La Bamba! (1987) | Ritchie Valens, Lou Diamond Phillips, Curt Sobel - A History of Rock n' Roll in Film and Rock n' Roll | Lyssna här

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