There are not many explanations for the success of those songs that go from their specific sphere to the mass sphere.
Chanted as an anthem by soccer fans or taken for their own ideological rite by political movements, that music derives from other contents.
It could be Creedence Clearwater Revival's “Bad Moon Rising” transformed into the anthem of the Argentine fans during the 2014 World Cup, or songs by Víctor Heredia, Sergio Denis and so many creators that resulted in hits on the fields to this day.
The music of Los Auténticos Decadentes, La Mosca or Calamaro (“For the rest”) became a fan song, the same as a romantic song from half a century ago - “Love like the wind”, by the Dutchman Tony Roland - was chanted for decades on different Argentine fields and in different senses (“It seems to me that... no champion emerges...”).
An unbeatable in that particular genre is “Zapatos rotos”, which Los Náufragos turned into a boom at the end of the 60s. “We will return, we will return…” has been sung since then in the Peronist mobilizations, but this is also how the songs of the radicals began. end of the 90s. And “We will return, we will return…” was sung with our national soccer teams until the unforgettable coronation in Qatar 2022 or insists, with the same rhythm, the Doce in each edition of the Copa Libertadores.
But no one could tell Francis Smith, the producer of Los Náufragos and composer of “Zapatos rotos” how to create a hit.
He released them one after the other at that time (“Otra vez en la via”, “Stay cool, Vicente”, “Me in my house and she in the bar”, “I'm a demon” that Safari popularized and many more ).
They were a commercial success, at a time when the dimension of success was given by record sales, radio and TV repetitions, carnival parties in clubs and neighborhoods and endless nights at clubs, when The world of music had nothing to do with networks or the digital paraphernalia of our time.
Although they remained in that record of “bowling” music, the truth is that at some point names that made history in other records such as Fats Fernández, Rubén Barbieri (Gato's brother) and Pajarito Zaguri also passed through Los Náufragos.
Smith once said that “Broken Shoes” arose from a strange visitor he received at his CBS offices, but the story could be common to so many dreamers of his time and of all times.
“My friends told me
that I was born to succeed
I carry my guitar on my shoulder
"I'm on my way to the city."
Francis Bryon Smith died of cancer at the age of 70, in 2009. He had left behind more than 300 songs.
Some, those from the beginning, linked to the genesis of national rock.
But soon, carried by another wave, in simpler, more “hooky” lyrics and melodies that, likewise, remained in popular memory.