Diego González publishes his first book Bogotá: volume and distortion (five decades of rock)
Photo: Terumoto Fukuda
“Bogotá: volume and distortion (five decades of rock)”, Beetle publishing house, It is the first book written by journalist Diego González Rodríguez. It is a chronicle built with 156 interviews, 13 gigabytes of information, 186 hours of recording – 8 continuous days of audio – with which its author pays tribute to those who, despite having everything against them, managed to build what we know today as Bogotá rock.
Rodríguez will present his work at the Bogotá International Book Fair this April 26 at 6:00 pm in pavilion 6 – Stand 540. Here we share one of the chapters.
Rock is not dead
If you agree / Put on the uniform / Spit your hatred against people / Happily / We think differently / Happily / We are different. “Happily”, Happily (2015), The Royal Academy of Sound.
Without the kids of the sixties, the first guitars and amplifiers would not have been improvised, nor would dance Cokes have given way to discos. Without the seventies, we would not have the experience of massive, liberating and amazing concerts. In the eighties, they sang our story in Spanish. In the nineties, youth took over the parks and founded, between trial and error, with ingenuity and euphoria, an event that became the cultural heritage of Bogotá.
Bogotá rock germinated like a cactus in the desert.
A true friend / Sincere to the end / A brother to trust / Advice to listen to. “Life”, Life(2019), Pitbull.
Bands come and go, artists transform. 20 years after its first presentation, Catedral returned to Rock to the Park; Sha-i, Ultrágeno, Morfonia and La Rebeca also met again; I hate Botero has said goodbye twice; Local Time and Special District have not given up.
Groups arise and go out, they ally, merge, stop, meet again, reconnect and roar again. The cochineal kicking upside down.
The public waits hopelessly. Purists collect pasts, while sounds merge in the present. Rock will not die as long as there are poets in the cities.
Just turn on the radio and listen to those who name the air: La Real Academia del Sonido, Diamante Eléctrico, Los Makenzy, Oh’laville, Radio Flyer, Tiempos de Sangre, Aire Como Plomo; They are just a few.
The groups are nomadic, uncertain. Each band is a remnant of youth that permeates the air to come.
The Rock Generation It doesn’t end, it doesn’t end, it doesn’t stop. The infinite, changing and renewed force of creation has no pause. Someone, right now, is humming, typing, writing, drumming, composing, imagining a work; with music as the only driving force, with pressing needs, with art as the only incentive.
Along the way the voices fade away, but the musicians came, come and will come to offer the harmonies that inhabit their spirits, the deepest vibrations of their being. Rock will always be the soundtrack of our existence.
Living in fear is not my choice / Living silently is not the solution / Keep singing with your head held high / Keep fighting / Keep dreaming.
“Amnesia”, Alive of Miracle (2020). The Severe Matacera.
Rock is not dead. How Chopin’s waltzes will not die. He will not die as long as there is a friend left to disagree with.
It will resist as long as the powerful offer insurmountable futures, while the young perish dissatisfied and oppressed.
It is the soundtrack of the fight against injustice, the status quo, inequality. It thrives on boredom. As long as someone wants to write a song and has a pencil, paper and warmth in their blood, rock will live forever.
If you have nothing / If there are no more words / If you can’t find anything to lose / Just leave me / Just let me go / Believe me again.
Vietato, “More Words” (2004).
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