“I almost died !” : the provocative face to face of The Three and James Brown in a dressing room

The Three already sounded a considerable event. They began to close the decade as THE great Chilean group of the 90s, a scepter conquered between sales of millions of dollars and records of an irreproachable creative musculature.

By 1996, his MTV Unplugged album had shipped 150,000 copies and featured songs as ubiquitous as who comes here , that foxtrot that it was impossible to stop singing and that, in the words of Álvaro Henríquez himself, “even the pacos knew it”. A year later, on June 25, 1997, they released the more twilight Fome, with more modest sales -estimated at 40,000 units-, but just as generous in terms of hits –travel sickness bag , smell of gas , the tower of babel – and with Henríquez himself claiming his legendary status long later in an interview with this outlet: “Fome is up there with the best records in the world.”

In this scenario, according to the accumulated rolls, the quartet have been summoned to open James Brown’s debut in the country . The Chilean group of the moment with the king of funk of all time. Date and place: December 4, 1997, at 9 p.m., at the old Estadio Chile.

“The best New Year’s Eve party is with…James Brown, the father of soul with his 22-piece orchestra, live!…and Los Tres, special guests,” reads the promotional poster. Of the reunion. “It’s an emotion, a milestone to play with someone like him,” the Chilean singer admitted in statements to La Nación newspaper before the appointment.

Brown arrived in the capital a few days earlier and met the local press . This was his modus operandi at the time and which he also reproduced when he arrived in 2005: he brought together a group of journalists to declaim in front of a handful of microphones his incomparable stature of legend. There was no one like him, according to the histrionic, in a mix between a pastor in full trance and an artist with a seasoned business management.

“Eight months ago I got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They should have given it to me thirty years ago, but all of us in the Third World share the fight against racism, a situation from which Latino artists also suffer”, was one of his sentences. Another: “I have sold more records than Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and Bach, but, to be black and live in a racist world, it’s only now, at 63, that I’m recognized for success.”

Perhaps for the same reason, the 90-year-old was craving revenge and fury for his first time in Chile, like a boxer always ready to concede the first right hand.

In this state, the Three had their first face to face with him in his dressing room.

Shortly before going on stage at the current Víctor Jara stadium, the men of approval They were visited by representatives of the production company in charge of the show to see if they wanted to meet Brown.

“I don’t know how we opened for James Brown, he was amazing. I almost died, because I went with Álvaro to the old man’s lodge. Since someone from production came over and said ‘James Brown is available if you want to meet him. He said he wanted to talk to you too. So off we went,” drummer Francisco “Pancho” Molina explains in the book. burst into a thousand pieces and be happy. A review of the album Fome, the 3by Rodrigo Cabrillana.

As in his meeting with the media, James Brown was in charge and what he dictated – although often chaotic – was an order.

Molina continues his story in the text: “Chile Stadium, awful, you went down there and you arrived with a procession of people, the dancers, in a world with the whole orchestra, like 30 to 40 people… and we arrived at the locker room where they had him, with the star there on the door that said his name, we play and James appears. I’m almost dead! Dressed entirely in green, hat with green brim, green jacket, green vest, green pants, green shoes, everything was green except the black leather gloves. Because I was freezing.”

“And the guy comes out. Damn James! His look hits us, he looks at Álvaro and us in silence. But he, breaking the ice, says to us: ‘I came in the limo listening to the radio and I heard a song by you which has pedal steel, what’s it called?’ ‘Oh yes, smell of gas‘, I told him. “And what does that mean?” he asked us. We’ll explain what it’s all about.”

In effect, smell of gas was one of the bachelors Fomé, one of their most representative songs, one of the first where they used lap steel in their instrumentation and a composition praised by various musicians. So much so that even Café Tacuba decided to include it on their EP Alright Callampatribute to the penquistas.

Its origin is diffuse. Café Tacuba member himself, Joselo Rangel, said the inspiration may lie in a near-death experience of Álvaro Henríquez himself. “Álvaro told me that once the tap was left open and he smelled gas in his house, he suddenly got scared. And he said, ‘no, well, I could have died here’”. Rangel also feels – in the same Cabrillana book – that the “incredible” thing about the track is that it is saturated with abstract imagery.

Germán Bobe, who made the subject’s memorable video, has another look at his birthplace: “Álvaro’s uncle committed suicide with gas. That’s why he wrote the song.” In fact, the director said the first idea for the clip was to depict a group of Nazis in Colonia Dignidad, with a result in which one of them ended up suicide by inhaling gas. This sequence was cut, precisely because “it touched a personal fiber of Álvaro”, according to Bobe. In return, everything was recorded in a sauna and with a less twisted story.

As a third theory, Claudio “Claus” Espinoza – historical roadie of the ensemble and to whom one of Fome’s songs is dedicated – assures that smell of gas It is based on an experience of Pedro Caparrós, Henríquez’s brother-in-law, who suffered a complex incident with the alleged constant gas leak in one of Henríquez’s first residences in Santiago, in Sucre Street. Here’s how “Claus” remembers him in the text Burst into a thousand pieces and be happy: “In the kitchen there is a smell of gas, which is in the first line of the song, it is because Álvaro always smelled of gas there in that house”.

Concerning its musical architecture, the plot is more unanimous. In a column written for El Mercurio, Alfredo Lewin describes smell of gas as “remarkable” and a piece where “you can see the band at their best”. In addition, he specifies that the lap steel trick gives him a country outfit.

Guitarist Ángel Parra said that was when he learned to use this resource and also established himself as co-author of the composition “I started playing the first chords and Álvaro grabbed them, and the composition continued there. But that’s not why I’m going to send the parts saying I wrote this song. I don’t mention it anymore. But the lap steel gives an identity to the theme”.

Anyway, James Brown, the man who seems to have invented hip hop and Michael Jackson, was seduced by smell of gas . And in the dressing room, he continued to ask them about this melody. Until the big question comes: “Who’s the drummer?”

Henríquez pointed to his partner Molina.

“Then, he repeats to us: ‘then I heard another song, I heard two songs on the radio… And so you’re the drummer, you sound good!’ So, I was like wow!, because Álvaro was kind of on the inside. So, after saying that about the drummer, the old man told us again: “I heard both songs, I liked them, and above all, the drummer. Good drummer! But people come to see me! So thank you for opening the show for me and good luck with everything.

There the Chileans withdrew. The face-to-face had been pleasant, but brief and trying. “Every time you go open for someone, you’re destined for no one to give you a ball,” Molina continues in the book.

Then he concludes: “It was not a very memorable concert for me, apart from this conversation with James Brown. And that marked me, in the sense that each time we were asked if we wanted to open for someone, I said no. After this concert, I said no.