The simultaneous black scenes get a very slim once-over, and the East L.A. Chicano scene nevers gets covered at all. But "Land of a Thousand Dances," a new retrospective by David Reyes and Tom Waldman, rights at least one wrong.
The Chicano performers that have sprung out of the city's East side have always sounded like a menage-a-trois between white rock, black soul and their own Latin heritage. Because of the diversity, bands could break from tradition and not lose their Chicano audience. Reyes and Waldman do a fine job documenting it all. To their credit, all the eras get equal coverage, with no one period getting shortchanged for another. The fifties-style spearheaded by Ritchie Valens gets in-depth treatment, as does the low-rider 1970s soul of Tierra and El Chicano. The rise of Los Lobos, from playing traditional nortenos in Mexican restaurants to playing roots-rock in punk clubs, is recounted in great detail; the seventies punk movement gets a fair nod; and garage freaks will go hogwild over the mid-sixties chapters spotlighting classic groups like the Premiers and the Blendells.
Interestingly, a couple of legends are dispelled, including one about the heritage of Redbone, a funk-influenced seventies rock band widely believed to be full-blooded Native Americans, but who were actually Mexicans playing up one component of their blood. The book's photos sum up the era in ways words can't: the Brat posing as hipster new-wavers, a male duo called the Heartbreakers sharing some private joke as a cynical audience of teenage girls looks on, and Cannibal & the Headhunters (whose one and only hit provides the book's title) doing some dance called the "Rowboat" for a sixties TV show.
(James Porter)
"Land of a Thousand Dances"
David Reyes and Tom Waldman
New Mexico Press, 178 pages, $18.95
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.