CD Review

by Steve Cooper

Los Lobos
El Cancionero: Mas y Mas
(Rhino/Warner Archives)

(out of four)

OK, I wanted to make this boxed set an example. I wanted to use its release to express my feelings about the shortcomings of the boxed set genre in general. I was going to decry the curios and oddities and unreleased tracks that junk up what is supposed to be the best of an artist in one fell box. Well, guess what? Los Lobos is so good that even their "junk" tracks are first rate.
El Cancionero: Mas y Mas is a must, for the uninitiated and for the Los Lobos "choir." Four perfectly-circular CDs, eighty-six scintillating cuts, one seventy-six page glossy booklet, all contained in a tres-cool, film-noir, pulp-fiction cover. If this were a hamburger, it would be a triple deluxe with cheese. "Muy biens" are definitely in order.

Let us take Ôem CD by CD. Disc One, titled "1977-1987," contains cuts from the Los Lobos first album, Just Another Band From East L.A., through 1987's By the Light of the Moon. Along the way are some well-chosen one-offs from a various artist compilation, two soundtracks, and live stage performances. Cut one, an authentic take of "Guantanamera," kicks off the box in admirable fashion. With traditional, conjunto, acoustic instrumentation, Los Lobos rescues a fine song that was thoroughly Hootenanny-ized by the Sandpipers. They even avoid the hokey recitation of that rendition. ("I am a simple man from the land of palm trees" indeed.) And the song reveals that, even in 1977, Los Lobos could flat "pick it." Of course, it doesn't hurt that, in Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo, Los Lobos have two supple, ever-convincing vocalists.

A real "find" on Disc One is "We're Gonna Rock" from a 1983 Rhino compilation, L.A. Rockabilly. Cesar Rosas, an electro-rocker at heart, really takes off on this one, plying some pumped-up, James Burton-style guitar licks and rasping out a completely convincing rockabilly growl of a lead vocal. This is threat two of Los Lobos' triple-threat combo - they can trad it, rock it, or, as we'll see later, reinvent it. All of which makes them a monster.

Of the motion picture cuts, especially choice is a take of Fats Domino's "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" from the movie "A Fine Mess." By this time, Los Lobos had added saxophonist Steve Berlin to their line up of Rosas and Hidalgo on guitars, Conrad Lozano on bass, and Louie Perez on drums. Berlin's powerful sax, owing more to New Orleans' Lee Allen than to John Coltrane, is perfectly in sync with this Domino chestnut. Hidalgo delivers the vocal and plays accordion. This would prove to be a precursor to another Los Lobos 50's reworking from that movie about a certain small plane passenger.

Between these curios are some select cuts from Los Lobos' second album, - And a Time to Dance, their third album, How Will the Wolf Survive, and their fourth album, By the Light of the Silver Moon. One could argue about cuts left off that should have been included, or cuts included that should have been left off, but that would be rather pointless because boxed sets are overviews, not collections of albums.

Disc Two, "1987-1992," covers the albums La Pistola y El Corazon and The Neighborhood, as well as the La Bamba soundtrack, a cut from the movie Mambo Kings, and cuts from Disney and Grateful Dead tribute releases. This time, let's focus on the album cuts rather than the one-offs. From the La Bamba soundtrack are the Valens reworkings of "La Bamba" and "Come On Let's Go." La Bamba Lobos-style even outranks Ritchie Valens' no-slouch original, especially at the coda when the band seamlessly switches from electric guitars to traditional Spanish acoustic guitars.

cont'd -> 2

"La Pistola Y El Corzon," from the all-Spanish album of the same title, is a wonder. Hidalgo's plaintive vocal, over exotic conjunto guitars and horns, perfectly expresses this tale of love and the gun. In the liner notes, drummer/lyricist/band spokesman Louie Perez describes the musical style employed: "It's a series of segues from huapango (a regional style with Spanish roots) verses to ranchera oom-pah choruses." In other words, when these guys write traditional, they know whereof they write. Whatever the explanation, this exquisite Latin ballad won a well-deserved Grammy.

