My earlier days in Mexico had me crossing the frontera with a JB 4-track stereo blasting out Herb Alpert on 8" speakers mounted in the package tray.
Los Mexicanos went nuts over the sound, and I had to sit at curbside while 2 motorcycle cops got their fill of "Tijuana Taxi" and "Lonely Bull". Hell
I was 17 years old. We thought we were screwed crossing back when US Customs stopped us and found 14 cases of Carta Blanca in the trunk and back seat
of my almost new '63 ford. The gray haired inspector just shook his head and slammed the trunk closed. A young man tried to sell us a bag of pot the
size of a basketball for 200 pesos. Drinks cost sixty cents while a lady danced nude on the bar top. A couple of hookers offered curbside service for
100 pesos. We passed. Anyway we paid for mariachis, seven of them for 2 hours at my birthday party at some hoity toity restaurant. I remember fighting
the fog all the way up the central valley, and getting home in the wee morning hours. After three hours sleep I found myself at a bus stop waiting to
be taken to a "Selective Service Exam" in downtown Oakland. That was some birthday! The cost of the mariachis was 900 pesos!
It has some tricky vocals and multiple guitar parts, so it's better with a two piece or three piece group, but I've heard credible versions by solos.
The Tubes, amazingly enough, did a pretty good cover of it on their debut album, and it was on the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack. Here's a clip of the band
Chingon doing a rocking, slightly electrified version of it live at the Kill Bill 2 premiere.
La Malaguena is an excellent choice and El Son de La Negra has a great intro. But, do ask "How much?" Before you get too carried away with the
requests.
Trouble is, you won't be getting Vargas de Tecalitlan.
Do remember the days of dollar songs in Mazatlan, PV, Cabo and Ensenada. Just can't remember how long ago.
Also, you had to be pretty sauced to get by the quality of the music.
I blare the DirecTV music channel "Maricahi " every Sunday afternoon over the outdoor speakers. All the old original versions with no talking or
commercials. Everyone sings along.
That's DirecTV Sonic Channel 876 Dennis.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
Or maybe it was on The Gull's extenisive list and I missed it.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
Este Es Mi Mariachi - Mariachi Cobre
100 Years of Mariachi - Placido Domingo
Fiesta en Mexico - Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano
Canciones de Mi Padre - Linda Ronstadt
Aniversario 100 - Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
Kudos to Gull and DavidE for some very GOOD STUFF
And Malaguena Salerosa by Chingon is.......chingonsisima!!!!!
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
-Nikola Tesla
I love the old black and white film of LOLA BELTRAN "PALOMA NEGRA" (1956). Great song and greater singer. But here are a few more. Some are better
without mariachis.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
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