Going through the treasure trove of recordings from Pat's archive, we came across a radio set from 1991 that featured a saucy, gritty, soul-filled Spanish language number that grabbed both of us. Something about it just felt real, nothing like the oceans of irrelevant schmaltz from the 60s/70s...even though it might appeal to fans of the same. In the DJ break, Pat mentioned the artist's name, Odilio González, and made an appeal to listeners to help find more material from the Puerto Rican singer. Pat's counterpart in the studio seemed to casually dismiss the plea, "We have tons of Puerto Rican music here in the studio." Pat blew past that short sighted comment immediately and efficiently: "Not like him...not like this. This is raw." And that was it; that was what had sucked both of us in when we first heard the warbling croon from González, who started recording in New York in the 1950s. It would seem that Pat was successful in his quest, as at least a half dozen different Odilio González tapes and a stack of CDs found their way into his collection. I haven't come close to working my way through them, or contextualizing the singer's career, but listen to him hold it down while the big studio pop production creeps into "Los Hombres No Deben Llorar" and you'll hear what we heard and what Pat already knew....motherfucker is raw. More to come.
1 comment:
Thank you...
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