Despite the name of their superlative 1993 compilation (which happens
to feature four songs recorded live at The Barns At Wolf Trap), Los Lobos is
much more than Just Another Band from
East L.A.
If I had it to do over again, this album would definitely have found
its way into my top 25. For me, this is their masterpiece, so much so that it
was painful for me to decide which tracks NOT to include in my list of
favorites. There’s one traditional Mexican number, and three cuts by Cesar
Rosas, whose tracks add some raw grit (and often some up-tempo fun) to the band’s
LPs. The rest of the songs are co-written by Louie Perez and David Hidalgo (with
help in one case from co-producer T-Bone Burnett). Hidalgo is one of the most
underrated guitarists around; one
observer has described his work as follows: “Blues bends, smoky R’n’B, the
rattle of country-swing and rock’n’roll – he’s a master of (almost) all styles,
bending them and twisting them to make his own.”
A strong sense of social consciousness permeates the Hidalgo/Perez
compositions – it’s no accident that Just
Another Band from East L.A. contains a great live version of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s
Going On”. While they display a sharp eye for individual stories on “One Time
One Night” and “The Hardest Time”, they also show (in “The Mess We’re In”) that
they understand the bigger picture:
We've got no money
But we've got our
lives
A voice that's
louder than any picket sign
Don't take away what
is ours to keep
This very land that
lies beneath our feet
Don't know about
this mess we're in
Fortunately, there’s hope at the end:
The smoke is
clearing and we see a light
Coming together for a
different fight
All of us looking,
finding our way again
Out of this mess
we're in
Favorite tracks:
Is That All There Is?
My Baby’s Gone
The Mess We’re In
Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)
River Of Fools
