Baron Rojo's 'Sherpa': From Idol to Nemesis by Pablo Iglesias

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José Luís Campuzano 'Sherpa' (69) wrote a song in 1983 with his wife, Carolina Cortés, which would end up being part of Barón Rojo's most remembered album , 'Metalmorfosis'. His name was 'The bad guy' and he said like this: "The bad guy was his type to imitate./ Punisher and animal, a wicked and brave bully. / He was always clear about what was going to be when he grew up. / Bad guy, I'll be the bad guy. " Since then, many have chanted it while raising their 'calimocho' or 'birra' katxis' to the slums, concerts and festivals. Also at meetings of Pablo Iglesias : the leader of Unidas Podemos used it to open an electoral act in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) during the campaign for the generals in 2016.

Traditionally, the Spanish 'heavys' (according to the spelling here, 'jevis' or, where appropriate, 'jevorros') have been listed on the left . Most have been raised in 'currela' neighborhoods and have maintained an ambivalent relationship with the system: sometimes outside and sometimes inside. The moves with the Nazis, the PCE parties and the lyrics about defying the rules marked several generations. Anyone who has been to a Red Baron, Howitzer or Panzer concert knows this. But the free spirit of 'heavy' makes it never end up conforming to the stereotype, and this also happens ideologically.

Sherpa was in Barón Rojo between 1980 and 1990, and during that time he was the bassist and main composer of the group he founded with the brothers Castro and Hermes Calabria . 'The rockers go to hell', 'Concert for them', 'I almost killed myself' or 'Barón Rojo', the song, are some of his compositions (with Cortés as co-lyricist) of this time. After his departure, he played solo, wrote his memoirs and composed for others, from Paloma San Basilio to El Fary. The relationship with the Castro brothers was never good: he reproached them for being posh (he grew up in the Ventas neighborhood) and they lacked interest in him. Even so, the original formation of the group was reunited in 2004 and 2010 for individual tours. Since then, Sherpa and Calabria have worked together, until they were introduced as Los Barones.

Sherpa has never been cut, least of all to talk about politics. When he learned that Pablo Iglesias had used 'El malo' for his rallies, he wrote in an ironic tone on his Facebook profile: "Gentlemen of the Right, here is the one who takes your sleep, the bad and rebellious boy who is going to take away your power. " And he complained about the use of the song: "I am not amused that no one uses my work for political purposes , whatever their sign."

But it was as a result of the emergence of the coronavirus and the state of alarm that Sherpa has intensified the tone against the leader of Unidas Podemos and his partner, Pedro Sánchez . Thus, on March 12, he wrote on his Twitter account: "With a Frankenstein government, a monstrous leap year was to be expected." In successive posts, he described the PSOE and Unidas Podemos Executive as "a panda of useless" , spoke of the "nefarious 8-M" and stressed its moral cornerstone: "I do not trust anything in power."

On March 28, with 6,000 dead, he proclaimed: "Go away, Mr. Sánchez . " And weeks later, he lamented the climate of confrontation: "The Civil War continues to kill us after almost a century. Politics shows us that this national tragedy turned us into a zombie people, dead while alive. Two gangs of zombies trying to devour each other . What a horrible nightmare!. "

But the turning point came because he shared two things. In the first place, the photo above manipulated, in which it seemed that he showed his support for Vox (montage that he criticized, although he does not consider "that voting for Vox is a disrepute, far from it : a legal, constitutionalist party with almost 4 million of voters ") and a video of the caceroladas against the government of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias.

"I am receiving serious insults and threats for criticizing the government (as I criticized Rajoy's in his day) for its lousy management of the pandemic and the Bolivarian drift it has taken," he said then. "All the insults come from indoctrinated from the extreme left , supposed followers of my songs who are disappointed with my position. Obviously, they have already branded me as 'face'. What these people do not assimilate is that I have always criticized power, from one or the other. Another sign, and in power today are Sánchez and Iglesias. They are so maliciously naive that they think that rock, which is basically rebellion against the established, necessarily has to be left-wing and barricaded. "

And even more: "I have joined my voice to that of so many of you terrified by the dictatorial side that this is taking."

His 'barons', also with 'I will resist'

The Barons of Sherpa also recorded during the confinement a new version of 'I will resist'. But not that of the Dynamic Duo and Carlos Toro, but the one that Campuzano made for 'Volumen brutal' (1982), Barón Rojo's second album. In a more acoustic version, Sherpa sang against the virus and in favor of the toilets who fight against it.

However, Sherpa's public statements have led her colleagues to distance themselves from them. The bassist himself has confessed on his social networks that his attitude can cause the group to be 'vetoed' in the 'new normal' music scene. But, as their song says, "you speak to us of submission / you ask us for resignation, / but I will not be deceived. Thus," after weighing everything, I have decided that the most important and peremptory thing was to rebel against the tyranny of these two unbalanced people who they pretend to rule us. "

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