He shows a T-shirt and has a story, an anecdote. Then, with tenderness and care, he folds it right and places it in the corresponding pile... No rush. Each "tower" has about 25-30 t-shirts and are organized thematically: events, events, advertisements or, simply, rock bands from the 70s and 80s, their favorites.
Juan Francisco Langdon (46), better known as Frankie Langdon is a musician, sings in the band Los Abuelos (detachment of the remembered group of Miguel Abuelo), conducts since 2008 the nightly radio program "La casa rodante", in Nacional Rock, and works in the communication area of a winery.
Frankie Langdon collects everything, but his "vedette", as he says, are the 700 shirts of the '70s and '80s that he has separated by theme. Photo: Rafael Mario QuinterosTeatro Colon Buenos Aires29-05-2023Photo: Quinteros - FTP CLARIN MRQ-09830.JPG Z
But above all, Frankie says that he is a heterogeneous collector although his vedettes, he clarifies, are the shirts. " If there is a fire at home I take my family out and I do not doubt it, I return for my shirts, for which I invested money, time and tears, "illustrates his passion.
Mix of Morrison and Jagger, married with three children, says collecting "is a side effect of nostalgia. I am the president of Melancholic Anonymous. I am very ambitious and it is clear that I cling to things that are already finished or fulfilled their time ... I die to have something that I lack and when I get it the existential emptiness is a fright. I love to collect, but I suffer and am chronically dissatisfied."
Among its "cachivaches", there is a wonderful collection of lunchboxes from the '60s, a scale and unopened bottles of Tab, Teen and Mirinda. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
His apartment on Libertador Avenue is an attractive museum "with gadgets that have an invaluable personal value, but they are still junk," he says. A sideboard with shelves is the first obligatory stop on this home tour: a Pagur scale governs a shelf that draws attention to the number of historical lunchboxes with the faces of protagonists of series such as "The Bionic Woman", "The Dukes of Hazzard", "Charlie's Angels" or "The Nuclear Man".
On another shelf are unopened bottles of Teen, Tab and Mirinda, vintage sodas, "that someday I will take courage and try them." Intact boxes of Adams gum also appear. "How bad it must have been for collecting that I suffered to get lunchboxes with its inner thermos of the sixties, mommy. Who puts lunchboxes together?" he spends himself. And he goes for more: "My radio show has been on the air for 15 years. I have the list of songs that I spent in each broadcast, which goes every day. Can you believe?"
While most of the shirts are related to music, it has other "originals" such as Maradona's in Boca in 1981 and Luque's with the 1978 World Cup Team, Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
The tour of the department offers another stop in front of the original poster of "Jaws" (1976), Steven Spielberg's first great success, to appreciate, beyond, a shelf full of glass glasses from the series "Brigade A", next to another collection of "The Pink Panther". He says the vessels are there, intact. "But knowing they're there puts me at ease."
The Bible and the water heater. But as Frankie said, all the paths of the spacious house lead to the living room where the shirts are displayed on chairs, tables and armchairs. "There are more than 700 and I know them by heart, I know everything I have, they are cataloged. When I can't find any, I despair."
Here Frankie Langdon wears a Neil Young shirt, one of his favorites. Behind him, one of the coat racks with dozens of "specimens". Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
Frankiealways wears a T-shirt. He does not wear just anyone, he chooses them according to his mood or if there is a related show. "A few weeks ago we went to see Kiss with my wife, who banked me in this madness, and I wore one and lent her another. I think the shirt that goes to that artist's show is worth a little more."
He says forcefully that he does not sell anything he has, that he sometimes gives away if he knows that someone is going to enjoy it and usually lends to friends who "are threatened" to return them to their owner. "But I use them, I enjoy them and I admire them, I don't have them stored in a closet. What's more, none of the clothes I wear are from the '90s onwards. Nothing. It is a pact that I have with me and I fulfill it to the letter."
Frankie Langdon with "the one who started all this madness". A T-shirt that says Jamaica No Problem. "I used it when I was 10 years old until it disintegrated. And at 20 I found it on the internet." Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
He says that he is an expert, who distinguishes the league "which is true and which trout, whether it is cotton or polyester, whether it is fifty-fifty ... The universe of t-shirts is wide and like any universe, there are fakes." "In Argentina I am the only collector of t-shirts from the 70s and 80s."
He doesn't remember when was the last time he wore a shirt. "The shirt is something sacred, that speaks, that identifies you... That's why the song 'Ya nadie va a escucha tu reshirta', by Los Redondos, hits me so much. You might think I'm crazy, but this – Mick Jagger is stroked in his stone shirt – is fundamental." And he clarifies: "90 percent of what I have is from abroad. I get them when I travel or through my contacts I have in the United States."
