Gustavo Cerati

Almost all of Latin America knows two of his words: gracias totales, with which Gustavo Cerati said goodbye to Soda Stereo in 1997, closing the band's final concert in front of a packed stadium. But the most interesting part of his story begins afterwards, when he had to stop being the singer of the continent's most beloved band and become, alone, something else.

The biggest band in rock in Spanish

Cerati was born in Buenos Aires in 1959. In 1982 he formed Soda Stereo with Zeta Bosio and Charly Alberti, and with that band he became the biggest and most influential phenomenon in rock sung in Spanish, filling stadiums from one end of Latin America to the other. Soda's lyrics were youth itself: urban love, the electricity of being young in a big city in the eighties. Songs like "Cuando pase el temblor", "Persiana americana" and "De música ligera" were the sound of an entire generation.

Stepping out of the shadow

When Soda split, in 1997, Cerati faced the hardest thing, which was not musical but something else: stepping out of the shadow of a band the continent adored, and doing it without giving the fans more of the same. He had already been testing the water before the end — "Amor amarillo", in 1993, while Soda still existed — but it was "Bocanada", in 1999, that was his true solo debut: an ambitious, experimental record crossing rock, electronics and orchestral arrangements, today considered a classic of Latin rock. It was a major work, and also resisted by part of Soda's following, who wanted another Soda and even blamed him for the break-up. Cerati went his own way regardless.

The time he said no to Sting

In the middle of that transition, music made his path cross with The Police. For a tribute album to the British band, Cerati recorded a Spanish version of "Bring on the Night", which he called "Tráeme la noche". He did not record it with just anyone: he was joined by Andy Summers, The Police's original guitarist, and Vinnie Colaiuta, Sting's drummer. The version turned out so well that many consider it better than the original, and then something happened that captures him completely: Miles Copeland, the album's producer, travelled to Buenos Aires to persuade him to go on tour replacing Sting. Cerati said no. He was making Bocanada; he was busy becoming himself. He chose to be Cerati rather than a stand-in for someone else, and he was not wrong: it was that stubbornness about following his own path that years later gave us gems like "Puente", the song you put on during a rainy afternoon, missing someone. A stand-in for Sting would never have written it.

From urban love to the wound

And something changed, over the years, in what he wrote, and that change is perhaps the most his own. Soda's lyrics had been youth and city love. Those of his solo period turned inward and towards adulthood: love between partners, distance, break-up, the passing of time. His first solo album, "Amor amarillo", had been born precisely of love — of his relationship with the Chilean artist Cecilia Amenábar, whom he married and with whom he had two children, and of waiting for the first of them; she collaborated on those songs. Over time, and after the couple separated, his songs spoke more and more about what hurts after love, perhaps because by then he had lived what he was singing. From the urban infatuation of his twenties to the wound and the memory of his forties: that is a career told through lyrics.

Never resting on Soda's glory

He never stopped moving or collaborating: he recorded a symphonic album that took him to the Teatro Colón, joined projects like Bajofondo, lent his voice to a charity track alongside Roger Waters and others. Always a step further on, never resting on Soda's glory.

Fuerza natural

His last album was "Fuerza natural", from 2009. In May 2010, after the final concert of that tour, in Caracas, a stroke left him in a coma. He did not wake up. For four years he remained in silence, until he died, in September 2014, at fifty-five. And those two words he had spoken long before, gracias totales, became the way an entire continent said goodbye to him.

That is why Cerati is a cult figure. He was the singer of the biggest rock band in Spanish there has ever been, and he had the courage to leave that behind to make music that was harder, stranger, more his own, for as long as he had. Go and listen to him: to Soda Stereo, to "Bocanada", and to "Tráeme la noche" as well. You will hear a man who could have spent his life as the beloved singer of a beloved band, and chose instead to keep becoming someone new.

Sources

Gustavo Cerati (Buenos Aires, 11 August 1959 – 4 September 2014) led Soda Stereo, formed in 1982 with Héctor "Zeta" Bosio and Charly Alberti, the most influential band in rock sung in Spanish; it disbanded in 1997 with a final concert at River Plate stadium closed with the phrase "¡Gracias totales!". His solo career produced "Amor amarillo" (1993, while Soda was still active, inspired by his relationship with the Chilean artist Cecilia Amenábar and the wait for their first child), "Bocanada" (1999, his solo debut proper, considered a classic), "Siempre es hoy" (2002), "Ahí vamos" (2006) and "Fuerza natural" (2009). For the Police tribute album "Outlandos d'Americas" (1998) he recorded "Tráeme la noche", a version of "Bring on the Night", with Andy Summers on guitar and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums; the producer Miles Copeland travelled to Buenos Aires to offer him a tour replacing Sting, an offer Cerati declined in order to concentrate on Bocanada. "Puente" belongs to "Ahí vamos" (2006). He married Cecilia Amenábar, with whom he had two children, Benito and Lisa; they later separated. He recorded "11 episodios sinfónicos" (2001) and collaborated with Bajofondo and on a charity track with Roger Waters, among others. In May 2010, after the final concert of the "Fuerza natural" tour in Caracas, he suffered a stroke that left him in a coma until his death on 4 September 2014, aged 55. The reading of how his lyrics evolved is the author's. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Sourced from Wikipedia, La Nación, Infobae, Radio Nacional (Argentina) and other press coverage.