Pateando piedras

Pateando piedras (Spanish for Kicking stones) is the second album (and conceptual) of the chilean group Los Prisioneros,^[3] released on September 15 of 1986 by the label EMI,^[4] in cassette format in Chile and in 12-inch vinyl format in other countries in South America. This album was the group's first album to be released by a multinational company, it sold five thousand copies in its advance sale, and reached ten thousand units sold in a short time. The album was preceded by the hit single , "Muevan las Industrias", which showed the group acquiring European techno influences from bands like Depeche Mode and Heaven 17,^[1][2] and abandoning the simple sound of guitar, bass and drums that had characterized his debut album, La voz de los '80 of 1984.

Pateando Piedras receives its title from one of the band's most emblematic songs, "El baile de los que sobran",^[5] a song that presents strong social criticism from its main composer, Jorge González, which he defines as a "song to marginalized youth after leaving formal education",^[6] and which has become one of the most important songs in the history of Chilean popular music. Pateando Piedras meant the band's leap to the masses and the defeat of the censorship imposed by the ruling party, by vetoing them on television and in the media controlled by the Military dictatorship.^[6] On November 1 of 1986 the group promoted the album with two backboard recitals at the Chile Stadium. The album became famous for its lyrics focused on social themes, danceable sound with electronic components and the personality of the band, as well as songs of great radio success such as "Muevan las Industrias", "Quieren Dinero", "¿Porque los Ricos" or "¿Por que no se van", several of the singles were released promotionally by EMI Odeón Chilena.

Background[]

After the release of their debut album La voz de los '80, González and Tapia began taking influence from Depeche Mode and other post-punk groups with a focus on keyboards. In 1985, Gonzalez bought a Casio CZ 101,^[7] and composed the songs «¿Quién le tiene miedo a las máquinas?», «Pendiente fuerte de ti», «Ellos dicen no» y «Muevan las Industrias» which made their debut in August of that year in a presentation at the Teatro Cariola. The last two songs were the only ones that made it onto Pateando Piedras. The rest were scrapped, with the song «Ellos Dicen No» as an exception, as it was reworked into the song «Porfavor».^[8]

Music[]

, leader of the Chilean group Chancho en Piedra, said that it was very risky for Los Prisioneros to have made their second album radically change the sound of the band, going from the punk rock style of bands like The Clash to the techno post-punk style of bands like Depeche mode, but even so they continued to sound like Los Prisioneros. When asked why he decided to take the band in this direction, Jorge González stated that he likes to do electronic music as it's more widely distributed, and has stated that Los Prisioneros were more of a techno pop group than a punk rock one. The musicologist Juan Pablo González considers the album essential and a turning point in the band's career. «It marked a sonorous bridge in the 80s, from an artisanal sound, where the wool of the Chiloé vests and arpeggiated guitars prevailed, towards this world new wave, of technological sounds and very clear texts, where there was no room for metaphors and the political agenda of the time». He's also said that the simple things like the barking of a dog on «El Baile de los Que Sobrán» genuinely portrayed Chilean society at the time».^[9]

The first song of this album, «Muevan las Industrias», is a synthpop, new wave song released as a 12-inch single, with a remix of the song «Quieren Dinero» on the B-side. More than three versions of «Quieren Dinero» were made: the original one published on the album Pateando Piedras, the remix on the promotional single (which was later published in the compilation album Antología, su historia y sus éxitos) and finally a version published in the compilation album "Grandes éxitos".

The second song, «¿Por qué no se van?», is aSka piece critiquing artists and snobbish intellectuals who wished Chile was more European and wanted to leave, yet still hung around for some reason. It was released as a single on September 15, 1986.

The third song, "El baile de los que sobran" is considered by the group as their best and most emblematic song. The song tells the unfortunately common story of a young person from an average family promised great things from school and studying, only to be forsaken by the neoliberal system, which blocked their way to higher education and left them kicking around rocks on the corner or working hard to provide for their families.^[10]

Recording[]

For the recording of "Pateando Piedras" they again worked with the engineer Caco Lyon, who in this work had a fundamental role, "Pateando Piedras" was a different recording from La voz de los '80, according Narea: «Seven of the songs do not have bass but keyboard bass. All the drums are programmed and three of the songs do not have a guitar». Narea bought two Fender guitars, a Lead 1 and a Deluxe Telecaster, both black;^[11] Jorge got himself a Linn drum machine, loaned by Miguel Conejeros from group Pinochet Boys,^[10] The first disc was recorded with an 8-track recorder and the second disc with a 16-track recorder. For this disc the sequencers were used as the Voyetra, where it was recorded with a time code that controlled the sequencers leaving 15 free tracks, Lyon noted.^[12]

Claudio only participated by playing the guitars, he couldn't get used to going from being a guitar, bass and drums trio to being a techno group, and he never felt comfortable playing the keyboard, so he left early. sessions to go see who would be his wife months later, . He played acoustic guitar on the song "El baile de los que sobran", they recorded a first version of this song, it was a drum machine with a bass, at the beginning I didn't have a guitar, and the tempo was faster. Jorge didn't like it, so he recorded it again and asked Claudio to play the guitar, they lowered the tempo, and added dog's barking, what use the Synthesizer emulator 2",^[2][10] According to Jorge Gonzalez, without the dog, the issue would not have been bright. "Muevan las Industrias was a recording in which only Jorge participated. "And the gas balloons and all that, he recorded them" Lyon said. They also recorded the song with a Linn Drum, the programmable drums that existed in Chile at the time, he concluded.

