La Cucaracha (BOTB)

        Can you believe it's once again time for Battle of the Bands?    Yes, time is going faster than a cockroach scurrying across the floor and here we are for another music Battle.  For anyone who does not yet know about BOTB, this is the event that takes place on the 1st and 15th of each month.  Far Away Eyes at Far Away Series gets the credit for first conceiving this now popular event.  Blogger Stephen T McCarthy maintains the participant list and answers your questions about the event--you can find his blog with a list of participants at  StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This is not at all complicated:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battles to vote on.

La Cucaracha (The Cockroach)

       With the next presidential election still over a year away, we have nevertheless been inundated by the political race with campaigning, debates, and all sorts of politicking activities going on.  There being so much focus on politics, I thought I'd turn to what might be the most well known politically related song of all time.

       "Wait," you might say, "How is 'La Cucaracha' political?  We used to sing this in school."

        There are some things you probably don't know about this seemingly innocuous little ditty.  According to The Straight Dope website:

"La Cucaracha" is the Spanish equivalent of "Yankee Doodle" — a traditional satirical tune periodically fitted out with new lyrics to meet the needs of the moment.

      Possible references to "La Cucaracha" have been found dating back to 1492 with the Spanish conquest of the Moorish invaders.  The song later pops up at various times in Mexican history with lyrics suited to the politics of each era where it appears.

       Most famously the song was popularized during the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920, being sung by the supporters of Pancho Villa.  Other groups also laid claim to the song changing the lyrics to suit the political messages that applied to them.

        Many popular versions were recorded by American artists as well who took the liberties of changing the lyrics to a non-political message.  Over time the song has become a cliche representing Mexican music.  It's been used numerous times in cartoons and comedic film sequences.  Often the song can be found on recordings of children's music as well as being sung by children at school.

         I'm sure they don't sing the lyrics translated below which are the lyrics most well known in Mexico:    

The cockroach, the cockroach, can't walk anymore because it's lacking, because it doesn't have marijuana to smoke.

        Check out the following two brief clips from the popular Speedy Gonzales series and listen at the end for the reference to "marijuana que fumar" or "marijuana to smoke".    These are not part of this Battle and are presented only for the sake of context, history, and fun:






Here's the Battle:

         What follows are two very contrasting versions of the song for you to vote on.   The first is an Americanized arrangement jazzed up by the ever popular Louis Armstrong.  This is followed by a more traditional Mexican version by the incredible song stylist Lila Downs.  Enjoy, compare, and then vote!

Louis Armstrong "La Cucaracha"  (1935)

       This artist probably needs no introduction since his fame is international and his influence on music is historic.  He was an innovator in the Hot Jazz movement and was respected as a musical artist until his death in 1971, just a month before he would have turned 70.   To this day Armstrong remains a favorite as has been affirmed by his appearances on other Battle of the Bands posts.

        Perhaps unknown to many, Armstrong was a life-long user of cannabis or marijuana.   He was an advocate of the legalization of marijuana.  In a letter encouraging then President Eisenhower to consider the legalization of cannabis Armstrong stated:

"It makes you feel good, man...[it] makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro. It makes you feel wanted, and when you're with another tea smoker, it makes you feel a special kinship."

         Armstrong was arrested once in Los Angeles in 1931 for marijuana usage, but managed to avoid a jail sentence.   The arrest did not stop him from smoking marijuana for the next several decades.   Any references to his marijuana use were removed from his 1954 autobiography Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, but Armstrong is reported to have planned to write another autobiographical book called Gage (his slang term for marijuana) which would have been about his life with the substance.

        The lyrics in this version of "La Cucaracha" are minimal.  All of the internet song lyric sites I found cited far different lyrics as reportedly sung by Louis Armstrong, but I could not find any corresponding YouTube videos where those lyrics could be heard.  Still, musically speaking this version by Louis Armstrong is pretty darn good and a heap of fun.




Lila Downs "La Cucaracha" (2004)

     One of my favorite female vocalists, Mexican musical artist Lila Downs exhibits an eclecticism that I highly appreciate.  She surrounds herself with top quality musicians and chooses from diverse song choices and musical styles on her recordings.  The music of Lila Downs is intelligent as well as intellectual, but never sacrificing the sense of fun and entertainment that good music should provide to the listener.

     In her version of "La Cucaracha" Lila Downs makes reference to the rendition popularized during the Pancho Villa era while interjecting some more modern political references.   The translations I've found of her version are a bit awkward, but perhaps that is the nature of the song   If you're interested in an approximation in English of what she's singing you can visit Batlyrics or a number of other sites.

