I want to play in a mariachi band. I want to wear a suit with more chrome on it than a ’57 Bel Air. I want to wear a hat that keeps the sun off me, and the horse I’m riding, and anyone walking nearby. I want to saw away at a violin until I get all the way through it. I want to play a guitarron bass big enough to sit in and row away if a hurricane hits. I want to play a trumpet that would bring down the walls of Jericho, even if I didn’t have the airfare to get there. I want to sing songs with corazons scattered all over them.
But mostly, I want some talent, because I can’t keep up with any of these guys, and never could.
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Did you ever listen to the tunes that were sent on the golden record sent into space on the Voyager one and two back in 1977? One of the tunes was a Mexican song and it’s probably one of the best ones on the record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1puYprEvB4U
Vaca Santa! What a thing to send into space. I can picture little green men landing in their saucers, wearing sombreros, loaded on Saturnian mezcal, and looking for directions to the nearest cantina. Unfortunately, they’ll probably land in Japan, hear the angular banjos, and figure they’ve landed on the wrong planet, and blast off again.
Linda Ronstadt comes from a family in Tucson with Mexican roots. Acknowledging those roots, in the 1980s she released Canciones de mi Padre (Song of my father). Some were mariachi-tinged, some were not. Here is a mariachi sample: La Charreada. My favorite, not a mariachi song, is Rogaciano el huapanguero, a song that mourns the death of a singer.
Hey Gringo- I think your multiple links got you tangled up in the spam filter, but I’ve fixed it.
When you listen to La Charreada, you realize that it’s the kind of music she was born to sing. She never belted out anything like that singing rock songs. But rock music used to glom onto all sorts of things. If you hear Sam Cooke singing in the Soul Stirrers, it’s sublime. The music company robbed the church, and made him a pop star. Rock music is kinda like a vampire.
I didn’t know anything about Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. Looked them up on YouTube. Very good. Then I realized that a 10 CD Sam Cooke box set I had bought for $15? had a CD of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers.
I could carry one of those hats off….I think.
Thud! My scouser brother from another mother.
I tried to buy a simple straw hat today, because we’re going to the beach this week, and the sunshine is like Chernobyl around here. The lady shopkeeper kept trying to sell one of those gigantic, gaudy sombreros. Said it would look great on me. If I go back, I’ll be sure to buy two.