When Adolfo Guzman Lopez hears the late Juan Gabriel’s music, he remembers the 1970s, listening to Gabriel’s songs on the radio as he and his mom rode in taxis and buses in Tijuana ... Why do waves happen, and why are they shaped like waves? Brains On brings in an expert to explain ... One of the founding fathers of LA punk, John Doe, joins us to talk about his memoir and sing new songs from his latest album ... Film score composer John Williams is at the Hollywood Bowl all weekend, leading the LA Phil in some of his best-known works. We talk with music writer Alex Ross about how Williams pretty much saved the classical music film score.
Commentary: Rest In Peace Juan Gabriel, the greatest songwriter of his generation
Editor's note: Singer Juan Gabriel died Sunday at his home in Santa Monica. He was 66. KPCC education correspondent Adolfo Guzman-Lopez remembers the star for who he was: the greatest songwriter of his generation.
As we begin to unpack the meaning of Juan Gabriel's life and work, I’m reminded of all the things Juan Gabriel was: songwriter, singer, queer icon, borderlands product, and a very proud Mexican. Here, he musicalizes a tribute speech to the great singer Lola Beltan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAHac9GqaP0
"Long live your music, your freedom, your sky, your earth, your sea, your sun, your moon, and all your stars." Then Juan Gabriel sings the refrain “Que Viva Mexico” 11 times.
Juan Gabriel was a craftsman, like Carole King or Paul Williams.
He had a deep knowledge of the ranchera and mariachi formulas, enough to twist the lyrics and marry them to the music to the point where no other arrangement seemed right, like the popular Broadway lyricists.
Here’s a good example, "Tu a mi ya no me interesas," which means "you don’t interest me anymore."
It's one of my favorites, sung by one of Mexico's greatest ranchera singers, Lucha Villa — just one example of how many of Mexico's great singers covered Juan Gabriel’s songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvm2XyAL_p4
"I want you to understand, what I'm about to tell you, and I hope you understand me, that I don't mean to hurt you, It turns out I don't love you anymore, Don't ask why, Even I don't understand, but believe me it's the truth, Why? Don't know, I don't know why you don't interest me anymore..."
Back in the mid 1970’s, my mom and I traveled a lot between San Diego and Tijuana. We spent a lot of time in music-filled Tijuana taxis and buses late at night. Those were good years for my mom and me. She was happy and we listened to songs like "No Tengo Dinero" and "El Noa Noa," which was named after a nightclub from Juan Gabriel's early years. Today, they bring those good times back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_NAcmskKs
I'm remembering a particular moment in a Tijuana bus at night with my mom. I couldn't have been more than 6 years old. As ballads kept coming out of the radio, I remember thinking: "Juan Gabriel, Julio Iglesias, Lucha Villa ... love, love, love."
"Why does everybody keep singing about love? Why are all the songs about love?" I asked my mom.
"That's the most important thing to sing about," she said.
And Juan Gabriel was one of the best at it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwvJDe0zMBU
Song of the Week: Azteca's "Whatcha Gonna Do," from early Pete Escovedo
Did you see Pete Escovedo (with his daughter Sheila E.)
rock the Democratic National Convention?
Escovedo, 81, is playing for free at the Levitt Pavilion Pasadena Sunday at 7pm. (It's at Memorial Park, 85 E Holly, Pasadena CA 91103).
Back in 1972, Escovedo co-founded Azteca, a Latin Jazz big band with 15 to 25 members, and put out two albums - "Azteca" and "Pyramid of the Moon" - before taking a little break before putting out one more - "From the Ruins" - in 2008.
Our song of the week is "Whatcha Gonna Do," from 1973's "Pyramid of the Moon."
Composer John Williams, savior of classical film scores, conducts at the Hollwood Bowl all Labor Day weekend
UPDATE: John Williams will lead the LA Philharmonic in some of his best-loved music Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl.
