February 9, 2008
CalendarLive - LA Times
CULTURE MIX
Getting to roots of Mexican rock
'Rock 'n' Roll Made in Mexico: From Evolution to Revolution' explores the tortured history of rock south of the border.
By Agustin Gurza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Halfway through a new film about the history of rock 'n' roll in Mexico, grainy footage shows a stunned group of young people running down the street in retreat. Some stumble, and friends stop to try to pick them up. The film is silent, but the panic leaks through the fuzzy images.
You finally realize you're watching people being shot and falling dead in their tracks. They are the victims of what became known as the Massacre at Tlatelolco, when authorities opened fire on demonstrators on the eve of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
The soundtrack to the gruesome scene is "Abuso de Autoridad" (Abuse of Authority), a raw protest song by El Tri, one of Mexico's most popular and enduring rock bands. In his raspy vocal, lead singer Alex Lora makes a sarcastic reference to the son of then-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, the counterculture villain who ordered the crackdown -- and whose son was an aspiring roquero.
"They lock you up if you protest, and now they even want to take away our rock concerts," Lora growls. "The only one still allowed to play is the son of Diaz Ordaz."
It's the most gripping scene in the film, "Rock 'n' Roll Made in Mexico: From Evolution to Revolution," which screens next week at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, to be followed by a live concert featuring veteran Mexican rockers. The film is one of the rare works in English to explore the tortured history of rock south of the border, a little-known story of how politics and paranoia conspired to snuff out a whole style of music -- and a way of life -- seen as a threat to social order and moral values.
The fear of rock as a corrupting force on youth was also common in the U.S. But in Mexico, according to the film, that fear was turned into an official policy of censorship and eradication. Officials banned the music from radio and TV, raided and closed nightclubs, stopped men on the street to shear their long hair, arrested fans and musicians en masse and forced the movement underground for almost two decades.
The movie is based on interviews with some of the music's '60s pioneers, many now in their 60s, including Lora, Tijuana blues guitarist Javier Batiz and drummer Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra, the film's co-producer, who came to the U.S. as a teenager and joined Canned Heat, the blues band he still leads. In their accented English, they recount how the music went from a pastime of the pampered elites to a cultural cause championed by the poor in Mexico City's vast ghettos, where fans held clandestine concerts in warehouses and parking lots called "oyos funky," or funky dives. The film essentially ends where the story for most people begins, with the music's ultimate triumph in the '80s and the emergence of bands such as Café Tacuba and Maldita Vecindad.
The idea for the documentary grew unexpectedly out of a plan to make a movie from De la Parra's self-published memoirs, "Living the Blues: Canned Heat's Story of Music, Drugs, Death, Sex and Survival." De la Parra's early years in Mexican bands such as Los Sparks and Los Sinners pointed to an untold story that captivated his partner, producer-director Lance Miccio.
"I felt I had discovered something here that has been overlooked," says Miccio. "Even kids in Mexico don't know the trails that were blazed before Maná."
He's referring to the massively popular pop/rock band from the 1990s, which recently sold out four nights at Staples Center. Mexican rock is now part of the establishment -- the filmmakers don't want that success to be taken for granted.
It started in the '50s and '60s, when clean-cut kids formed bands to make covers of Top 40 hits imported from the U.S. and Britain. They had names like Los Teen Tops, Los Hooligans and Los Rebeldes del Rock. The spirit was so innocent they managed to trivialize even a novelty song like "Hang On Sloopy," which became "Hey, Lupe! Lupita, mi amor" in the hands of Los Rockin Devils.
By the early '70s, the movement had adopted the psychedelic styles of the hippie generation with one band calling itself simply Peace and Love. The movement peaked in 1971 with a festival that became known as the Mexican Woodstock, drawing 300,000 fans to Avandaro outside the capital. The event was peaceful, but politicians and the press demonized it as a gathering of sex-crazed druggies and anarchists. The music was banned with the help of government-controlled media, and it would take 15 years to get reestablished.
At the end of the film, it's inspiring to watch concert footage of Lora and El Tri in 2002, with today's Mexican teenagers earnestly mouthing the lyrics of social outrage in "La Epidemia" (The Epidemic), which denounces corruption. In Los Angeles, he can still pack the Sports Arena.
"I travel the world continuously, and I've never seen in any country a story as compelling as the story of Mexican rock," says De la Parra, who now lives quietly in Santa Paula, surrounded by his rock memorabilia. "I mean, the Germans didn't go to jail for playing rock 'n' roll."
Miccio and De la Parra made their film on a meager budget of $30,000, and at times it shows. It has no narration, leaving the story to be spliced together from the interviews. That creates a muddled chronology and occasional redundancy. With such a compelling topic, why open the film with each musician recalling his first instrument, a litany of who played what and when?
The movie also leaves questions unanswered. If the 1968 crackdown was so severe, for example, how did promoters manage to organize that Mexican Woodstock just three years later? At one point, Batiz explains the crackdown in vague hippie language. "I mean, the flowers were starting to bloom, come on! So the [government] didn't want that."
