Tuesday 16 December 2008

El Chicano - The Best Of Everything





EL CHICANO
The Best Of Everything

1975

256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MCA-437



This is the second-to-last album EL Chicano recorded for MCA and, despite the name, it's not a compilation of hits. Here's the story behind the title as told by singer Jerry Salas on his website:

A song "The Best of Everything" was submitted to us that we liked and had desided to use as the theme. We didn't want our fans to think it was "A Best of" album that's why we used the mansion, chauffer and period cloths.

Although not as strong as their first four LPs, there are moments that make it worth snapping up, especially the instrumentals "Follow The Apollo" and "Zaire" - the latter being a smokin' seven-minute Santana-esque percussive jam with some screaming organ on the side.
Their version of the hippie anthem "Love The One You're With" is passable while the title track sounds more like the Doobie Brothers than was probably intended. "One More Night (Audi)" ain't a bad pop song although it's pretty standard mid-70s AM fare, which could be said for most of the tracks.

No new ground broken here and you can't help but notice the lack of cohesiveness that's foreshadowed in the liner notes with all the personnel changes. It sums up to a somewhat hit-and-miss affair which was likely compounded by the fact the band started spreading itself a bit thin during this period in an attempt to appeal to its widening fan base cultivated by
touring the globe extensively.

One More Night


Jerry Salas - Guitar, Vocals
Michael "Mickey" Lespron - Guitar
Bobby Espinosa - Keyboards, Vocals

Joe Perreira - Bass (3,5,6,7,9,10)
Brian Magness - Bass (1,2,4,8)
Enrique "Andre" Baéza - Congas, Bongos, Percussion
Johnny DeLuna - Drums
John Raines - Drums (5,7)
Hector "Rudy" Regalado - Timbales, Percussion
Steve Dorf - Piano (7)
Lenny Roberts - Piano (5)


1 You Can Have The Best Of Everything
2 One More Night (Audi)
3 Put On A Show
4 I Want You To Know
5 Might As Well
6 Follow The Apollo
7 Bringing Me Home
8 Love The One You're With
9 Zaire
10 Primavera


Discography
Some of these are not blogged anywhere so have provided versions obtained from slsk over the years. They're not my rips and are indicated by a bit-rate listed after the title. Most of the MCA releases are available for purchase as digital download directly from the band's website El Chicano Music
.


1970 Viva Tirado
@192 at Dreams Never Get Old + Black Acid


1971 Revolución
at Soundological


1972 Celebration
@192 at Soundological
+ hippy-djkit



1972 Brown-Eyed Girl b/w Más Zacate 7"
(Holland left, France right)

1973 El Chicano
@mp3 at sangrepesada + @m4a at hippy djkit


1974 Cinco
at Soundological


1975 The Best Of Everything
at Soundological


1976 Pyramid of Love & Friends
@192 at Soundological




1976 This Is...El Chicano (released as Dancing Mama in Germany)
@160 at Soundological

1978 Look of Love
French compilation


1983 Do You Want Me 12"
@160 at Soundological


1998 Painting the Moment
Buy at Thump


2008 El Chicano Live
@128 at AfroCubanLatinJazz

---------------
Compilations
---------------

1976 Viva! El Chicano-Their Very Best
@224 at Vlasis-13



1997 Chicano Chant
2004 20th Century Masters - The Best of
@320 at AfroCubanLatinJazz



Soundological's
still trying to bring you the best of everything HERE. (updated 2012-07-27)

16 comments:

Bill said...

Loving all the El Chicano stuff! Thank SOO much

ish said...

Didn't know this tail end of their career. Grabbing this one now. Did you get that Soul Jazz 2-CD comp of Chicano rock a few years back?

cheeba said...

You're welcome Bill!

Ish, you must mean Chicano Power! and I did buy it on vinyl when it was put out a few years ago. I noticed that hippy djkit had it up but that link is dead right now (maybe him or fanis will re-up that one like they kindly did for the 3rd El Chicano LP)). It's another excellent Soul-Jazz comp and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to explore more but who's not sure where to start.

Coincidentally, PBS just aired a documentary on Sunday night (the 14th) called Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angeles and by all accounts it's an excellent doc. Hope to see it soon!

ish said...

It is a good collection, Cheeba. I ask because I wonder if you've ever seen the album that the two "Benitez" tracks are from, Butterfly and Nightlife?

cheeba said...

Haven't personally heard them yet but Vampisoul reissued both the Eddie Benitez & Nebula LPs as a single disc last year. I think both of those tracks were taken from Essence of Life.

Available at Dusty Groove

cheeba said...

Sorry Ish, meant to say those tracks were on Nightlife

ish said...

Thanks Cheeba. Just ordered a copy. Money, what a concept!

johnv said...

Many thanks for another massive post Cheeba, hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

cheeba said...

Thanks johnv! I always appreciate your comments! Hope your holiday season was/is wonderful as well!

Ish, I know what you mean. Whereas 10 years ago I would spend a minimum $500 per month on music, now it seems rare to spend more than $150 and that's usually on used vinyl. Sometimes new vinyl or the odd CD but not as often as when I was DJing and only if I'm really keen on the artist in question.

I do think I'd spend more on new stuff if we still got a physical product for the price we pay, not just a license to play a digital copy. I fail to see how paying for a crappy mp3/AAC - DRM or not - is anything but a rip off.

Dj Slick Ric said...

thanx a million how can i get the best of everything plez

cheeba said...

You're welcome DJSR - just click on one of the two "HERE" links at the end of the post.

Manoa Teddy said...

No links for "Look of Love"?

Thank you for posting these albums! Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a bunch for the El Chicano. Very much obliged.

koketon said...

Tuesday, 16 December, 2008
El Chicano - The Best Of Everything







EL CHICANO
The Best Of Everything
1975
Gracias por esta musica

cheeba said...

Featured album reloaded today!

Will try and get to the rest of the discography links in the near future but no promises...

persio said...

thank you very much for sharing and reuploading this!