John Williams received his 50th Oscar nomination for the score for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
Williams is so ubiquitous now, as former leader of the Boston Pops and the man behind the music for so many Lucas and Spielberg films, and old-fashioned lush orchestral scores are so common, that it's hard to believe they were endangered a few decades ago. But so writes Alex Ross in The New Yorker:
Perhaps [Williams'] most crucial contribution is the role he has played in preserving the art of orchestral film music, which, in the early seventies, was losing ground to pop-song soundtracks. “Star Wars,” exuberantly blasted out by the London Symphony, made the orchestra seem essential again.
— Alex Ross, "Listening to 'Star Wars'"
I spoke with Ross about Williams for this week's Off-Ramp, and he walked me through Williams' history and some of the complexities of the "Star Wars" score. (Go ahead. Hum the main theme. Alex says you're probably humming it wrong.)
He also debunked a popular trope:
It has long been fashionable to dismiss Williams as a mere pasticheur, who assembles scores from classical spare parts. Some have gone as far as to call him a plagiarist. To accuse Williams of plagiarism, however, brings to mind the famous retort made by Brahms when it was pointed out that the big tune in the finale of his First Symphony resembled Beethoven’s Ode to Joy: “Any ass can hear that.”
— Alex Ross, "Listening to 'Star Wars'"
Make sure to click on the arrow in the audio player to hear side-by-side comparisons with Williams' music and the music that inspired it.
Punk icon John Doe has a book about the old days and an album of new music
UPDATE: Like what you're hearing? John Doe plays with Exene Cervenka at The Regent in downtown LA on Thursday, Sept. 15. Tickets run from $17.50 to $27.50. Cheap!
In the multi-author memoir "Under the Big Black Sun, a personal history of LA Punk," John Doe and other seminal voices tell stories about the scene that electrified LA in the late 1970s. Doe joined Off-Ramp host John Rabe to talk about the book and also play a couple tunes from his new album.
Doe starts his portion of "Under the Big Black Sun" by giving us in our armchairs a taste of walking onto the stage of the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in the late 1970s.
When we walked down those stairs, I knew it would go from zero to a hundred in a blink, cymbals would crash & DJ Bonebrake would hit his drums so hard that he’d probably knock something over or snap a hi-hat pedal in two. I might pull the cord out of my guitar & stop the giant, rumbling bass. And we would forget about the a--hole soundman who said we were too loud.
After all the nights of rehearsals & learning songs, bad equipment at the Masque & other DIY shows, this would be louder than hell & there would be sounds hurtling past & swirling around us all & somewhere amidst that mayhem, there would be a moment when everything would slow down & I would see things slo-mo.
I’d catch someone’s face distorted by a shoulder or the palm of another’s hand. Or Exene’s hair would rise into a fan as she flipped it into or out of her face. I would glimpse her dark red lips making wonderful sounds that I knew were the only sound that could be made at that moment. She would tell the truth to all these people who knew she would tell the truth. There would be flashing lights & sharp, piercing guitar notes & monstrous chords & Billy would look like he was straddling a wide creek ...
There would be sweat and DJ would have no shirt on. He would shine w/ the power of his driving hands & arms & legs & his eyes would roll back in his head & his chin would tilt upward and sometimes steam would rise from his back.
And we knew then that we were unstoppable & that we had power. And that something was definitely happening here.
-- John Doe, "Under the Big Black Sun"
In our interview, Doe talks about the angst and emptiness of America in the 1970s that led him and the other punks to get onstage and belt it out.
But he and his coauthors – including his X-wife Exene Cervenka, Chris D., Robert "El Vez" Lopez, Dave Alvin and Jane Wiedlin – also tell stories that, in composite, show these were much more than angry young people in revolt: They led real lives, hung out with friends, decorated their apartments, and collaborated with each other in a way that created a real era that still matters today.
We also talk in-depth about his new album, "The Westerner," and we have to say it was a real treat to sit two feet from stardom as Doe belted a couple tunes from it in the Mohn Broadcast Center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-FoNuam6HQ
You can hear all of our interview – including "Sunlight" and "Get On Board" – just by clicking the audio player.