La Bamba

Today, we're talking about a band from East LA that scored the first ever all-Spanish number one hit in the US, covering a 30-year-old song.

[singing] Para bailar la bamba.

Para bailar la bamba se necesita una poca de gracia, una poca de gracia pa' mi, pa' ti.

Ay, arriba y arriba.

Ay, arriba y arriba, por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré.

Yo no soy marinero.

Yo no soy marinero, soy capitán, soy capitán, soy capitán.

That was La Bamba from Los Lobos, released in 1987.

Right.

But he literally sings La Bamba as one of the, one of the lines.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, he sings, uh, Guantanamera as, like, one of the li- like, he's speaking Spanish, but he's speaking it in, like, lines from famous songs that are in Spanish that people know.

They'd say, "Check out this crazy song that I heard." Uh, okay, and then finally we watched a bunch of footage from a Center for Puppetry Arts performance that Jim, Steve Whitmire, and Kevin Clash put on in 1989, known as the, I guess known as The Muppets Take Atlanta.

A big chunk of what we saw is rehearsal footage of Kermit, Rowlf, Bean Bunny, Leon, Elmo, Sweetums, and a couple other Muppets singing La Bamba, but we also get some footage from an actual performance of the show.

Uh, which mostly kinda looks like Jim giving a lecture about how various puppets work, showing some behind-the-scenes stuff and some old stuff.

Uh, and then a little skit where Rowlf talks about how he used to be really famous, which leads into the performance of La Bamba, which seems to be the finale of the show.

How about we talk about some German stuff first, Sam?

Let's, let's do it, I guess.

Okay.

So you may not be able to watch it, but we'll tell you about it.

Yeah.

So, of course, I'm sure all of us loved that movie La Bamba that he was in, but he's been in a lot of things.

What was – he's such a generous performer.

So he did a cameo with us in We're All Fruit Salad.

Rock and roll preschool.

And then when we went to Hoboken in New York State, he came to a restaurant with us.

After a few cordials, he got up and sang La Bamba with us.

Yeah,

In 1958, Mexican-American rock and roll pioneer Richie Valens unleashed La Bamba on the world.

Chances are you've heard it.

But what you might not know is that La Bamba comes from a style of Mexican music with deep African roots.

Hello! Georges Collinet with you on Afropop Worldwide from PRX.

On today's program, we trace the musical legacy of Africa in Mexico.

Then we visit Afro-Mexican communities in the Costa Chica region, fighting for cultural recognition.

And we'll stop by the Golden Age dance halls of Mexico City and hear how the Afro-Cuban danzón became the sound of the nation.

All that and more ahead on La Bamba, the Afro-Mexican Story.

It is a world-class, uh, music education program that...

And our founder for that program, Dinora Marquez, uh, the way she loves to s- the, uh, the, uh, describe it is that our students are classically trained, so they learn everything from Bach to La Bamba.

Mm.

Because not only are they classically trained, but they also learn the cultural component of the music world, right? So they'll learn, uh, composers from Latin America.

Mm-hmm

...

they also can couple that with La Bamba, which is, is really fun.

Yeah.

We're gonna dedicate this song for you, Carrie, and everyone in the studio and everyone in Alabama.

This is La Bamba.

Let's go.

Let's go.

[upbeat music] Uno, dos.

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro.

[singing] Para bailar la bamba Para bailar la bamba Se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia pa' mi Pa' bailar La bamba Ay, arriba, arriba, arriba, eh Yo no soy marinero

Potomka.

Now.

La Bamba.

That would be the reason.

Whatever.