Not all artists have a Wikipedia entry or legions of swifties queuing up in the days before their concerts. Some musical biographies ooze failure due to addictions, racism, homophobia, sexism or even paranormal or extraterrestrial phenomena. Someone has to tell these stories, and journalist Alfonso Cardenal (Madrid, 39 years old) has set himself this mission with his first book, Bitch lives (Sílex Ediciones). Accustomed to scrutinizing the secrets behind the success of the great albums in the history of music in his program Sound sofa —broadcast on Cadena SER—, the author brings back 20 stories about artists with lives as unfortunate as they are interesting and entertaining.
Its protagonists are workers with broken backs who were crazy on stage, old women who recorded albums of blues while crocheting, cowboys who were pioneers of the LGBT struggle, abused women, compulsive liars or blacks who reigned in a white world. Most of them are African-American, although the Colombian Magín Díaz and the Nigerian William Onyeabor also slip in.
Although Cardenal builds an ode to the beauty of the loser around his stories, there is also room to celebrate the redemption of the characters whose life had an unexpected happy ending. “I left out stories that were too sad. I wanted the book to have a sympathetic tone despite the misfortunes,” explains the author. This is the case of retirees like the bluesman Leo Bud Welch, who after a life of working his ass off as a lumberjack, ended his days on stage with money in his pockets thanks to a friend who treacherously recorded him and sold his music against his will; or Alberta Adams, who at 90 years old set out to record an album with her friends from the nursing home to sing about her back problems or visits from her granddaughters. Everyone has their own blues.
Also featured in its pages is Pat Haggerty, the clandestine author of the first album of country gay-themed film in a context as conservative as the American South in 1973. His Lavener Country It went unnoticed until 42 years later it was turned into an object of worship by the grandchildren of those who would once have censured the singer for being a “faggot,” explains Cardenal. There are also crazy stories, such as that of Jim Sullivan, who is rumored to have been abducted by a UFO after disappearing in the desert shortly after recording an album about aliens; or that of the Wiggin sisters (The Shaggs), locked in their house for a decade, forced by their father to learn to play in order to fulfill a family prophecy. Reluctantly, they recorded the worst album in history —according to music lovers—, which later became a myth thanks to Kurt Cobain’s fascination with its grotesque sound.
The stories of these characters may seem impossible to find today, but Cardenal avoids romanticizing the past. “Everyone has their own story and thousands of interesting things happen every day. The problem is that they are not visible today because we sell an image of success and constant perfection. Losers fit in less and less, and it is a shame because stories of failure contain important lessons for life.” The author argues that the algorithm has made us “passive consumers,” and highlights the importance of being curious and discovering music “for yourself.”
Accustomed to searching through records from the 20th century, Cardenal believes that today’s world has all the ingredients for any ordinary citizen to be condemned to a bitch life. “I can’t think of a worse time to be young. It has always been believed that 50 years from now life will be better, but we don’t even know if in 50 years we will have water or if there will be a world war. We are the first generation to see the future as something worse.”
Cardenal is particularly moved by the story of Jackson C. Frank, a folk singer-songwriter whose life was cut short at the age of 11, when he survived a school fire that killed almost all of his classmates. At 21, he received $100,000 in compensation and tried his luck, without success, in the vibrant music scene of 1960s London. After the death of one of his sons, he spent the rest of his life in psychiatric centers and lying on the streets of New York. Depressed, overweight and blind in one eye due to the accidental discharge of a pellet gun that some children were playing with, his life could not have been more difficult, but a fan came to the rescue and supported him financially so that he could get back on stage. After his death at 56, his music was reissued and he became a cult artist capable of sneaking in songs like My Name is Carnival in films like Joker.
On the other hand, characters like the African-American producer Tom Wilson did not have a cruel life, although his way of going down in history was. After graduating cum laude in Economics at Harvard, he ignored all sorts of lucrative options and began a career as the first black producer for Columbia Records. His vision changed the course of popular music by electrifying the sound of a young Bob Dylan, being the ideologue behind the sound of Like a Rolling Stone. He was also instrumental in the success of Simon and Garfunkel, The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa. Although he was a conservative voter and turned his back on the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, the colour of his skin explains why he went down in history as an anonymous hero rather than a legendary producer.
There are also Spanish artists who could have been part of Bitch lives. The author gives as examples Gatta Catana, who died suddenly at the age of 25 when he was about to record an album that would turn urban music upside down; Supersubmarina, whose career was cut short at its peak by a traffic accident; or Miguel Bocamuerta, who debuted with a posthumous album after committing suicide and left a legacy with more questions than answers.
Researching musicians whose work barely transcended and about whom there is no information on the Internet has been a challenge, Cardenal admits. “It has taken years of work because the only material that exists about them comes from local newspapers. Some were very deceitful and said different things in each interview, so there is an aura of mystery. The book exposes everything that is known about them, but there is no certainty that everything that is written there is completely real because nobody knows the whole truth.”
After an hour of chatting in the studios where he records his program, the author says goodbye by clarifying that a large part of social unrest comes from the excess of toxicity that abounds on the Internet. “Not everything is as bad as it seems on social networks. These stories show that, in the end, things always end up turning out better than one expects.” And along that path, Cardenal’s book serves to remind us that music and a sense of humor are two great allies when it comes to enjoying life, even if sometimes, it is bitch.
All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.
Subscribe
Babelia
The latest literary releases analysed by the best critics in our weekly newsletter
RECEIVE IT
#Dogs #Life #journey #unfortunate #musical #careers