La Bamba

"I read the news today, oh boy. . .
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh. . .
I'd love to turn you on."

            The Beatles, 1967. A Day in the Life

The news from Ukraine looks bad. We don't know how it will play out. There is good reason to worry.

We are at an inflection point. This could be the beginning of a series of events, like August 1914, that will lead to total war if one miscalculation leads to another. Or, it could just blow over. The political news in the U.S. is a mess of "could-a, should-a, would-a" in contrary directions. The situation is either overblown or a catastrophe. Putin is a genius, a villain, or doing what any prudent head of state would do. Ukraine is an innocent victim or a den of Nazis.

It exhausts me. I want to stop the world and get off--words I remember from a 1961 play by that name. The Beatles had suggested a way to retreat from the world, and young people in 1967 did so: Marijuana. Turn on. Drift off in a cloud of smoke.

Not me. I retreat my way, like Frank Sinatra sang in 1969. My way is to put on headphones and listen to music of my youth. It is my oasis, the best music of all time. Classic and timeless.  

La Bamba. Who can possibly listen and resist the sheer joy of it? Take two minutes for Richie Valens' own voice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp6j5HJ-Cok

I was mistaken. I sent a link to the song to a 17-year-old, sure she would love it. The song was nothing to her. I re-discovered the obvious. Music is not timeless. Music lives in the temporal world along with the news, oh boy. It is fashion, like hairstyles and Levis.

Rick Millward is a close reader and frequent commenter on this blog. He is a musician, songwriter, and music producer. He gave me a lesson.

Guest Post by Rick Millward

Popular songs resonate with us for two main reasons:
Repetition and marketing
Context and timing 

Rick Millward

First, songs gain success through “spins”, initially on radio and now on the various streaming internet sources. Thousands of songs are released into the market every week, and those that gain popularity usually have big promotion budgets and campaigns financed by the record companies. With the onset of adolescence young people start making choices, in a large measure driven by a desire to become seen and respected as distinct individuals, but also by the cultural norms at the time. Music is one of the ways that teens define their peer group, like fashion and slang, and music is marketed to them in this way. Secondly, popular music follows the overall cultural trends and songs tend to sound somewhat alike within each genre. Teens tend to associate certain songs with events in their lives, like young couples having “our song”. This emotional connection fades with maturity, but never completely disappears and in fact, hearing the song years later will often bring back a pleasant or bittersweet memory.

La Bamba was released in 1958, as the teen idol fad, led by Elvis Presley, was gaining steam. It’s a dance song, and it hit the market just as teens were adopting the “free form” styles that were a highlight of the ‘60s, like “The Twist”.

Musically, La Bamba is an electrified version of a traditional Mexican folk song played at celebrations and other gatherings. It is sung in Spanish, which gave it a unique charm and was presented by an Elvis-like young singer named Richie Valens. As such it stood out on the radio, and though it was not a number one hit, it has endured to be considered one of the most influential rock and roll songs of the era. Like most recordings at that time, it was recorded live, and while having captured the energy of the performer, is not particularly well done technically. A remake done in 1987 is more polished and was used in a biopic about Valens, and did reach #1.

It’s always dangerous to predict what young people will find entertaining and popular but in its original form doesn’t fit in with current pop music, which is dominated by the hip hop/rap style and to a lessor extent EDM (Electronic Dance Music) so it doesn’t sound like what they are listening to. In addition, coming from what is quickly becoming their grandparents' era, there is an automatic rejection of the song because it’s old. This of course could change if an enterprising artist covered the song in the current style, (which would be an interesting exercise) and released it as something new.

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Note:  Rick Millward was part of the Nashville songwriter community, where he produced two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Millward is part of the music scene centered around winery tasting rooms. His new record Loveland is available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. He will perform at the Naumes Winery - Sun, Feb. 27, 3-6PM