I must confess that I did not know that this existed until I heard it Tuesday as a guest on my chum Allan Rosenberg's intertube radio show (I'll put the archive link to the show up as soon as the station posts it).
In any case, a mindblower -- you're conditioned to think of 50s rock in mono, in sort of the same way you're conditioned to think of World War II in black-and-white, so when you discover something like this the effect is almost psychedelic.
9 comments:
Hey Steve,
Just had one of those funny messages from DivShare -- "this account has not been confirmed bla bla bla"
I'm reminded of a very funny piece in the New Yorker from a million years ago (like probably around the time of that movie) "The La Bamba Hotline" a call centre helping people with their La Bamba issues!
Does the thing play on your end? It's working for me...
I get the same message as Jayessemm.
It's working for me. Played it through twice and we did a little La Bamba twisting.
Regarding the single. I have heard that the backing track was recorded in true stereo but vox were never laid on top. Sometime in the 80's or 90's, the vox from the mono mix were laid on it. Probably by engineers for reissue label, Eric Records.
There are two versions. One with the vox predominant in one channel [the one presented here] and another stereo version with the vox centered.
Only reason I know is that I used to play tennis doubles with an accountant who was a huge stereo-mono-alt.mix geekerooni. His wife hated me.
Vickie Rock - Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan.
I still maintain that if he had lived, Valens had a chance to be a great artist. Donna>True Love Ways for me, anyday.
Sounds incredible! It puts those early '60s Beatles and Stones stereo mixes to shame!
There is a ghostly second voice in there, you hear it coming out of the break just before the real vocal restarts. Makes me think they were layering tracks.
If you read the new Bert Berns biography, it brings out the point that Berns whole lifetime's work was inspired by this song -- from the Isley's "Twist and Shout" to Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl". He essentially worked every variation of "La Bamba's" three chords and Latin Beat he could come up with. Thanks for posting this stereo mix.
Anonymous:
The "ghostly" second vocal is also present on the mono single.
Vickie Rock - Ooh my head!
I think the ghost vocal is a reference vocal leaking into the instrument mics during the recording of the instrumental track.
Allan R. (Capt. Al)
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