Makes you yearn for an extra pundit or two. (The only non-musician interviewed is the informed rock historian Federico Rubli.) The film could benefit from a little more time and money, and Miccio acknowledges it's a work in progress.
Yet, despite its faults, the film is compelling, especially for its vintage footage that includes police surveillance tape of demonstrations. On the eve of Coachella, which will feature two respected contemporary rock bands from Mexico, Porter and Austin TV, it's good to remember the long and winding road that brought us here.
"Rock 'n' Roll Made in Mexico" screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Fine Arts Theatre, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Concert to follow. Admission is free. To RSVP for tickets, go to www.screenitfirst.com/ssg/events/rsvp/50.
14th February 2008 07:20 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
I suppose you would have had to have been there.
Sounds like a good movie to me. The Mexicans have produced and inspired some great music. Let's see. Sometimes I get Mexicans mixed up with other latinos. Desi Arnaz was a Cuban for example. Los Lobos are American (USA) citizens I think.
14th February 2008 07:34 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
14th February 2008 07:40 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
No way that drummer is Mexican, Latino, Hispanic or Cuban.
14th February 2008 07:47 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
No. He's just Mexican. The great Fito de la parra.
I also noticed Brian Jones in the video.
14th February 2008 07:51 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
Say what you want about Canned Heat....they could cook.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels]
14th February 2008 07:52 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
No. He's just Mexican. The great Fito de la parra.
I also noticed Brian Jones in the video.
Huh, did not see that coming.
14th February 2008 08:11 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
quote:TampabayStone wrote:
Huh, did not see that coming.
?
What coming? You lost me.
14th February 2008 08:18 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
14th February 2008 08:20 PM
fireontheplatter
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
awesome clip. is that from Woodstock?
14th February 2008 08:44 PM
robpop
quote:fireontheplatter wrote:
awesome clip. is that from Woodstock?
No, its from Tampa.
14th February 2008 08:45 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
?
What coming? You lost me.
I thought he looked kinda Yinzer.
14th February 2008 09:58 PM
Slavegirl
I am a big fan of Mexican rock (haha I'd better be...I' a Mexican myself). I love early El Tri in particular. Que Viva el Rock and Roll!!!
14th February 2008 10:27 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
I don't think there's a band out there that holds their "original" line up in such high regard as Canned Heat. I don't think it's that Fito is a sentimentalist, although he might be. Or that he might be in it for the money....though he might be. Partially. Who knows? It's hard to judge motives. Anyway we lost those guys much too soon.
14th February 2008 10:39 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Slavegirl wrote:
I am a big fan of Mexican rock (haha I'd better be...I' a Mexican myself). I love early El Tri in particular. Que Viva el Rock and Roll!!!
14th February 2008 10:46 PM
Nellcote
I got yer Tejano Rock right here....
A lovely gal from down Texas way...
14th February 2008 11:07 PM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
Great article, thanks Señor Moteles!!
Some of the bands mentioned include people I know in person and even are friends in real life since the 60s, too bad we had the ban for local bands for so long, some of the good ones had luck and moved to the USA like Carlos Santana and Fito de la Parra, others moved too but were side musicians or played in unknown bands in bars but many or must of them had a short artistic LOCAL career here playing in bars.
The music of the 60s in Mexico were also a great influence to the jazz-rock movement with bands like the early Chicago (Chicago Transit Authority, Blood Sweat and Tears, Dreams, Tower of Power, etc) and also to some blues bands including ZZ Top
Just remember that the Rolling Stones themselves had “La Bamba” in their early set lists.
This is me with some musicians like Charlie Hauptvoguel who with Alex Lora founded the most successful rock band in Mexico, first as Three Souls in My Mind and then El Tri as that was the way the riff raff, the fans and the public in general used to call him as a short abreviation.
The above picture also includes the legendary Horacio Liedo (my brother) also known as the “Allen Ginsberg de Petatiux” he is the one seated in the middle, Charlie is the one standing between my brother and I. The picture was taken at Salón 21 when we booked, brought and opened for Mick Taylor, I didn’t play but I was in charge of forming the band with members of many bands and was the artistic director selecting the setlist and making the arrangements. The newspaper wrote and a radio station made very great reviews of the opening act that night, the band with no name.
Some friend from “La Condesa” the neighbourhood in which I have lived since I was 3 years old where friends of Fito de la Parra and even jammed and played with him when Fito was the drummer for Javier Bátiz… Javier was Carlos Santana’s boss in Tijuana.
To honor this thread I’m going to upload a video of Carlos Santana jamming with Javier Bátiz and his band. Javier didn’t move to the US so now nobody knows him, he could be greater than Santana, he was Santana’s boss, teacher, sponsor, composer, etc
I think my You Tube account will be restored in 10 days, if not I will make a new one.
14th February 2008 11:08 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
No. He's just Mexican. The great Fito de la parra.
I also noticed Brian Jones in the video.
Are we talking about the drummer?
14th February 2008 11:16 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
quote:TampabayStone wrote:
Are we talking about the drummer?
