Officials of the Argentine Consulate in New York at the inauguration of the corner dedicated to Charly García on November 6th.
Argentine photographer Uberto Sagramoso told Rolling Stone magazine that when he lived in New York in the 1980s, he walked every day through some alleys near his home and studio in Chinatown; He believed that “they were the perfect set” to photograph a punk group. When Charly García, already the most important Argentine rock musician, told Sagramoso that he wanted to create the cover of his new album by spraying a wall, the photographer thought of these alleys for the session. The corner of Walker Street and Cortlandt Alley was immortalized on the cover of Modern Clicks, a key work in the country’s rock history, published in 1983. 40 years later, the city of New York named this corner after the artist’s name and declared November 6th Charly García Day.
“I feel honored (…) that he chose me so that a corner bears my name. “I don’t know many world-famous artists to whom this has happened, no less than in a city like New York, a metropolis that is so important to me and where only there could the sound of modern clics be achieved,” García said in an interview Letter dated October 30th and signed by hand. The 72-year-old artist is off stage and in public life and did not travel to the American city to attend the tribute, but he said he was “happy” and “excited”: “I can’t wait to tell it.” a taxi driver: “Leave me here on Walker St. and… me.” Thank you to those who achieved this.”
The dozens of people who attended the ceremony in Manhattan this Monday laughed at the conclusion of the letter, read by the Argentine consul in New York, Santiago Villalba. In addition to the Argentine and New York authorities, some musicians close to García also took part in the ceremony, including Hilda Lizarazu, Fernando Samalea, Fabián Quintiero, Alfi Martins, Kiuge Hayashida and Toño Silva, who performed some of the songs from Clics Modernos. Also in the audience were Joe Blaney, the album’s engineer who worked with The Clash; the musician’s sister, Josi García Moreno, and the actor Mariano Cabrera, initiator of the initiative to create the Charly García Corner.
García traveled to New York in 1983 at the age of 31. In Argentina, the last military dictatorship ended after seven years. The musician had managed to escape censorship with his lyrics and did not have to go into exile like other artists of his generation, but as the return to democracy approached, he left the country. He went to the US to buy instruments and ended up staying to record an album.
“I am motivated by the desire to participate and integrate myself into the artistic movements of New York (…) I have come to start anew. “I also wanted to isolate myself from what was suffocating me in Buenos Aires,” he told La Semana magazine at the time. García had released his first solo album Yendo de la cama al Living the year before, which was a bestseller, and he wanted to be in a place where no one knew him: “I want to make music that comes from my heart.” (. ..) They took more energy from me than I got. And that has nothing to do with my audience. Anyone who follows me knows that I will come back with something really good.”
The result was Modern Clics, his second solo album, which brought together nine songs, classics like Los Dinosauros, Ojos de Video Tape and Nos Continue Pegan Below. The album was to be called “Nuevos Trapos” and García came up with a photo for the cover with the album’s title written in aerosol spray on a wall. The musician told Sagramoso the idea and he thought of the alleys he walked through on his walks through the city. The artist and photographer did the session there, but when they returned to the studio they discovered the corner of Walker Street and Cortlandt Alley. A black silhouette that looked like a shadow could be seen at the intersection; a shadow man painted by artist Richard Hambleton.
The cover of the album “Modern Clicks” by Argentinian Charly García.
García has said in various interviews that the silhouette reminds him of the white figures used in Argentina to represent those who disappeared during the last dictatorship. “The image drew us like a magnet,” Sagramoso told Rolling Stone magazine. The musician then sat at the foot of the shadow and the photographer took several shots. The final image in black and white shows the musician with a cigar in his hand, wearing a corduroy suit, metal glasses, short hair and looking into the camera. There is another graffiti above García’s head: the inscription Modern Clix, made by Fran Powers, the singer of a local underground band that bore that name. Modern Clix was translated as Modern Clicks and García’s album went down in Argentine rock history with the new title. “It was so perfect that it stayed there,” the musician said in an interview.
Writer Martín Zariello said in a recent essay that García’s move to New York in 1983, when democracy returned to the country, was “counter-intuitive.” “García’s ability to reconcile his work with history without resorting to demagoguery and clichés is appreciated. Modern clicks are the culmination of this artistic bet,” Zariello wrote. From the months the artist spent in the city, this album and its iconic cover remain, now also a copper plaque on the wall. The city is different. There is now a hotel where Sagramoso took the photo 40 years ago; The wall strip on which the black silhouette was located has been painted light and no longer shows any traces of spray.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS América newsletter here and receive all the important information about current events in the region.