Sui Generis was formed in 1969 from the merger of two bands: To Walk Spanish, originally led by
Charly García and The Century Indignation, originally led by
Nito Mestre. The newly formed band's members were Charly (piano), Nito (flute), Alberto Rodríguez (drums), Alejandro Correa (bass guitar) (later replaced by Rolando Fortich), Juan Carlos Bellia (guitar) and Carlos Piégari (guitar and vocals). In its early life, Sui Generis experimented with
psychedelic music but would eventually refine and change its sound and is now generally classified as
folk-rock. Infamously, at Sui Generis' first big performance, none of the members but Charly and Nito appeared. Despite the poor showing, they went ahead with the show, García playing the piano, with Nito accompanying on the flute. Amazingly, the audience still loved them. García's simple songs of adolescence contained substantial poetic elements that showed through the limited instrumentation. After this they decided to continue as a duet with Charly composing songs and playing the piano, Nito playing the flute and both at vocals and guitar. Soon after Sui Generis started to gain fame, García, then 20 years old, had to take a break from the band to fulfill his mandatory military service. Unhappy in the service, he pulled outrageous stunts, such as reportedly taking a corpse in a wheelchair for a walk in the sun because "he was too pale". Eventually, García swallowed a large dose of
amphetamines and faked a
heart attack, in an apparent attempt to cut short his military service. Garcia was hospitalized, and it was there that he composed two of the band's most famous songs: "Botas Locas" ("Crazy boots"), censored when first released, and "Canción para mi muerte" ("Song for my death"). Garcia was released from the military due to "mental health problems". In 1972, Sui Generis released its first
LP,
Vida (
Life), which became instantly popular, especially among Argentine teenagers.
Confesiones de Invierno (
Winter Confessions), their second LP, was released in 1973. This album had higher production values and better studio equipment and was also a huge commercial success. == Change of direction == 1974 was a turning point for Sui Generis: Charly was sick of "the piano and the flute" sound and decided that Sui Generis needed a change. He pursued a more traditional rock sound, with bass and drums, for which purpose he recruited
Rinaldo Rafanelli and
Juan Rodríguez respectively. The new album was originally titled
Instituciones (
Institutions), but Sui Generis' producer suggested they change the name to
Pequeñas Anécdotas sobre las Instituciones (
Little Anecdotes about the Institutions), reflecting the unstable nature of Argentine social and political institutions at the time.
Charly's initial concept was to write a song for every influential traditional institution: the
Catholic Church, the
government, the
family, the
judicial system, the
police, the
Army, and so on. However, two songs, "
Juan Represión" ("John Repression") about the police and military dictators (a specific reference to dictator
Juan Carlos Onganía), and "
Botas locas" ("Crazy Boots") about the army, were eliminated from the album by the music label, afraid of the growing political violence of the time. Two more had to be partly changed, "
Las increíbles aventuras del Señor Tijeras" ("The incredible adventures of Mr. Scissors"), a song about the person in charge of film censorship at that time, and "
¿Para quién canto yo entonces?" ("Who am I singing for, then?"), both about censorship itself, while "Música de Fondo para Cualquier Fiesta Animada", about the judiciary system had to be completely rewritten. Even though Charly achieved a different, more mature sound with
Instituciones, the public rejected the change. They preferred the old folk-rock sound, and the album sold poorly. In these years,
Charly met
María Rosa Yorio, who later bore his only son, Miguel García. Miguel released a solo album in December 2005 as Migue García. ==
Há Sido==