I don't really know the story behind Ride This! by Los Lobos, but I have theories. The album is a companion to The Ride, and it covers 7 songs by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Ruben Blades, and others. One track (Marie, Marie) is live, from 1999. The tracks are originally by artists who are either longtime partners with Los Lobos are by artists with whom they recorded songs on The Ride. My theory is that they put on the originals of these songs when they were producing the album as reference tracks and they decided they liked them so much that they recorded them and decided 'hey, we've got something here...' It's probably not how it happened, but it could have...
Like a lot of people, I was introduced to Los Lobos through two cover projects they were involved with. The first was La Bamba where they showcased the seductive latin sounds hidden inside the 1950s rock of Richie Valens. I also liked their contribution to the Stay Awake CD, a nice cover of I Want To Be Like You from the Jungle Book.
I don't know what Los Lobos really want to be as a band. The album isn't just latin and it isn't just rock and it's not what's traditionally thought of as "latin rock". There are elements of all of that, but in the end, it's almost defiantly "none of the above". I've always known that Los Lobos could do excellent work with cover material, and this album is no exception. It really does a good job of showcasing the versatility of the band.
It turns out that I am unfamiliar with about half of the material Los Lobos were covering. Sure, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits and Richard Thompson were artists I knew, but I was really familiar with the Blades track, or Dave Alvin or Thee Midniters or the Bobby Womack cover. That's not bad. I like discovering new things. It just makes it hard to do the expected cover/original comparison. I'm not sorry about that. It lets me treat the songs as themselves, which fits for a "none of the above" band.
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
This might be worth buying. I just heard the 30-second Amazon samples of "Jockey Full of Bourbon" and "Marie Marie," and I'd love to hear both in full. The Waits song is a surprising choice -- great song, but not the most obvious cover material. The Blasters song, on the other hand, is the kind of rockabilly rave-up that's right up Los Lobos' alley.
2 - Michael Croft
While this cover EP is $9.95 at Amazon, it's available for $6.93 (or less if you don't want all the songs) on the iTunes Music Store. The booklet isn't worth $3, but the other advantages of physical materials may be. If you just want one cut, consider iTunes.