I Remember My World: The Journey To 'La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto's Bar' - Part One (April 1967 to June 1967)

I Remember My World: The Journey To 'La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto's Bar' - Part One (April 1967 to June 1967)

In April of 1967, Los Shakers had achieved a feat most international artists could only dream of, having a number one single on the Billboard Top 100 chart in the United States. The release of Red Rubber Ball backed with Don’t Call Me On The Telephone Anymore, Baby in March of that year received to put it mildly a vastly mixed reaction around the world achieving massive success in the United States and Canada where it hit the top of the charts, becoming a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany and Japan whilst completely missing the singles charts altogether in Australia and France and fairly low sales in Argentina, being vastly outsold by their previous single Never, Never.

As promotional work for the single continued throughout the months of March and April, the band had become increasingly impatient to return to the recording studio particularly as the group’s number of compositions began to grow. The band began to write and rehearse in hotel rooms, frequently incorporating and experimenting instruments which harkened back to their jazz or Latin American roots.



Pictured: The band composing an unknown composition in a hotel room, 1967. (L to R: Caio on tambourine, Pelin on bandoneon, Osvaldo on 12-string acoustic & Hugo on double bass)

“I find the guitar limited, I’m not very good at it. Piano is my main instrument so I write on it a lot. I’ve also been playing [double] bass recently a lot, I used to play it when I was younger. You think about music differently when the notes aren’t right in front of you and you can’t hide behind chords.” - Hugo Fattoruso, 1967

This experimentation led to the group’s traditional roles beginning to stagnate particularly as Hugo began to focus more on contributions via the piano or the organ, slowly retiring the ‘lead guitarist’ role forcing Osvaldo to provide a much larger presence on the guitar. Osvaldo was also beginning to contribute drums to the group’s recordings, his main instrument prior to the formation of the group. Compared to the other three members who were active composers and multi-instrumentalists, Caio had been essentially an exclusive drummer all his life with very limited guitar skill which he used to contribute compositions in Los Shakers. Osvaldo’s increased activity in the drums and percussion area of the group was likely a factor in Caio’s decreased role and enthusiasm in the group’s offerings throughout the remainder of his tenure in the band as well as the band’s insisting desire of experimentation.

The prolific nature of the group’s collaborative writing in these settings led to an increased pool of material to choose from, in vast contrast to the creative process of their previous albums which often involved writing a piece of music from scratch in the studio, rushing together an arrangement and lyrics to get finished within a matter of hours. With the recent success of the Red Rubber Ball single and the recent Shakers For You studio album, the members and band manager Marcos Zimet arranged a negotiation over proceedings of the group’s future work with an emphasis on creative control. Initial discussions over the production of a double album proved challenging, mostly due Odeon’s lack of experience and faith over a popular music double disc set which would prove to be expensive to produce and likely take a large hit in sales due to its inflated price in an economy where many could barely afford to buy a 7’’ single let alone a multi disc release.

After continuous discussions between Zimet and Odeon, the group was ultimately allowed two large blocks of recording sessions in Argentina’s EMI Studios to record the planned double album, one block lasting between June and September 1967 which would ultimately extend into occasional sessions in October and November for mixing and a second block between February and May 1968 with a planned release date in June 1968 which eventually would be delayed to the following month. The compromise was royalties, the band who didn’t earn much from national record sales took an essentially 0% cut to recoup the album’s expensive costs relying purely on the royalty deals of international releases and song publishing.

This profit cut for the group was unexpected, especially considering their royalties were so small from Argentina and Uruguay record sales that there seemed very little left to cut. The band nonetheless was happy with the arrangement particularly with the seemingly endless studio time offered, at least partly oblivious to the monetary arrangement decided upon Zimet and the label.

“I don’t think any artist had been given that much time on an album, we were so used to spending two or so hours on a song.” - Hugo Fattoruso, 2008

On the 26th of June 1967, the band along with their seasoned producer José Soler entered EMI Studios to commence work on their third studio album which even from this early stage in development was centring around the song The Top Secret Conference Of Toto’s Bar which would be the focus of the album’s first recording session.

