La Bamba! (1987) | Ritchie Valens, Lou Diamond Phillips, Curt Sobel

A History of Rock n' Roll in Film and Rock n' Roll

I don't know how to warn you I might get a little wibbly-bibbly in the wobbles during this one. Verklempt, if you will. Similar to the way I was on the CROW episodes processing the loss of Brandon Lee all over again. Ritchie was clearly a marvel and a unique talent in ways I didn't understand until now. To be a guitar hero and a hit songwriter and a teen idol at the same time is a hurculean accomplishment for a 17-year-old kid from Pacoima, California in 1958. And I struggled a bit when jumping on the mic right after my research. This goes back to me being a little kid when I saw the film and begged my dad for a cassette tape of the soundtrack, which I treasured. Rock n' Roll, baby. Rock n' roll.

It's gonna be a bit of this n' that:

• The first impressions of Ritchie by his most prominent biographer, Beverly Mendheim, while she struggled to suss out his ethnicity as an impressionable teenager
• The career struggles and ongoing activism of Lou Diamond Phillips, who is more consistently successful as an actor than many would realize (Me. I mean me, until now)
• The masterful music editing of Curt Sobel on La Bamba! while working closely with Los Lobos and director Luis Valdez (more on him in the next episode!!!)
• Ed Ward's dumbass take on Ritchie in the modern era that rivals even his awful reviews of The Beatles back in the late 60s
• Readings from a very concise, but effective bio on Ritchie taken from a guitar tab book that I highly recommend

https://www.amazon.com/Ritchie-Valens-His-Guitars-Music/dp/1574243802

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/09/lou-diamond-phillips-adverse-prodigal-son-representation/

(Bev's out of print book) https://archive.org/details/ritchievalensfir00mend/page/n5/mode/2up

movie scene comparisons

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