Saying Goodbye to Cerati

Gustavo Cerati was in a coma for four years, but when he died on Sept. 4 it was still a shock. I met Gustavo and the other members of Soda Stereo in Buenos Aires in the late eighties, when I was a very young reporter and they were stars of an exploding new scene. Through a turn of fate, I was the A&R assistant at CBS International's fledgling Latin department when they came to New York to record the Doble Vida album; they stayed in an NYU dorm and I went with them to Crazy Eddie's to buy a boombox; I took them to some party in the East Village of those days, and ended up hiding under a table with Gustavo when someone took out a gun. The Doble Vida sessions were my first experience in a recording studio, I still remember the spell "Ciudad de la Furia" put me under when I heard it for the first time - it's still my favorite Soda song. I admit I never realized just how big Cerati's talent really was until I went to one of the first dates of the band's 2007 reunion tour -70,000 people in River stadium. I am so glad I made the trip and thankful for the invitation.

I searched to find words for the story I wrote for Billboard the day Cerati died. It was easier to let his music speak for itself in this playlist  for Rhapsody.