This Thursday, November 21, at the age of 84, Willy Quiroga, bassist and founder of Vox Dei, the Argentine rock band that made history with an album that is still heard today, died. The Bible.
Here, the story of a unique album.
The first milestones of Argentine rock were albums that made history and they became true classics of a musical (and cultural) movement full of originality, inspiration, strength and overflowing talent. Even today they continue to be heard and sung, periodically rediscovered by one generation and another, for example the successful recordings of Los Gatos, the debuts of Almendra and ManalMoris’s urban protest and the merger proposed by Arco Iris.
But there is a work that came out 53 years ago that stood out for his daring and an artistic quality that silenced anyone who wanted to be a detractor, which surely was many. It is about The Bibleby Vox Dei; nothing less than a conceptual proposal based on the Holy Scriptureswith songs about Genesis, Moses, the prophecies, David and Goliath, Christ and even the Apocalypse.
Released as a double vinyl and recorded on a four channel machine with half-inch tapes, the million-dollar question is how they decided to embark on such madness, in a country with a military dictatorship and a Church that enjoyed enormous power and influence.
Vox Dei was a popular group, a quartet made up of Ricardo SouléWilly Quiroga, Juan Carlos Godoy y Ruben Basoaltowhich had stood out with simple ones like bitter sugar y Giftin addition to their first album, all released under the independent label Mandioca, the same one that had Manal and Moris in its ranks.
However, nothing made it possible to guess that they would enter the land inaugurated by The Who in May 1969 with his rock opera Tommyor that they almost coincided with the album that in October 1970 brought the songs of the musical future Jesus Christ Superstar.
In the first reports from that time, when trying to reconstruct the history behind such a project, Willy remembered a bus trip where Ricardo told him that he had an idea but that it seemed too crazy to him.and he didn’t let go. Willy insisted until he found out that it was about singing The Biblewhich he thought was brilliant, and that same day they saw some lyric sketches together.
By doing the math, that must have been the end of 1969, because many times they said that All the work prior to recording took them almost a year and a half.. In fact, in the first BA Rock (November ’70) they played an instrumental passage of the song Genesisthe first one they composed.
Ricardo Soulé had the idea, and his colleagues joined in an initiative that took more than 150 hours of recording, something unprecedented for the time.“In the interpretation I made of the texts,” Ricardo Soulé told the magazine For the before the release of the disc- I make Jesus Christ speak like the son of man. It makes me angry that Jesus has been seen as something supernatural. “He was just magnificent as a man.”
According to Godoy, just as the first album was largely composed at Soulé’s house, The Bible It was made in different houses, including that of Basoalto’s parents, in Lanús, where there was a period of long rehearsals with a Geloso recorder which allowed recording up to six hours of tape. And he said that, unusually, David and Goliath (household name of The wars) emerged in the filmmaker’s department Leopoldo Torres Nilssonwhere they were with their producers Jorge Alvarez and Pedro Pujó, after a long day of recording. “It was composed until the last day,” he said.
A recording with 50 musicians
The recording was done at TNT studios, although the work of strings and orchestra of 50 musicians was recorded in Phonal, with arrangements by Roberto Lar, who was hired especially to highlight a song and chose the first section of Cristocomposed by Godoy for his mother. In total, They used more than 150 hours of recordinga huge figure for the time. As an anecdote, Basoalto used an incredible Ludwig drum kit that Oscar Moro lent himand in The wars Willy usó a coveted Marshall computer lent to him by Emilio Del Guercio.
For his part, producer Jorge Alvarez confessed his intentions when supporting this work: “At Mandioca we had several ideas to work on at a serious level, which would allow us to make a disk that was exportable. I was working with Father Mugica and Roberto Lar in the preparation of a work called Third world massbut it was too folkloric and passed into the hands of the Argentine Vocal Group. After we thought about making a rock opera based on the novel One hundred years of lonelinessby Gabriel García Márquez, but replied that he did not give his authorization. “Then this idea of Vox Dei came.”
In those days, the producer was about to go bankruptwith his famous book publisher Jorge Álvarez Ediciones and couldn’t pay for the recordings, so missed editing it because the Disc Jockey company took care of the debts and kept the record. In fact, The Bible It was not completely finished and they still sent it to print, although the last topic (Apocalypse) I still didn’t have the lyrics and it was like a shock. Decades later, they were showing their full form live.
The universally accepted release date of The Bible es March 15, 1971although Ricardo Soulé once said that he believes it was in April because They wanted to launch it at Easter. The specific thing is that the presentation took place on Mondays in July at the Presidente Alvear theater, at 8:30 p.m., a rather unusual “central time” for local rock.
By the time “The Bible” hit the streets, Vox Dei was already a trio, without Godoy, who had left the group after a crisis among its members.At that height Juan Carlos Godoy was no longer therewho left Vox Dei after a silent internal crisis, and Nacho Smilari (ex-La Barra de Chocolate) entered as a replacement. The rehearsals were in a country house, and they had a new series of instruments, costumes and equipment purchased in New York by Pedro Pujó and Mónica Sokolovsky, the same from the famous Sathya clothing brand.
The concerts were sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, and The first edition of the album included a booklet with texts from a military prieste, because Alvarez thought that the work could bring controversy and sought the approval of the Church.
That’s why, The band got together in the Archbishopric with Monsignor Giacelliwho gave the go-ahead and told Soulé: “It would have taken me three hours to explain what God is and you, with just a syllogism, managed to do it.” He was referring to the famous beginning of the album: “When everything was Nothing, the beginning was nothing. He was the Beginning and from Nothing he made light.”