Cover[]

On the front page, Los Prisioneros appear on Line 2 of the Santiago Metro heading to San Miguel. ^[13] In the original photo, Miguel appears standing, with his arms behind his head staring into space; sitting in front of him, Jorge and Claudio looking at the camera. Jorge with an ironic smile and Claudio laughing happily. At first Jorge González, I had thought of making the cover green and reflecting the South of Chile. However EMI did not like the idea and the cover ended up being in the Metro,^[4] in 1987, during a promotional tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the guitarist related in his book "The Prisoners: Biography of a friendship", that the cover of "Pateando Piedras" had a different photo. "It seemed the same except for one small detail: I didn't appear laughing" he said. According to the group's representative Carlos Fonseca, the original had been lost, so they decided to look for the one closest to the sequence taken a second before or after the other to replace it. "It was almost the same, except that in this one I had a lost look," explained Claudio. Later, in Chile, the photograph was also changed, later, when Pateando Piedras came out on CD, the photo of Claudio was smiling, however, soon after they replaced it with the other one. "In short, the story goes like this: Pateando Piedras was released in September 1986. But already in April 1987 there was another photo. Then in 1991 it appeared. Then, in 1992, it got lost again," he concluded. The session in the Metro was led by Jorge Brantmayer, inspired by the "wave" techno that the band took with their publicized synthesizers Casio and Tapia's Simmons battery, "the second best brand in the world, according to Super Rock, the magazine of Latin rock. The vinyl edition, which could only be bought at Fusión, had on the back cover a photo of the band in low angle in front of a high voltage tower, 40 kilometers south of Santiago, on the way to Rancagua. ^[13]

Los Prisioneros never liked the Metro photos, according to Fonseca. ^[13] At first Jorge suggested to Carlos that the three of them appear in the photo in a huge green field, and that they see each other in the distance walking, however, EMI rejected the idea, since, according to them, it would look like a Los Huasos Quincheros.

Release[]

This album was released on September 15, 1986, a week after the attack against Pinochet in the Cajón del Maipo, in the middle of a country under "state of siege",^[9] in a presentation at the Bellavista sector of name "El Café del Cerro", I accompany them a hundred people.^[14][15] The album sold five thousand copies in the first ten days of its distribution, a record never reached by a youth music group in Chile, later they received their second platinum record with twenty thousand copies sold, the Chilean band broke a record by filling the Chile Stadium twice in a row.^[16]

The media began to take seriously Los Prisioneros the magazine Super Rock named them the best Chilean Rock group. In addition, he awarded "Pateando Piedras" as the best album in same year, Jorge Gonzalez as the best composer and chose the song "El baile de los que sobran" as the best song of the year.^[17] In 2006 the album was chosen as the album most important of the Rock Ibero-American No. 160 from the list of the "Los 250 mejores discos de rock iberoamericano" (The 250 best Ibero-American rock albums) by American magazine Al Borde,^[18] and in 2008 was chosen as the best 15th album from the "Los 50 mejores discos chilenos" (The 50 best Chilean albums), according to the magazine "Rolling Stone Chile".^[1]

Legacy[]

Pateando Piedras CD 1992 made in Canada

Before the anniversary No. 20 Chilean actor Héctor Morales said that the lyrics of Pateando Piedras are still current, and that they can fit in any stage of the country. And shortly before for the anniversary Nº. 25, Jaime Bollolio from El Mercurio made an analysis of current Chile with the songs of Pateando Piedras according to their order, from "Muevan las Industrias" to "Independencia Cultural» reaching contingent issues such as student mobilization in Chile in 201 and HidroAysén. Not only does the contingency arrive in Chile the letters of Pateando Piedras but also in countries like Colombia and Peru, country where they were a phenomenon At the end of the 1980s, according to Mario Ruiz, EMI Marketing manager at the time, Los Prisioneros managed to open those markets for "rock in Spanish".^[16]

For the album Tributo a Los Prisioneros (2000), Florcita Motuda recorded a version hardcore punk entitled "Mejor me voy del país", in which he completely changes the lyrics and the original approach of the song. This version was performed by Florcita Motuda during the tribute concert to Jorge held at in November 2015.

Track listing[]

Side A

All tracks are written by Jorge Gonzalez.

Side B

Personnel[]

• Jorge González (lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, producer)
• (guitar, synthesizers, backing vocals)
• Miguel Tapia (drums, percussion, backing vocals)
• Alejandro Lyon (producer)

References[]

External links[]

Rata.cl: Jorge González desglosa "Pateando piedras" de principio a fin