      Whether or not you can understand the lyrics, hopefully you can still find enjoyment in just listening to the music.  Take special note of the influences of Arabic and Jewish music in Lila's version.  The violin and clarinet add a lot to this arrangement in my opinion.   Mix in the Mexican percussion and harp with a very cool electric guitar introduction along with a brief rap interlude and you get a near perfect blend to turn a somewhat trite song into a musical masterpiece.   Give this one a chance--I think it's worth a few minutes of your time.






Time to Vote!

         I don't want to sound like a pest but I hope you'll add your vote to this contest. Which song version do you like the best? Surely you think one is better than the other even if you don't like either presentation as much as the original version. Judge what you hear in the above videos. Which version do you prefer? It's up to you to help determine the winner.

Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours

Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

‘FAR AWAY SERIES’ 

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

 ‘YOUR DAILY DOSE’ 

  'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

DC Relief Battle of the Bands

The Doglady's Den 

Angel's Bark  

Cherdo on the Flipside  

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Women:  We Shall Overcome  

Book Lover

J. A. Scott  

Quiet Laughter

Holli's Hoots and Hollers

NovelBrews

Results on Wednesday October 7th

        Find out who gets the most votes in my post of Wednesday October 7th.  Please include your vote in my final tally.   Also on the 7th I'll be joining in with the Insecure Writer's Support Group.  Don't miss it!

Related articles

• Pancho Villa to Donald Trump: Four Degrees of Celebrity Separation
• New Orleans: 20 great musicians from New Orleans
• B-sides: Lila Downs

Home Invasion Story

 High detail closeup of a cockroach. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       I had a post ready to go for today, but then I decided to hold off on putting it up on my blog.  My reasoning goes along with some of my previous posts that spoke about political correctness and avoiding controversy that might work against what I'm trying to achieve with Tossing It Out.  This blog is certainly no stranger to controversy, but sometimes it can be better to let things stew in the pot a while longer.   For now I'm going to turn the heat down on my intended controversy and put that pot on the back burner.   Instead, managing to still stay with the theme of my upcoming Battle of the Bands, I will present something that is more allegorical than overt.

The Cockroach Invasion

      A year or two after moving to our house in East Tennessee we were faced with a highly unpleasant situation.   Cockroaches had been sighted in our kitchen.   In all of my 16 years of living I had never seen a cockroach.  To my mind they were almost mythical--something one might see in a cartoon or hear about in urban slum dwellings.  Yet now they were here in our home.   We were all horrified by this discovery.

      At first the sightings were random and few.  We killed as many as we could see and thought this would win the battle.  However one night after returning from a family outing we turned on the kitchen lights to face hundreds of the dreadful creatures scurrying every which way.  The kitchen that night must have looked like a barn dance hoedown as my father, sister, and I began stomping every roach we could manage to destroy.  War had been declared and we were hopelessly outnumbered.

       Our best guess as to where the nasty critters came from was that they had made their way in groceries from the neighborhood market.  Since there weren't many grocery shopping choices in our area back then we continued to shop at that market.  Now however we were more careful about our pickings in that store and checked bags carefully after we brought them home.  Perhaps that stemmed the flow of new incoming roaches, but the ones that were already firmly established in our home were breeding with great abundance.  Roaches were in every cupboard and even showing up inside food packages.  This war was now going to call for drastic measures.   None of our family wanted to live with roaches in our midst.

        So we did the obvious thing and called the exterminator.   This was after an ineffective attempt to use bug spray we bought from the store.  That stuff smelled horrible and probably was eventually as likely to kill us as it would the cockroaches.  The exterminator used a substance that had little lasting odor and the delivery device he used covered every room of the house.   I'm not sure what poison he was using, but it seemed better to deal with that than having to share a house with an ever growing population of cockroaches in that house.

          My mother signed a year-long contract for the exterminator to come by once each month to spray.    After his second visit the cockroaches appeared to be conquered.  If any were still hiding away in the deeper recesses of the house, the succeeding visits by the exterminator must have finished all of them off.   In the fifty years since that incident we have yet to see any return of cockroaches.

          When unwanted invaders threaten to take over ones home, drastic action needs to be taken in order to maintain the status quo of ones life.  Cockroaches are amazing creatures to observe as well as being hardy survivors.  Let's face it though, they are not willing to assimilate into the family like a dog or a cat or any other pet.   Cockroaches are set on establishing their own society without regard to the society upon which they are encroaching.  I for one am not desirous of sharing my living space with cockroaches, rats, or any other unclean pests.   What other options do we have?