“We had a lot of songs to record, I think we had about 15-20 laying about. We tried making an album with a concept around it initially, around the idea of Toto’s Bar [which was the first song we recorded]. But we quickly found that a lot of the songs didn’t really have much in common and I suppose we didn’t want to change them too much from the way we had written them. We were quite fussy back then, if we got something the way we wanted it it could never get changed.” - Osvaldo Fattoruso, 1979

Much like the group’s previous effort, the album would be recorded on four-track tape utilising custom made EMI recording equipment although the complexity of the album’s arrangements proved challenging within these confines particularly with the budget of the album which during the first block of recording sessions during 1967 was small enough to refuse the band the freedom of outside session musicians, reducing the scope and articulation of their envisioned arrangements.

“We thought we could maybe get a few people in for a favour, but our arrangements prevented us. We relented but still did some things with horns and string instruments because we needed them we thought” - Hugo Fattoruso, 2008

“Back then, our studio had 4 track machines at around 15 ips (inches per second) which was quite revolutionary compared to other facilities in South America but almost prehistoric compared to other countries. ‘Toto’ was a real challenge to record because they were coming up with these dense arrangements and only the four of them were allowed in the studio which meant a lot of retakes and bounce downs had to happen.” - José Soler - 1999

The Top Secret Conference Of Toto’s Bar is an oddity in Los Shakers’ early catalogue as with its political lyrical undertone, parodying the Summits Of The Americas, gatherings or “secret conferences” held by state and government heads of the Western Hemisphere which had occurred in Uruguay in April of that year.

“We used to stop by a bar that had that name [Toto’s Bar]. It’s summit for the anti-summit as the lyrics say” - Hugo Fattoruso, 2005

Perhaps the use of ‘Toto’s Bar’ was a tribute and celebration of their musical past, as the real Toto’s Bar found in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, was a haven for musicians particularly during the members’ role in the jazz ecosystem of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Whatever the reason, the song or the concept struck a chord with the group very early on and set a necessary framework for the album’s continuous evolution.

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La conferencia secreta del Toto’s bar (The Top Secret Toto’s Bar Conference)

Date: Monday, the 26th of June 1967 (2:00pm- 5:00pm)
Producer: José Soler
Studio: EMI Studios, Argentina

Hugo Fattoruso: Piano, lead vocal, backwards chatter,
Osvaldo Fattoruso: Electric guitar (rhythm), backing vocal, backwards chatter
Pelin Capobianco: Bass guitar, backwards chatter
Caio Vila: Drums, backwards chatter,

Track 1: Drums (Caio Vila)
Track 2: Bass guitar (Pelin Capobianco), piano/guide vocal (Hugo Fattoruso)
Track 3: Rhythm guitar (Osvaldo Fattoruso), backwards vocals and clapping (Hugo Fattoruso/Osvaldo Fattoruso/Pelin Capobianco/Caio Vila)
Track 4: Lead and backing vocals (Hugo & Osvaldo Fattoruso)

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Compared to many tracks that would comprise La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto’s Bar, the instrumentation is fairly simple requiring only one bounce down on what could be defined the song’s one unique sonic element, the unique backwards speech located during what would usually be a guitar or an organ solo in previous Shakers recordings. Although characterised by Hugo as done for “just a laugh,” could be seen as an extension to the backwards guitar work seen on The Beatles’ Revolver album (1966) or the band’s own previous album Shakers For You (1966) but most likely extension of The Beatles’ 1966 B-side Rain which utilised backwards vocals for the song’s conclusion although merely just lines already muttered in the song. Although innovative for it’s time, it would prove to be not the first time an intentional backwards message had been used on a popular music album as two months prior, a backwards and sped up message had been cut into the inner groove of The Dukes Of Stratosphear’s landmark album 25 O’Clock (released on the 1st of April 1967), a message when decoded said “hey go fuck yourself with your atom bomb,” spoken by The Fugs band member Tuli Kupferberg.

It wouldn’t be until the messy mixing sessions in October that The Top Secret Conference Of Toto’s Bar and My Aunt Clementine would be considered and eventually edited together as one track being one of the few major mixing decisions in common between the final double album release in July of 1968 and the “rough mix” single disc release in the United States withdrawn in January of 1968.

Two days later on Wednesday the 28th of June 1967, the second recording session of the album took place and surprisingly the band’s first recording session beyond their usual two to three hour length lasted a fairly unimpressive five and a half hours. The session’s first effort was a rushed rendition of The Beatles’ song When I’m 64, a song which at this point was only slightly a month old in the public’s eye. Most likely this was merely a warm up or experiment as only about half an hour was spent on the song before it was quickly abandoned.

