page_title: Artaud (album)
section_title: Background and recording
hierarchical_section_title: Artaud (album) / Background and recording
caption_attribution_description: Español: Luis Alberto Spinetta circa 1973.
context_page_description: Artaud is the third studio album credited to Argentine rock band Pescado Rabioso, released in October 1973 on Talent-Microfón. It is essentially the second solo album by singer-songwriter Luis Alberto Spinetta, who used the group's name despite their disbandment earlier that year. The album is named after French poet Antonin Artaud, to whom it is dedicated. The album is named after and dedicated to French poet Antonin Artaud, and was conceived as a reaction to his writings. The album's original packaging is famous for its odd shape, which the record label initially resisted. Spinetta presented Artaud with two morning shows at the Teatro Astral on Avenida Corrientes, which featured him accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. He also gave each audience member a copy of his manifesto Rock: Música dura, la suicidada por la sociedad ), in which he defended his vision about the countercultural Argentine rock movement.
context_section_description: After the 1970 dissolution of Almendra—a foundational band of the burgeouing Argentine rock movement along with Manal and Los Gatos—three new groups emerged as its former members sought to create new projects. Edelmiro Molinari formed Color Humano, Rodolfo García and Edelmiro Molinari created Aquelarre, and Luis Alberto Spinetta put together Pescado Rabioso along with drummer Black Amaya and bass guitarist Osvaldo Frascino. The short-lived Pescado Rabioso was a conscious shift from Spinetta's previous acoustic and melodic music, favoring a more violent,  "electric, raw and powerful style" influenced by his new friendships within the "heavier" rock scene of Buenos Aires, which included acts such as Pappo's Blues, Manal and Tanguito. Spinetta himself referred to it as his "punk moment". The project experienced various line-up changes (a characteristic of almost every local rock band during that time) and released two studio albums—Desatormentándonos (1972) and Pescado 2 (1973)—before disbanding. By the time Pescado 2 was released in March 1973, the band had already split up. Amaya told Crítica Digital in 2009 that David Lebón and Carlos Cutaia left Pescado Rabioso to pursue their solo careers and that they communicated their disbandment to Spinetta in the Planeta theatre, which he took as a great offense. He also claimed to have been the last member to leave the band and to have rehearsed for Artaud. One of the reasons was that Oscar López, their manager at the time, wanted Lebón to become the lead singer and guitarist and for Spinetta to play bass. According to Spinetta, his fellow band members did not share the more "lyrical" vision that he was developing, and wanted to change the style of the band into rock and roll and blues. Both Amaya and Cutaia have said that they wished to play something "more bluesy", with the latter explaining that they wanted Lebón to participate more as a composer and get away from Spinetta's more complex compositions. However, Lebón and López have denied that there was a plan to turn Pescado Rabioso into a blues band. Spinetta told Eduardo Berti in 1988: 
  I experienced that as a great paradox: Pescado Rabioso was me, and I could have had those musicians like others; I wanted to play my songs, express how I felt, and it seemed like a deformity to start to make rock and blues songs as if it were the time of Manal. At that time there was still that mania to play rhythm & blues, but shortly after David [Lebón] released his solo album and it was not only in that style. After all, he was as lyrical as I was.
  In Ezequiel Abalos' 1995 book Historias del rock de acá, Amaya recalled: "He felt abandoned because he wanted to continue playing with the band, as he was left alone and it was still pending to record another album with Microfón, he recorded Artaud with the songs he had for Pescado Rabioso. When I heard the album, I wanted to [die]." As a result, Spinetta enlisted his brother Gustavo and former Almendra members Emilio del Guercio and Rodolfo García to play in the album. Spinetta explained to Berti that he decided to release the album under Pescado Rabioso's name because he felt using his own would be "too pompous", and "to prove to the former members of the group that Pescado Rabioso was [him]." The use of the band's name has also been described as a contractual obligation. Artaud was recorded at studio Phonalex in the barrio of Belgrano,  a few blocks from the Spinetta house. Journalist Miguel Grinberg described the sessions as "a very private ceremony". According to Rodolfo García, the songs were "practically made in the studio" and recorded in few takes. He stated that in "Superchería" and "Las habladurías del mundo", "the concept with which the tracks were created was similar: to play them with absolute freedom [and] the biggest swing of which we capable". Spinetta composed and recorded almost the entire album with a Harptone acoustic guitar that he called "the Standel". Lyricist Roberto Mouro has claimed that Spinetta used a Hagström electric guitar in "Todas las hojas son del viento", whil
caption: Spinetta circa 1973.
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