Yes.
14th February 2008 11:19 PM
TampabayStone
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Yes.
Ok, cool. Thanks for your patience.
15th February 2008 01:09 AM
Nasty Habits
quote:VoodooChileInWOnderl wrote:
Great article, thanks Señor Moteles!!
Some of the bands mentioned include people I know in person and even are friends in real life since the 60s, too bad we had the ban for local bands for so long, some of the good ones had luck and moved to the USA like Carlos Santana and Fito de la Parra, others moved too but were side musicians or played in unknown bands in bars but many or must of them had a short artistic LOCAL career here playing in bars.
This is me with some musicians like Charlie Hauptvoguel who with Alex Lora founded the most successful rock band in Mexico, first as Three Souls in My Mind and then El Tri as that was the way the riff raff, the fans and the public in general used to call him as a short abreviation.
Phooey on the riff raff. They are Three Souls in My Mind in my mind forever.
NICE article.
This is a good schtick for you, Motels - you should try occasionally posting other rock-based news clips as individual threads.
Hey, Voodoo - you need to get up off some of your 70s Three Souls video footage and load THAT up on youtube. Or isn't there any? ¡I want to see the Reclusorio Oriente!
[Edited by Nasty Habits]
15th February 2008 09:57 PM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
quote:Nasty Habits wrote:
Hey, Voodoo - you need to get up off some of your 70s Three Souls video footage and load THAT up on youtube. Or isn't there any? ¡I want to see the Reclusorio Oriente!
I have a lot of videos of El Tri but only some footage of Three Souls in My Mind, however I'm gonna ask Charlie is he has something
ALso I have good news for you, now to find that LP is not as hard as before when you asked me to get one, also cheaper, remember the prices I gave you? That was crazy... Now with local e-bay could be easier and even at EL CHOPO now there are some stores selling TSIMM stuff cheaper
I will e-mail you soon
Probably I will upload the videos to my Photobucket account as my YouTube account will be back (crossing fingers) in ten days and at this speed this thread will be buried in the archives by then
15th February 2008 10:38 PM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
quote:Slavegirl wrote:
I am a big fan of Mexican rock (haha I'd better be...I' a Mexican myself). I love early El Tri in particular. Que Viva el Rock and Roll!!!
You make Voodoo smile from ear to ear! didn't know you're Mexican, we have e-mailed always in English LOL
15th February 2008 10:40 PM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
BTW... I wanna be your slllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!!
Love your avatar, too bad it is reduced to 100x100
But this is it in full for us reading this thread to enjoy!
15th February 2008 10:50 PM
Bloozehound
I like this jam and their one about pablo escobar
16th February 2008 06:46 AM
Slavegirl
quote:VoodooChileInWOnderl wrote:
BTW... I wanna be your slllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!!
Love your avatar, too bad it is reduced to 100x100
Much love to you too, Voodo...You f#@&ing rock! People always ask me my nationality and I am proud to tell them that I am Mexican!
16th February 2008 09:19 AM
Nasty Habits
quote:VoodooChileInWOnderl wrote:
Chocolate Watchband?!? Strangeloves?!?
Vinyl?!?
You got good taste, Slavegirl!
Make Nasty's heart patter pitter patter pitter patter.
Hey Voodoo, check your PM for new E-mail address. I got one of those Denver label Reclusorios (finally) but there are still a couple of LPs I could stand to fill out my Three Souls collección, specifically a Devaluación and an Es Lo Mejor.
16th February 2008 10:40 AM
Ten Thousand Motels
>The above picture also includes the legendary Horacio Liedo (my brother) also known as the “Allen Ginsberg de Petatiux” he is the one seated in the middle<
How did he come by that nick name?
Also why is he "legendary"?
Just curious.
16th February 2008 11:20 AM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
>The above picture also includes the legendary Horacio Liedo (my brother) also known as the “Allen Ginsberg de Petatiux” he is the one seated in the middle<
How did he come by that nick name?
Also why is he "legendary"?
Just curious.
He was an intellectual and a drug guru in "La Condesa", in the late 60s in fact his moniker should be “The Timothy Leary of petatiux” instead of Allen Ginsberg, but he also looked like Allen Ginsberg, really! Just see that picture or the one I have in my profile and I have a lot of pictures of him and of Allen.
He met Timothy Leary in person and was a friend of many of the underground rock bands in the area. Again due to the ban we had he was known only locally but by many.
“de petatiux” is a local expression for something that is foreigner but you’re talking about the “Mexican Version”…so the expression "The Allen Ginsberg of petitux" means something like “The Mexican Version of Allen Ginsberg” when he was more into Tim.
16th February 2008 11:37 AM
VoodooChileInWOnderl
quote:Nasty Habits wrote:
Hey Voodoo, check your PM for new E-mail address. I got one of those Denver label Reclusorios (finally) but there are still a couple of LPs I could stand to fill out my Three Souls collección, specifically a Devaluación and an Es Lo Mejor.
Those are easier to get! Will go to el Chopo next Saturday and will try to find those, of course in vinyl LP
