Los Lobos - "...And a Time to Dance"

Los Lobos had been performing around L.A. for nearly 10 years before the band released the EP ...And a Time to Dance in 1983. 

I remember it well, as I was the entertainment editor of my college's newspaper at the time. I received lots of new releases from record companies, and the EP was one of several I took home one day to listen to. Even though I lived in San Diego (only two to three hours from L.A., depending on traffic), I'd never heard of them. When I played the record, I was immediately hooked. And a few months later I saw them perform live at a music festival -- the first of many, many live performances of theirs I've seen.

Needless to say, I'm a big fan of the group. But the fact that this is an EP has always led me to play it less and less over the years as the group issued full albums.

It was a rather lengthy EP with seven songs, and I wanted to add some songs from the period that could have made it a full album.

SIDE A

1. Let's Say Goodnight

2. Walking Song

3. Diablo con Vestido Azul

4. We're Gonna Rock

5. Under the Boardwalk

6. Anselma

SIDE B 

1. Come On, Let's Go

2. How Much Can I Do?

3. Volver, Volver

4. Why Do You Do?

5. Farmer John

6. Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio

In expanding the EP into an album, I wanted to augment the original rather than do a major reorganization of it. Paul's Albums That Should Exist blog did a good version of it some time ago, but he included live recordings from the time period. I decided I'd rather keep it a studio-recorded release. Thankfully, there are five such recordings from the two years prior to this EP that weren't originally included.

In 1981, the group issued two singles with cover tunes: "Under the Boardwalk" b/w "Volver, Volver" and "Farmer John" b/w "Anselma." Both A-sides had been hits in 1964, the former by The Drifters and the latter by The Premiers. I've no idea why the band picked those two particular songs. While "Farmer John" seems like an obvious tune for the band to cover, "Under the Boardwalk" seems less so. "Volver, Volver" is a mainstay for the band's live performances to this day (and this studio version includes a bunch of yelping to mimic a live performance). "Anselma" was already included on ...And a Time to Dance. 

In addition to these three tracks, Los Lobos recorded a Spanish version of "Devil in a Blue Dress" (titled "Diablo con Vestido Azul") for the soundtrack of the 1983 film "Eating Raoul"; and the original song "We're Gonna Rock" for the 1982 compilation album L.A. Rockabilly.

To Side A of  ...And a Time to Dance, I added "Diablo con Vestido Azul," "We're Gonna Rock" and "Under the Boardwalk," and to Side B, I added "Volver, Volver" and "Farmer John." This is about as even as it comes, with six songs on each side and each side is approximately 15 1/2 minutes long.

I didn't see any reason to change the cover or the title, so they're kept the same. 

Los Lobos - Tributos

It seems that if you want to put together a tribute album, you should have Los Lobos on speed dial. 

This is a collection of songs the band Los Lobos has recorded for 15 different tribute albums over the years, ranging from a Disney movie tribute in 1988 to a Latin-flavored Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute in 2016. And truth be told, there may be other tribute albums out there that the band has contributed to that I haven't yet come across.

Below is a track list of songs, including the tribute album they come from:

1. Bootleg - Quiero Creedence (2016)
2. And It Didn't Even Bring Me Down - Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm (2009).
3. A Man of Somebody's Dreams - A Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to Chris Caffney (2010)
4. The Fat Man - Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (2007)
5. Pawn Shop - Look at All The Love We Found: Tribute to Sublime (2005)
6. Sleeping on the Sidewalk – Killer Queen – A Tribute to Queen (2005)
7. Never Take the Place of You - The Q People: A Tribute to NRBQ (2004)
8. Johnny 99 - Badlands - A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (2000)
9. Are You Experienced? – Searching for Jimi Hendrix (1999)
10. Midnight Shift - Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) (1996)
11. Lonely Avenue - Till the Night Is Gone - A Tribute to Doc Pomus (1995)
12. Down Where the Drunkards Roll - Beat the Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson (1994)
13. Alone in the Crowd - I Only Wrote This Song for You - A Tribute to Johnny Thunders (1994)
14. Bertha - Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead (1991)
15. I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song) - Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988)

What might strike you off the bat is the variety -- Fats Domino to Sublime, Queen to Grateful Dead. But after each song is put through the Los Lobos blender, they come out sounding as if the band itself wrote these. Each track manages to be respectful of the original recording, and true to the band's own unique sound.

In the end, this is a great collection of interpretations—and it really doesn't even scratch the surface. Los Lobos has also contributed cover songs to several soundtrack albums and even put out Ride This—The Covers EP, a CD of seven cover tunes. If you like this collection, there's plenty more where this came from.

For a cover, I took the artwork that was used for a Los Lobos tribute beer from Garage Project Brewery and altered it a bit.