There is something stirring about a big, wild, untamed place.
I have always been bewitched by Patagonia though I have never travelled there—Just a place in my Imagination Hall of Fame. It has become sort of a personal benchmark. Will I get there? When?
I wrote the song Patagonia sometime around 1980. I had been reading Antonio Pigafetta’s journal notes from Magellan’s circumnavigation and his mention of Patagonia provoked me. (The Europeans thought that there were giants living in Patagonia.) Magellan is purported to have given the area its name using the word Patagon, which apparently refers to a big foot. Those big-footed giants. This is according to the author of the classic, In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin. He also relates stories of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid while they were holed up in the region. Another brief yet interesting account of Patagonia is from Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of The Beagle.
With this song I attempted to write something both majestic and full of longing. Something with facts and fantasy.
When my daughter was still a little weezer, Kathleen Zacharias (a sometimes Geckette pictured below) created a surreal painting for her of green elephants playing weird instruments on a beach. Icthyoid Jam. 1982. The painting was inspired by the 3rd verse of the song. What inspired me to include green elephants on the shores of Patagonia? Couldn't tell you.
And the elephants are green
And they’re playin’ on the beach
On the beach on the beach on the beach
There exists a lost Barking Geckos recording of Patagonia from 1982, however, all that is left is a 45 second snippet on the cult classic television show Not For Chowderheads.
Geckettes (from left) Kathleen, Mary, Ardys
The studio version of Patagonia (available below for free download) was cut at Studio Chicago in the mid to late 90s. I can’t recall all of the players. Chuck Kawal did engineer/mix. I played acoustic guitar. Dave Allen on piano. A De Paul music major played the cello. Heather McCarragher (her name at the time) was one of the female vocalists. Kim Wilkins might have been the other. Randy Riley on bass? Drums: Glenn? Greg? Raul?
After you have listened to the studio cut, check out a UTK version of Patagonia from a 4/14/07 gig at Gallery Cabaret. A drunken plumber at the show told me it was the most moving song he had ever witnessed at The Gallery. Give it a listen after hearing the studio version.
©Roger Bain. 1980-2011.