I love Uruguay.
It’s a strange country to inspire such devotion, I imagine. But it’s sort of the Zambia of South America: small and easily overlooked; dominated by its neighbors; once prosperous, now in rougher times; and friendly as all get out. I loved my couple of days there last fall and have secret plans to buy a house in Colonia del Sacramento and go write my novels.
Which explains this link to the Uruguayan Invasion. It was musical, not military, a la the British Invasion: For one shining moment in the 1960s, Uruguayan rock bands were the class of the continent, fueling Beatlemania-style mayhem among the youth of Argentina.
The key bands were Los Shakers and Los Mockers — who pinched the styles of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, respectively. (And were, naturally, great rivals.) First, Los Shakers, whom I absolutely love:
I have a great desire to track down a copy of La Conferencia Secreta del Toto’s Bar, which is supposedly their Sgt. Pepper’s, mixing psychedelia with candombe.
Now Los Mockers:
The Uruguayan Invasion, sadly, died out in 1973 with the start of Uruguay’s military dictatorship. Dictatorships have a way of doing that to pop music. All about “Ururock” here.
Comments
12 July | 6:53 | Anthony
Awesome...like Rutles outtakes, only real...
14 July | 21:20 | gabouy
waaaooou, this is the music my father used to listen to, when he was a teenager. Watching the clips in your post feels so good, specially Los Shakers. Can't believe this stuff is on the web.
I've heard my father ramble all my life about how, and why this groups were, and will be the best uruguayan music groups. The neverending discussion.
thank you, I may even post about this subject, and reference your article.
22 September | 12:34 | RosyBlue
Okay, so I am a little slow on the uptake here, but I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with your lede.
I am lucky to live in an area in NJ with a fairly substantial community of Uruguayans (relatively speaking, of course, for a country of only 3.5 million) and have become a full-on Uruguayophile. The food, the soccer, the culture, the people (well, my girlfriend is Uruguayan, so perhaps this was all inevitable)--so much to love!
The only thing left is for me to visit . . .
27 December | 21:50 | James
How did I miss this? Ah, must have been out tanning in the short Canadian summer! Anyway, when I was in Uruguay, I tried to buy a bunch of local music, but the only one that was any fun was a punk band called Trotsky Vengaran (which, I think, mean's Trotsky's Revenge), who are like a Uruguayan Ramones. Maybe I'll slip a track onto the 2007 SXSW Compilation Champs...
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Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)
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