Song ‘I love being a bitch’ destroyed Las Vulpes in 1983. Forty years later, Nebulossa’s song ‘Zorra’ will represent Spain at Eurovision in Malmö, Sweden in May. First, we will reconstruct the history of Las Vulpes with the help of Loles Vázquez, the songwriter and guitarist of the issue in question. We will then analyze whether the Nebulossa theme deserves to be described as a “violation” in its current form.
vulpes They were founded in Bilbao in the early 80’s. The band consisted of Loles Vázquez (guitar), his sister Lupe (drums, died in 1993), Mamen Rodrigo (vocals) and Begoña Astigarraga (bass). “I was 15 and majored in Latin in high school,” Vázquez says of the name.
If they called me a slut because of the way I dressed, acted, and thought, and they liked the way I dressed, acted, and thought, I would be a slut.
There wasn’t much of a theory behind the lyrics of The Stooges’ song ‘I want to be a bitch’ either. Vázquez’s mother was part of the women’s association in the neighborhood, and everyone was equal in the home. On the other hand, it wasn’t uncommon for him to hear a “bitch” sound as he passed by on the street.. “Well,” she says, “if they called me a slut because I like the way I dress, the way I act and the way I think, and the way I dress, the way I act and the way I think, I would be a slut. There are so many things I don’t like, look, there’s one more.”
Yes Iggy Pop’s She would sing “I wanna be your dog now” while Vulpes would sing “I love being a bitch”.
Transition
The video clip for the song ‘I love being Zorra’ was broadcast on the TVE program ‘Caja de Rhythms’ at noon on Saturday, April 16, 1983. The video clip was recorded by the program six months ago and, according to Vázquez, It never occurred to anyone that he could cause the madness he did.. PSOE had been in power since 1982, the so-called high point of the transition, and disagreements were applauded by visible power. “Perhaps we were expecting a letter from a religious association, but nothing more,” recalls Carlos Vázquez. [Tena, presentador de ‘Caja de ritmos’, fallecido en 2023] The most I was afraid of was a beep on the word ‘bastard.’” Not even that. Nothing happened.
Until Almost two weeks later, ‘ABC’ newspaper published an editorial titled ‘Enough is enough’. He cried out against a song that “degrades the Spanish community, makes the father of the family rebel, angers the responsible citizen, violates the privacy of the home, undermines what is established in the Constitution, and exceeds the limits of what can be tolerated.” This was just the beginning.
“Poor guy from ‘ABC’ who had to write the lyrics,” Vázquez jokes. “This was a planned campaign.” Now, Carlos Tena was forced to resign and ‘Rhythm Box’ was canceled.
pioneers
Early punk, particularly British punk, meant the inclusion of women in rock as relevant figures and often with a feminist voice: Slits, X-Ray Spex, Siouxsie, Raincoats, Gaye ‘Advertisement’… Vázquez thinks this is the nature of punk. “It seemed like more was expected of a musician,” he notes, “it was like seeing if he was up to par. As with punk, playing well wasn’t the point, maybe that’s why it attracted so many women.” He doesn’t remember whether it was Jett or Chrissie Hynde. Las Vulpes was perhaps the first all-female Spanish rock band. There weren’t many outside of Spain.
Vulpes took shape in a “grey Bilbao” where they had no money to “go to bars”, and they released the “anger” they carried within them in precarious rehearsal spaces and urban areas where no one would disturb them. They jumped from this inner circle to the ‘big world’ after the scandal surrounding their appearance in ‘Rhythm Box’. The band had yet to record the “single”, which read “Me gusta ser una zorra” on side A and “Inkisión” on side B, ultimately their only album. State Attorney General’s Office filed a criminal complaint He opposed Vázquez (the writer of the lyrics) and Rodrigo (the singer) for public ridicule, and the director of ‘Rhythm Box’ for his “offending modesty and etiquette”. The case dragged through the courts until 1986, when it was dismissed.
Police bonus in Rock-Ola
Vulpes performed at Rock-Ola in May 1983. Everything went wrong at sound check, Vázquez recalls. And the situation got worse when the band stopped the game to demand the removal of the “wire fence” erected between them and the audience in the room. Calling out cop killers in one of their songs didn’t make things any better. The Madrid Temple stage has reinforced security personnel with external elements at concerts with the potential for conflict. So police officers get bonuses. Vázquez had a lucky escape, but his teammates say: At the end of the concert, they received some “slaps” and were humiliated by police reinforcements. The off-duty officers were greatly humiliated when one of them was wearing a dog collar. Vulpes went to report the attacks, but they spotted bonus workers outside the police station and let him escape, Loles continues.
Their live performances were marked by incidents of “organized violence”, or at least incidents encouraged by the circus organized around them. In Burgos, for example, Las Vulpes performed before a crowd of “departing soldiers”. According to the guitarist, buses with fascists arrived in Benavente. And so. The deception and pressures of the music industry, the wear and tear caused by the case, and its transformation into a fair attraction put an end to these. “For us, ‘Rhythm Box’ was the end,” says Vázquez. An example case of poisoned sugar. The band came together in 2005 to record the pending album. The album ‘Me gusta ser’ was also a tribute to the late Lupe Vázquez.
What does ‘Zorra’ come to now?
Regarding ‘Zorra’, which is a neat modern-day translation of Nebulossa’s ‘I love being a whore’ message, Vázquez says: “It’s okay. Every year Eurovision has to organize a dirty festival, and that’s what happened this year too. It’s the woman’s turn. Well thought out marketing“.
Like ‘nigger’, lesbian, fagot, ‘queer’ or ‘freak’, whore is a word that has been widely re-signified with pride. It was perceived as an insult by its first buyers. Rap and its urban derivatives have been full of bitches who are happy to be that way for decades (and it must be said, very macho men are happy to be that too). In alternative rock, there was a game-changing feminist movement called ‘riot grrrl’ in the 90s. The reuse of the term slut was one of her trump cards.
So why is ‘Zorra’ described as “extreme”? First of all, we are talking about Eurovision, which is the popular territory if there is one. Just because Bad Gyal fills the Palau Sant Jordi twice a year does not mean that all Spaniards know who Bad Gyal is. But (almost) all Spaniards know Nebulossa just a few days after her victory at the Benidorm Festival. Eurovision is another popularity scale.
They decided to destroy the authoritative voices of Las Vulpes. Many girls would now come out in support of Las Vulpes in response to these authoritative voices
And in the second place, Writer Cristina Fallarás has her sayHis new novel, ‘The End of All This’ is about to be released. “With the emergence of social networks, authoritative voices are disappearing,” says Fallarás. “Las Vulpes decided to destroy authoritative voices. Many girls would now come out in support of Las Vulpes in response to these authoritative voices“. “In this new architecture of public opinion,” Fallarás continues, “it is not bad to insist on ideas that seem outdated, but which the macosphere shows are not so.”