Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.
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This week's song of the week comes from soul singers El Chicano with the their cover of "Viva Tirado."
The song was written by black Latin Jazz great Gerald Wilson in honor of the suave teenage Mexican matador José Ramón Tirado.
It became a top 40 hit for El Chicano in 1970, helping usher in a wave of "brown-eyed soul." And if you're listening Saturday, you can see El Chicano and whole host of other throwback groups at the Art Laboe-hosted Chicano Soul Legends Concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Art Laboe-- still kicking after the great purge of musical talent courtesy of 2016, as is El Chicano.
And make sure to listen to the late great Bobby Espinosa talking about how El Chicano changed his life and gave pride to his fellow Chicanos in East LA, in this piece from the Off-Ramp archive.