I admit it - when I thought about Los Lobos, I immediately thought about that one song. You know, from that movie. (More on that later.) But Los Lobos, who has been together for nearly 40 years - with the same personnel for more nearly three decades - is so much more than a one-hit wonder. They have earned international acclaim (not to mention multiple Grammy awards) for their hybrid of traditional regional Mexican folk music, rock and roll, blues, R&B and country (among others!). Perhaps Rolling Stone magazine best sums up their history: “This is what happens when five guys create a magical sound, then stick together for 30 years to see how far it can take them.”
What I especially like about Los Lobos is that the music they play - this melding of so many genres - is organic. It doesn't come from a desire to reach a particularly broad audience; it's not part of any marketing ploy. It's the music they listened to when they were young. Here's how Louie Perez (drums, guitars, percussion, vocals) describes the evolution of their style:
"Mexican music was largely just wallpaper for us—it was always in the background, and we never paid much attention to it. We were modern kids who listened to rock and roll. Then when we finally dug up some old records to learn a couple of songs, that was a real revelation to us that this music is actually very complicated and challenging. So at that point we were off and running. To sit around in the afternoons and play these old songs we had heard when we were kids, it felt good. We’d get some Budweiser and some flatbread and string cheese and hang around. It was cool. Then it grew. The old folks were blessing us and thanking us for playing this music. That’s why we’re still here, because of moments like that.”
As a result, their live performances bring an authenticity that other more artificially created bands can only hope to achieve. Check it out:
I can clearly hear the influences of rock and blues, with the driving rhythms of traditional Latin American music.
So what about that song, from that movie, that I mentioned earlier? ("La Bamba", the cover of the Ritchie Valens tune, performed on the soundtrack of the movie La Bamba.) According to Perez, "“We had met Ritchie’s family and they had asked for us [to play that tune]." An honour, surely, but they didn't rest on the wider recognition that came with "La Bamba", choosing instead to continue to record the kind of music which had been so successful for them up until that point. Here's another taste:
Email this page to a friend