Midnight Media Cafe - Low Rider
Monday, August 17th, 2009 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serai.
Another stroll down Memory Lane:
Low Rider - War
Low Rider knows every street, yeah
Low Rider is the one to meet, yeah
Low Rider don't use no gas now
Low Rider don't drive too fast...
Last night I posted about the group of girls I sang with sometimes in high school. I mentioned that we sang War's classic Low Rider, beloved of chicanos and Cheech and Chong fans everywhere. That song's always been one of my favorites; very, VERY few songs evoke Los Angeles - not Hollywood, but the real L.A. - the way this one does. It was the first of a different sort of driving song, at least the first to become widely popular: not the 50s rock-and-bop drive-through-diner hotrod song, nor the sunny sweet Beach Boys celebratory driving song. No, this was a proud, laid-back, pass-the-joint, don't-mess-with-me cruising music, unhurried but still a little watchful. With its short, endlessly repeated motif, its agile, enthusiastic bass line (for my money, one of the top three ever written), its nodding, nearly mumbled lyrics that evoke the deep contemplation of the mundane that is the province of the utterly stoned, the song brings affectionate smiles to the faces of everyone I've ever seen hearing it. It's...summer.
You may wonder how a group of high school girls could sing a song this simple and have fun with it? Easy. We sang the entire thing. Each of us would choose a part - bass, guitar, cymbal, cowbell, horn, or voice - and we'd just start and keep going as long as we could keep it up. It's not as easy as it sounds; while the vocal was easy, the bass is very hard to keep repeating over and over. But when we got into a groove, it could be hypnotic!
Ah, memories...
Another stroll down Memory Lane:
Low Rider - War
Low Rider knows every street, yeah
Low Rider is the one to meet, yeah
Low Rider don't use no gas now
Low Rider don't drive too fast...
Last night I posted about the group of girls I sang with sometimes in high school. I mentioned that we sang War's classic Low Rider, beloved of chicanos and Cheech and Chong fans everywhere. That song's always been one of my favorites; very, VERY few songs evoke Los Angeles - not Hollywood, but the real L.A. - the way this one does. It was the first of a different sort of driving song, at least the first to become widely popular: not the 50s rock-and-bop drive-through-diner hotrod song, nor the sunny sweet Beach Boys celebratory driving song. No, this was a proud, laid-back, pass-the-joint, don't-mess-with-me cruising music, unhurried but still a little watchful. With its short, endlessly repeated motif, its agile, enthusiastic bass line (for my money, one of the top three ever written), its nodding, nearly mumbled lyrics that evoke the deep contemplation of the mundane that is the province of the utterly stoned, the song brings affectionate smiles to the faces of everyone I've ever seen hearing it. It's...summer.
You may wonder how a group of high school girls could sing a song this simple and have fun with it? Easy. We sang the entire thing. Each of us would choose a part - bass, guitar, cymbal, cowbell, horn, or voice - and we'd just start and keep going as long as we could keep it up. It's not as easy as it sounds; while the vocal was easy, the bass is very hard to keep repeating over and over. But when we got into a groove, it could be hypnotic!
Ah, memories...