"The negative side of all this, the question I ask myself is: who is going to take care of all this?" says Frankie Langdon.Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
He says he started collecting T-shirts from a copy his father bought him on a vacation in Jamaica in 1987. "This is to blame for everything," extends one that features the drawing of a beach, a palm tree and the legend 'Jamaica. No problem'. My old man gave it to me when I was ten years old and I used it until it disintegrated. I missed her a lot and when I was 20 I realized that online you could get them and that was the beginning of the end: I never stopped again."
In 1997 "all this wonderful nonsense" began. He looks around and is surrounded by stacks of T-shirts. Despite the orderly chaos, he enjoys showing them all. He stretches an Eric Clapton T-shirt, another Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt, "this one that is worth gold and that at the time I used to sleep ... 'Nevermind', by Nirvana. I also have this beauty of the amazing Tina (Turner), recently passed away... What a copada of Alice in Chains, look what this of Stone Temple Pilots is, they are no longer achieved. "
"I am the Badía of the Grandparents of Nothingness. I know everything and I am proud to sing in the band, whose next show will be at the Tasso on June 30," says Frankie Langdon.Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
It runs two meters and on a desk are already separated other of his favorites: the saga of Duran Duran of different recitals, "which have their history because each one is a punctual show. Look at The Who, and this one from the Eagles, look at Bruce Springsteen, the band America. Uy this ... can you read? It is from a concert by The Beach Boys, on July 4, when they played with Joan Baez, David Lee Roth, Katrina and the Waves and Christopher Cross. It was an afternoon full of hits," he enthuses as if he were seeing them for the first time.
It goes for another stack, this time "football world cup" version. The first one that appears is that of Italia '90. "It is smooth, without touching and just in case I did not put it on the last one in Qatar, you saw, something to scare away the ghosts. On the other hand, I never took this one, the '86 World Cup, which has the World Cup in the middle, but it was not yet known that Argentina would keep the title."
"As well as the figurines, there are the t-shirts of difficult artists like Lou Reed. Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell," says Frankie Langdon.Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
The advertising category is very attractive. "One of the ones I love the most is that of Pibe Bazooka, from 1986." It has a dozen of the Cola drink from different eras and one of Nesquik is very nice with the bunny in the foreground. Turn your waist and the movies category appears. "This is a remeraza, 'Jaws,' as the first version of Jaws was titled."
And Frankie surprises with the dozen shirts on Halley's comet, the celestial body that passed through the sky of planet Earth in 1986. "I look at them and I'm surprised at all the ones I got. I even have versions of the year 1985, announcing its arrival. And look how paradoxical, look! in this same pile I also have about Chernobyl, the explosion and the horror in which millions of people succumbed to radiation versus a subject as romantic as the comet."
He says that his father is not interested in collecting "and believes that what I do is a waste of time. My wife understands me, she knows me a lot, but she doesn't want me to dress my children in the shirts that someone wore forty or fifty years ago. That is to say: I bank but with limits. 'Your madness is yours, not with the kids.' And I inherited this from Darío Carrara, my maternal grandfather, he was a collector of whatever, I think he was more accumulator than collector. Surely he is the culprit of this spawn," he points out smiling.
Without trying to defend the cause, he says: "Since I was little wearing shirts made my day. And over the years, I have no doubts that identify you. There are also those horrible shirts, which say 'Calcio', or other words in Italian, for example, that also define you. And there are people who wear some who have no idea what they're wearing... and a little anger grabs me."
When asked if he could choose his most beloved for different reasons, he promises to make the effort: "Let me see... This one from Bob Marley, from a tour he did in 1978 is on the podium, I want a lot this one from Allman Brothers, from 1974. It hurts me not to be able to use it, it doesn't even fit me with forceps anymore."
"And I would tell you that this one over here is green gold. This long-sleeved shirt from Fillmore East, a room in New York where everyone played, but everyone the greatest, from Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, through Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin to Joe Cocker and John Lennon. Every time I put it on, I feel the weight of a piece of rock's big history. It's from 1970, and I would tell you that there are practically no specimens in the world," he gets excited.
Another very beloved is one made in Argentina. "This is water in the desert. Year 1982, Ferro court. Charly García sponsored by Fiorucci presenting 'Going from the bed to the living room'. It is one of the very few national shirts that I have... Here unfortunately there was almost no production."
The lament is fleeting because another pearl emerges in the mountain of cloth: "This one from Doobie Brothers, from 1972, is very difficult to get. There are artists who are not like Lou Reed, look at this one. And this one by Joni Mitchell from 1983. And a luxury I gave myself: one of the many memorable challenges of Jimmy Connors vs. Bjorn Borj, November 1982."
The downside of collecting? "Well, in addition to what you suffer, the time you invest and what you spend, in addition to the place you do not have and you invade and complicate the other person with whom you live ... The big question is: who is going to take care of all this tomorrow? That's the downside. I hope my children, but I couldn't say for sure."
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