Por Fuera Y Por Dentro - Overview

Overview

Carlos Vives, one of Latin America's biggest artists and revolutionizer of modern vallenato, started as a struggling young star in Latin television. With soap operas, or telenovelas, being a springboard for Latin Americans seeking fame, Vives was no exception. In his home country of Colombia, the Santa Marta-born, and Bogotá raised actor cut his teeth in a number of shows including "Pequeños Gigantes" (Little Giants - 1983) and "Tuyo es Mi Corazón (Yours is My Heart - 1985) before finding notoriety in the title role of "Gallito Ramírez (Ramírez the Rooster - 1986). That same year, he released his first album Por Fuera y Por Dentro (From Outside and From Within), marking Vives’s first true passion, music.

Released in the summer of 1986, the album coincided with Vives's first major role in "Gallito Ramírez". Despite a new marriage (Margarita Rosa de Francisco) and a burgeoning acting career, Vives would be overshadowed by established crooners in his musical aspirations. Por Fuera was lost in a market that included superstars such as Julio Iglesias and Juan Gabriel. Though Por Fuera was a commercial failure, it would mark the beginning of a successful singing career and an eventual breakthrough that would overshadow Vives's own acting.

In sound and production, Por Fuera is an album from a different era in Vives’s career. Aside from his early image differing from his rock-star looks, the music is vastly different from Vives's Clásicos de la Provincia breakthrough. Instead of the vallenato sound Vives is known for, the songs are mixed with a sound of pure 80’s pop. Whereas Vives would make his career making party anthems and infectious dance numbers, this album is filled completely with slower-paced, romantic ballads. As opposed to accordions and rock guitar, an ambundance of synthesizers and drum machines takes its place, making Vives unrecognizable, despite his distinctive voice.

Cuts such as "Vuelve" (Comeback) and "Si Quieres Hacer El Amor" (If You Want to Make Love), are typical of the album's theme of love and yearning. As part of his telenovela image, coupled with the fact that romantic ballads were a staple of Latin American music, Vives had yet to discover his Santa Marta roots and the sounds of vallenato, sounds that would define his successful singing career. While the Fernando Garavito track "Me Estoy Muriendo de Amor" (I'm Dying of Love) would be re-recorded on his more mainstream Al Centro de la Ciudad, the album's lower-budget production only gained attention amongst few buyers in Vives's Colombian home.

Vives would follow this album only a year later with his slightly more successful No Podrás Escapar de Mí, and later with his last ballad-heavy work Al Centro de la Ciudad. The star-turning role as Rafael Escalona would produce the Escalona soundtracks, giving birth to Vives's true voice in his vallenato sound, literally turning his back on his earlier work.

The cold reception, along with Vives's later success with vallenato music, make Por Fuera y Por Dentro Vives's most rare CD. While Vives’s earlier albums are now considered collector’s items, the breakthrough of Clásicos de la Provincia brought a number of “early hits” compilations, though interestingly, this album and its tracks are ignored altogether.