Battle of the Bands Song Clue

        On Thursday I will have another Battle of the Bands post.  The story above offers some hints to my song choice, but let me give you a few more:

• The song I'll be using is a very well known folk song that is speculated to date back to the 15th century.

• The song's lyrics have often changed depending on the times and circumstances, but typically the subject matter has to do with politics.

• This song can often be heard in cartoons or comedies.

• You may have sung this ditty when you were a child in school, but with age appropriate lyrics.

• My first presenter of the song is a highly respected American artist who had a fondness for marijuana.

• The second recording is by an immensely talented and highly educated artist from Mexico whose name might make one think she comes from the United States.

        Please be here on Thursday October 1st to find out what song I'll be using and by which artists.   I've been having fun with this one and I hope you'll enjoy it as well.

         Have you ever had to deal with an infestation of pests?  If so, how did you remedy the situation?   Do you have any idea what my next song choice will be?   Can you guess the artists?

People Hear But Often Don't Listen (BOTB results)

An example of crossover between video game culture and graffiti culture found on the Berlin Wall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       Of late my frustrations with our screwed up society have been exacerbated.  More than ever before, media creates the stories that become our history and provides interpretations of what people say rather than merely reporting what they say.    That which is presented as news is distorted in order to fulfill agendas and control our thinking.   No wonder so many in the United States are amazingly nonchalant about who we are as a nation and where we are going in the future.

       As I have been watching certain television reports lately I am baffled when I know what I heard and what I understood about what has been said and then the talking heads reinterpret things for me to let me know what I was supposed to have heard and what it is that I'm supposed to think.   This is a technique that is in essence mind or thought control.

       The U.S. government has been working on the collective brain of society for years now as certain influential groups have been whittling away our traditional thinking and twisting our history into the story they want us to believe about ourselves.  My memory is fading as I grow older, but the powers that pervade the general belief systems of the American psyche in an attempt to pervert rational thinking in favor of emotions are interfering with my ability to remember the United States of America as a beacon for the world.   The guiding light that once made this nation great may be dying out and many of the younger generations don't even realize it or for that matter care.

        I'm puzzled when something makes total sense to me and then the message bearers from the media tell me that I'm wrong and then let me know according to them what I am supposed to be witnessing and hearing.  I'm not naming names or citing specific situations.  I'm being enigmatic for a good reason.   This is just my way of saying something without actually saying it.  Obfuscation is a media tactic and a ruse of the politicians that seems to be the way we are often forced to use as our method of communication and now here I am also resorting to it, not in the way they do, but in the way I feel I must for reasons some of you might understand.   If you don't understand then I see no reason to explain this to you.

         Besides, those who don't like me or what I'm saying will shape my statements to suit their own needs.   Most everyone else isn't listening anyway.

Results for Battle of the Bands

         My most recent Battle featured the Kool and the Gang hit "Cherish" with versions by The Katinas and Pappa Bear.   Knowing the nature of my voting audience, the winner of the contest was no real surprise.  What did surprise me was how well the rap artist Pappa Bear actually did.   I had even considered the possibility of a blowout in favor of the Katinas, but a handful of you kept that from happening.

          One thing for certain is that my vote would not have saved Pappa Bear although I thought the rap version was pretty good.   Rap is not a genre that I normally listen to, but I like to keep an open mind about music and I can honestly say that there are some rap songs that I actually don't mind and in some cases I even think a few rap songs are quite good.  However, I would imagine that my general  preference in music will always fall in a direction away from rap.  This is so in the case of this match-up and my preference is with the group The Katinas.

Final Vote Tally:

The Katinas         23 votes

Pappa Bear            7 votes

     
One More Thing...

      Regarding my opening statement, you can make what you want of it.  You can consider it an exercise in writing or another rant blogging in the wind.  I tend to do some of both.  When something strikes me strongly I tend to say more than "ouch" and then fade with a whimper, but then again what I say might be so veiled that I leave people guessing or just moving on to the next thing.  I do what I feel like I need to do, but often not to the extent that some would think I should do.   I guess that's my business though.  And for now I do mean "business".

      Next Battle of the Bands will be on Thursday October 1st when I will get political by presenting one of the most well-known and perhaps oldest of political songs--a song that most of you probably wouldn't even associate with politics.  You might be surprised.

       Do you avoid discussing what is meaningful to you for fear of offending others?    Can you think of any recent blatant mind manipulations in the media?   Have you avoided any genre of music merely because of your decision not to like any of it?