Disc Three, "1992-1996," takes us into the "reinvent the Lobos wheel" years. Only one true studio album is represented, but what an album! Kiko ranks with Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds and any other "envelope-pushing" album you can name. Electric and acoustic instruments are filtered through echo, fuzz, and phaser, creating a pleasing cacophony of junkyard percussion and ozone guitar. Take for example, Kiko's title track, "Kiko and the Lavender Moon." Cowbells, drunken saxophones playing "Three Blind Mice," toy piano, waltzing accordion, and an odd, high-low harmony lead vocal combine in harmonious discord to create a stone classic. And, you can only get it here. No one else is currently pushing rock and roll beyond the blue horizon like Los Lobos.

Besides seven cuts from Kiko, Disc Three also boasts two cuts from the Los Lobos spin-off band, the Latin Playboys. To date, this pairing of David Hidalgo and Louie Perez from Los Lobos and outrŽ-rock producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, has released two albums. The Latin Playboys carry Kiko a few experimental steps farther. The result isn't as instantly pleasing, but is well worth the effort of repeated listening till the "oh yeah" kicks in. The cuts on Disc Three are from the first, self-titled album. Of the two, "Forever Night Shade Mary" is the keeper. "Forever Night Shade Mary" is basically a walking bassline, a slightly out-of-tune rhythm guitar, a cheesy skating rink organ, and a mumbled, high-low harmony vocal. That's it. It's a slow-to-slower, relaxed groove that doesn't even try to make you love it. And, despite the seeming lack of effort, it works and works well.

Before leaving Disc Three, mention must be made of Los Lobos' searing take of the Beatles'"Tomorrow Never Knows" (circa Revolver) from a 1993 PBS special saluting the music of the Fab Four. David Hidalgo is stellar on fuzztone, ultra-psychedelic lead guitar and Cesar Rosas turns in a choice, droning, echo-y lead vocal. The Beatles never had to recreate this song live, which makes this live recording by Los Lobos all the more amazing. Without double and triple tracking, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a seemingly impossible song to perform. Los Lobos found a way and stole this PBS tribute from its other all-star participants.
Disc Four, "1996-2000," covers two Los Lobos studio albums, Colossal Head and This Time. Also included are cuts from another Los Lobos spin-off band, Los Super Seven, and cuts from Cesar Rosas' solo album, as well as a song from Hidalgo's duet album with Mike Halby (called Houndog). Oh, and there is a cut from the Latin Playboys' second album, Dose. The five songs from Colossal Head are well chosen. Though not as successful artistically as its predecessor, Kiko, Colossal Head shared one of its main strengths--ugly sound made tuneful. Of these five cuts, let us focus on one, Cesar Rosas' "This Bird's Gonna Fly." Hidalgo is Los Lobos' resident, shirttails-out rocker. Though he doesn't write as many songs as Hidalgo/Perez, his burning rockers tend to be standouts on any Los Lobos album. "This Bird's Gonna Fly" is basically a blues, with tons of echo on Rosas' vocal and guitar, and featuring Steve Berlin's patented, ugly/compelling sax sounds. The overall effect is that of a traditional blues from outer space. It would have made a suitable song for the alien bar scene in Star Wars. Oh, and it works.
The three cuts from Los Super Seven (a super group comprised of Hidalgo, Rosas, Joe Ely, Freddy Fender, Rick Trevino, and Ruben Ramos) are solidly in the La Pistola Y El Corazon mode. This group, however, mostly covers traditional Spanish songs such as "El Canoero" and "La Sirena." That they are thoroughly convincing, considering the powerhouse line-up, is to be expected. Hidalgo's high, emotive vocal on "La Sirena" is not to be missed. Eat your heart out, Tish Hinojosa.

Three songs from Los Lobos' latest (2000) studio release, This Time, are among the Disc Four cuts. One of these songs, "Viking," is a Hidalgo/Perez space rocker with a simple, nonsensical lyric about some guy named "Viking." Performed by any other band, "Viking" would fall on its over-experimental face. Surely, this time (no pun intended), the Lobos boys have gone too far. The song, with its bathroom-pipe percussion, feedback-driven guitars, and echoed-to-the-point-of-distortion vocals, is just plain disagreeable. In the hands of Los Lobos, however, the foot taps, the head nods, and a smile appears.

Taking all four discs and eighty-six cuts into account, this Los Lobos "sampler" easily tops anything Whitman has to offer. But, don't stop here. If you haven't already, seek out all of Los Lobos' studio releases. They contain enough excellence to fill two more multi-CD, boxed sets. Los Lobos is simply the best rock and roll band in the world. I don't know any other way to say it.