetite como mejor disco. De hecho que su universo musical va en expansión dramática.

Verás, Pablito. Elvis es el precursor, el fundador, el creador del movimiento. El Hernán Cortez o el Francisco Pizarro quien tomó el ritmo original de los negros y lo volvió blanco, eléctrico, y sobre todo marketeable en el momento perfecto de la historia. De haber aparecido, digamos, la radio y la TV en el siglo XIX, el rock hubiera salido de esa época, pero con un nombre totalmente distinto.

Morrison fue la continuación natural del proceso que Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard y Jerry Lee Lewis iniciaron. Un poeta rebelde con buen diente para el sexo y las drogas. No olvidemos el alcohol. Su obra es mucho más grande que su persona

Irreparable Pérdida: Joe Zawinful

Otro que se nos va. Esta vez Javier Lishner prepara el obituario. Descanse en paz, Mr. Zawinful:

http://javierlishner.blogspot.com/2007/09/irreparable-prdida-joe-zawinul-leyenda.html

:(

Artist of the Decade

Yes, it's true. I am not kidding, nor this is a prank or being ironic for some reason.

They asked me who's the most important artist of the 2000's and I don't have anybody else in mind or more influential. She arrived in our minds in 1999 when she was just seventeen (and you know what that means.) She presented a pre-fab model of girl that was always there but we barely cared about: the teenage suburb girl who was boiling in heat and frustration. She sings, like our singer Storm Large said once, "like somebody is giving it to her. With the cock in her. Every syllabe. She invented a new form. She's a pro!" (click here to hear Storm bantering about Miss Spears in 2005.) I think the message of her voice it's more about masturbation than sex or love itself. Britney is singing about the lack of love and passion caused because she doesn't know how to deal with love, with the other person. It's always about me, me and only me. And that happens to everyone in the world. Therefore her popularity.

Unlike the baby boomers in the sixties, she didn't have any noble plans of changing the world but just have fun, get emotional and use the buzz of being happy and/or sad just to get by. Britney Spears is the artist of the decade because she embeds everything this Western World has turned into: Comfortably Numbness while others are stealing our money, our souls, our lives. She has been chosen to be the symbol of Failure (Paris Hilton, Lohan and others are just followers or consequences, Britney is the true leader). Unfortunately the spirit of the 60's, the rock and roll souls, the funkyness is dead for the mainstream and the media.

Britney Spears has, for starters, a very cool name, easy to remember and let's say she has charisma. A manipulative mother took her to the Mickey Mouse club (another bubble-maker) and made her a superstar. She even chose who she had to date: another Mouseketeer named Justin Timberlake who eventually got better (come on, that song "Sexy Back" is very cool!) after breaking up with her. They were not "falling out of love" because they never were in love. They were just right for each other but they got bored of the rat race their lovelife became.

Britney started to feel the weight of being famous and things, naturally, happened. Got married once, but the marriage didn't last more than 1 day. Met a dancer named Kevin and married him and under the sanctity of that marriage she had two kids. Then she divorced him after realizing he was just using her. Mrs. Spears was following the sign of the times: When a woman can use a man as an in-house sperm donor and pretend the conversations they're having mean they were in love. It was just another girl from the suburbs who happened to be very, very sexy and very clueless of her surroundings. What was unusual is the immense ammount of fame she got for doing simple things, like hooking up with a boy, or not wearing underwear while hanging out with Paris Hilton.

Notice I didn't talk about her music, or what albums she has released, or how good or bad her production is (it has to be accurate, but not necessarily creative). Britney's life, her own drama is what she gives to us. The most beautiful singer in the world in 2003 and a flop in 2007. Last night at the VMA's she was just not there. She didn't rehearsed at all, moved her body in a clumsy way and turned her critics into wolves who tore her apart like a wounded deer.

I think she wasn't that bad. She looked sexy, like a stripper, pretty much like what Madonna was doing in the early nineties. The song she sang, "Gimme More," (again, it's about me, me, me) is way better than the usual shit I get from the radio nowadays, and it's kinda catchy. She's still an attractive woman, a 25 year old with two kids looking that hot? in the U.S.? Very unusual. She's still a beautiful blonde. But she was being herself and that's what we are expecting of her. It was not a wise or a smart move but her life itself. I forgive this more, way more than that stupid comment she made in 2003 supporting the War in Iraq. Again, the number of supporters is going down and that's a good thing, but that's another story.

Britney, from this outpost I salute you. Artist of the Decade and future member of the Classic Rock elite.

Historia De La Música Rock, Tomo 1: Los Beatles!

Edición de 1981. Primer tomo de la Historia de la Música Rock, editada por Editorial Orbis de España. Otro de mis tesoros que decido compartir con ustedes. En este caso el trabajo de redacción es impecable e interesante -no como el mamarracho de Esta Es Su Vida: Pink Floyd que publiqué no hace mucho en este blog. Esta revisitita está llena de información, pasión y buen ojo crítico para la banda más grande del mundo.

Obra brillante, de lectura imprescindible para cualquier fanático de los Beatles, hispanohablante o no. You know what to do, get your Spanish-English dictionary and... ¡a rocanrolear!

Pavarotti é morto!

Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). If not the greatest tenor of all time, the greatest tenor who recorded with the best techniques (we know how intense he was thanks to tapes and Cd's, we just know Caruso by old 78RPM's). The voice of Opera, the synonym of "awesome vocie." He died today in Italy. Here's a performance of "La Mia Canzone Al Vento:"

Besides his voice, he will be remembered as the one who extended a hand to mass audiences so they can discover Opera. He even did the unthinkable for some purists: sing with the Spice Girls, Barry White, James Brown and even -yuck!- U2. He didn't care. He wanted all of us to discover old music. He was like the CacaoRock of Opera! Hee hee! There you go!

Rest in peace, Maestro.