Moving through the music of the sixties, one of the pioneers of rock music in Argentina is a band called, Los Gatos. Like most bands of the era, their trajectory is pretty short. The band released their first album, Los Gatos in 1967 on a local label, which eventually was picked up by RCA for future releases.
The five members of Los Gatos consisted of Alfredo Toth (bass), Ciro Fogliatta (keyboards), Kay Galiffi (guitar), Oscar Moro (drums), and Litto Nebbia (vocals). This line-up remained intact for two years, which at that point Kay left the group.
Los Gatos became a huge success and a pioneer but if you go back just two years earlier, it was Litto and Ciro that founded a band called, Los Gatos Salvajes. Salvajes also initiated beat rock music in the country. They did not have much success until Los Gatos came to life. It could have been the year, or even what had been happening in the country at the time.
Like most of the music coming out at this time, Latinos were following the Beat rock genre that The Beatles had made popular. Los Gatos seems to be one of the firsts to release this genre of music in Argentina. This will eventually lead the way for Latin rock music to become both popular and unpopular, just as rock did in America.
The most popular song from this album is “La Balsa” which also is the band’s most popular song. It was just around this time that bands were adding keyboardists to their members. Within “La Balsa” that early keyboard sound is so reminiscent of The Doors. I think I dig this first album of Los Gatos.
Since learning about Los Gatos history, 1965 and Los Gatos Salvajes seem to be my earliest find. I will be checking them out next.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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