Luis Alberto Spinetta (23 January 1950 – 8 February 2012), nicknamed "El Flaco" (Spanish for "skinny"), was an Argentine singer, guitarist, composer, writer and poet.

In Argentina, January 23rd is celebrated as "Día Nacional del Músico" (National Musician's Day) in honor of Spinetta's birth.

In his lyrics, there are influences of multiple writers, poets and artists like Arthur Rimbaud, Vincent van Gogh, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Carlos Castañeda and Antonin Artaud, whom the album Artaud (1973) is named after.

[11] Luis Santiago was an amateur tango singer who formed a group accompanied by guitarists and performed on several radio stations.

[13] Amid the counterculture of the 1960s and the political turmoil in Argentina, several artists during this time would develop Luis Alberto's musical range, especially the work of the Beatles.

In one such case for example in 1964, during the height of Beatlemania, after winning a local music competition, Spinetta used the earnings to purchase their recently released album, Beatles for Sale.

[14] Spinetta also credited Los Shakers, a Uruguayan rock ban heavily influenced by the look and sound to that of the Beatles, and their leader, Hugo Fattoruso.

[12] Spinetta said several times that his artistic debut took place in 1964 in a television contest called Escala Musical on El Trece, although his father mentions that year he also sang in a children's program called La pandilla One and Two, later known as Pandilla Uanantú, which was broadcast on El Nueve between March and May 1964.

With a far more powerful sound and expressing through their songs the tension of the streets in an increasingly violent Argentina, Pescado made their album debut in 1972.

Partly inspired by the writings of Theatre of Cruelty creator Antonin Artaud, particularly his essays Van Gogh, le suicidé de la société ("Van Gogh, the suicide by society") and Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné ("Heliogabalus, or the anarchist crowned"), Spinetta exorcised many of the demons of his past in this album.

Spinetta and Charly García (with their respective bands at the moment, Jade and Serú Giran) joined efforts and gave what was considered amongst the most important shows in the history of Argentine rock.

In 1998, he selected the featured songs and artwork of a greatest hits album called Elija y Gane, which was released the same year.

Spinetta started a solo career, including Silver Sorgo (2001), Obras en Vivo (2002), a live album, Para Los Árboles (2003), Camalotus (2004), a single of three unreleased songs and one remix, Pan (2006) and Un Mañana (2008).