Tea for three

Letter and meaning

The letter evokes the moment Gustavo Cerati, together with his mother Lilian and his father Juan José, must face the news of the latter’s illness, a terminal cancer that would cause him death a couple of years later (1992). The song tells how Gustavo lived this situation so painful. Her mother confessed that this is her favorite subject.

“We were the three of them and I could not support myself, of course, that’s why ‘I saw you crying, I saw you crying for him …’ I get goose bumps right now,” Lilian Clark said in a note. And she continued, “We were having tea because tea was never missing at home, as a good heiress of the Irish I am. We were all three, Gustavo, my husband and I. We had in hand the last analysis that was going to confirm or not the disease and in what state it was. The truth is that the results were very negative. ” ¹

Music

The song is a slow ballad, in which the voice of Gustavo Cerati and his acoustic guitar are only accompanied by the bass of Zeta Bosio (which only sounds when the subject is ending and the voice has already ceased), and a keyboard . The difference is notorious in relation to the other songs of the album, since Animal Song is just characterized by being a very rocker album and with electric guitar as one of its protagonists. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

Video

It was recorded a promotional video, finally unused, who was a pilot program in 1991. ²

Versions

In different versions live with Soda Stereo or as a soloist, Cerati has changed the music and structure of the song towards a style closer to the blues , including the use of drums, absent in the original version. These include guitar solos, either using an electric guitar (commonly the Gibson ES-335 ) or an electro-acoustic guitar. One of them can be seen in the album Comfort and Music para Volar , which Soda Stereo recorded live for MTV. In this version, Cerati introduces the distinctive punctuation of the theme ” Cementerio Club “, by Luis Alberto Spinetta .

The song was played in the band’s “Last Concert” at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires , Argentina , in 1997 . This version was similar to the original, played only on acoustic guitar and keyboard. At the end, Cerati dedicated the theme: “This is for my dad”. This was included in the DVD The Last Concert . The song was also included in the CD version of El Último Concierto , although in that disc, there is not the version of the last named concert in Buenos Aires, but the last concert they played in Chile, on September 13, 1997. At the end Of this version, Cerati said instead, “You know that this is also my house”. ³

Musicians

• Gustavo Cerati : voice and acoustic guitar
• Zeta Bosio : bass
• Charly Alberti : drums

References