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Cuando tenga sesenta y cuatro (When I’m Sixty-Four)

Date: Wednesday, the 28th of June 1967 (9:00am-9:30am)
Producer: José Soler
Studio: EMI Studios, Argentina

Hugo Fattoruso: Piano, xylophone, backing vocal
Osvaldo Fattoruso: Lead vocal, electric guitar (rhythm)
Pelin Capobianco: Bass guitar
Caio Vila: Drums

Mono master tape exists, no stereo mix was made nor has the final multi-track tape resurfaced.
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The majority of the session would be focused on the Hugo & Osvaldo Fattoruso composition Lovely Lola, a love song musically playing on the samba and bossa nova styles previously seen in the group’s music such as Always You and Never, Never from 1966. The rhythm track for the song with Hugo Fattoruso on piano, Osvaldo Fattoruso on electric rhythm guitar, Pelin Capobianco on electric bass guitar and Caio Vila on drums proved a challenge with the song’s odd structure and chords finally concluding with take 16 which would be the master the song would be built upon.

“Typically we’d go into the studio and Hugo would run to the piano and write something. Just like that, we’d all fiddle around on our instruments till we found something we liked. You’d look at the clock and find out you wasted half your time, so you’d do it as quickly as possible. If you made it all the way through that’s what made it on the record. When we got to Toto’s Bar [...] suddenly we had all this free space, we didn’t have to rush. We started coming up with all these ideas, but none of us could play any of them.” - Pelin Capobianco, 2003

The lyrics composed by Osvaldo and incorporating elements of English and Portuguese were undefined regarding who or what Lola actually was with the lyrics seemingly pointing to both Lola as a person and as the name of a guitar “dear Lola meu violão, play lovely Lola!“

“[Lovely] Lola was a big one for us, that was the first time we really put a lot of effort into a record. We really tried on that one.” - Osvaldo Fattoruso, 1971

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Adorable Lola (Lovely Lola)

Date: Wednesday, the 28th of June 1967 (9:30am-1:10pm)
Producer: José Soler
Studio: EMI Studios, Argentina

Hugo Fattoruso: Lead vocal, piano, handclaps
Osvaldo Fattoruso: Lead vocal, electric guitar (rhythm), electric guitar #2 (lead), handclaps
Pelin Capobianco: Backing vocal, bass guitar, percussion, handclaps
Caio Vila: Drums, percussion, handclaps

Mono, alternate mono mix and stereo master tapes still exist, but the final multi-track tape has not resurfaced.
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Work on Lovely Lola finished for the day around 1:10pm and would be the first track of the recording sessions mixed, with a mono mix (most likely the ‘alternate mono mix’) done on the day although eventually remixed at a later date. This alternate mono mix which contains a shorter fade but additional session chat at the beginning was included on the recall “rough mix” edition of La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto’s Bar in the United States. This would prove to be the end of musical activity for this session although the band remained until 2:00pm to discuss their thoughts and plans for the Toto’s Bar project. A snippet of these conversations captured by set microphones from the session was included as an unlisted bonus track on the La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto’s Bar: 40th Anniversary Box in 2008, at this point Lovely Lola is bookmarked as a potential A-side that most likely will not be included onto the album most likely due to the group’s original intent of creating a concept album that although not specifically mentioned could potentially include the previously recorded When I’m Sixty-Four. Also briefly discussed is the writing contributions of Pelin and Caio who brought up very little in regards to material during the 1967 recording block.

Pelin: “He estado trabajando en algunas cosas…en privado” (I’ve been working on a few things in private)

Hugo: “¿No tienes uno aquí?” (Don’t you have any yet?)

Pelin: “Creo que el material que escribimos es muy bueno, no veo por qué íbamos a parar... tenemos suficiente aquí para trabajar…” (I think the stuff that we wrote is very good, I don't see why we would stop...we got enough here to work on)

Ultimately Pelin would compose two songs for the album’s second half including one co-written by Osvaldo. In a 2003 interview he recounted “well you know, I used to be frightened. I didn’t think my stuff was good enough to compete. Particularly at that point because we were doing so much, there was this added importance to it all. Hugo got a bit of a writer’s block which got me out of that rut through forced contribution.”

The group would not return to the studio until the following week in the month of July, with additional recording sessions that would further cement the album and the band’s evolving sonic identity.