Old Town School – On The Road
Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.
Why Authentic La Bamba?
I woke up this morning in Veracruz, Veracruz, México; the land of La Bamba. We played music and danced all night with some kids in the zocalo, and frankly I feel like I was run over. What a night it was.
I keep thinking about La Bamba. I can remember the first time I ever heard La Bamba. I was in the back seat of my mom’s car and I was 9-years-old. La Bamba came on the radio and I remember thinking it was just so cool. Of coarse this was 1987 and it was the Los Lobos cover of the Richie Valens version.
Then, like a lot of things in life when you’re nine-years-old, I kind of just left it.
But the song stuck with me. I didn’t know the cultural background, or what the song was about.
“Weird” Al did a parody of it called Lasagna (all about Italian food), and I liked that almost as much.
Over the years I stayed curious about México and it’s music, but that was mostly because I had become a fan of Los Lobos. Eventually I found the Old Town School and Victor, Juan, Maria and Yahvi, and found that I could play this music myself. And now here I am, speaking and singing in Spanish, en La Tierra de La Bamba.
I wonder what would have happened if someone had told me that the Los Lobos La Bamba, which I loved so much, wasn’t “authentic’; that it wasn’t real. What’s “real” to a nine-year-old kid?
Filed under: Mexico,Notes from Jason,Uncategorized by Jason | January 28, 2009 | Comments (2)
2 Comments so far
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That’s a good question, my friend!
What is real is the music,words come and go but the rhythm, the beat, and the solo-string that La Bamba contains is a lasting sound in my mind. I can just see how in Veracruz a whole bunch of guitars string that magnificient solo tapestry-baila bamba, baila bamba, yo no soy marinero soy capitan, capitan!