If anyone in your family was born in Mexico in the early part of the last century, drag your laptop over to them, pack a few hankies, and turn up the sound.
Even if you do not have a Mexican grannie, you may still enjoy these video clips from the "golden age" of Mexican popular music: boleros, rancheras, huapangos and rumbas from artists who were popular from the '20s through the '50s. The sound quality in each is almost as bad as the video — I sure wish there were better-res versions of these, and more of them, online.
First, some black-'n'-white film footage of the Afro-Mexican singer Toña La Negra, "La Eterna Gran Dama del Bolero y La Canción Latinoamericana," singing the bolero "Alma de Veracruz" (Soul of Veracruz). As one well-informed YouTube commenter explains,
"Veracruz music was heavily influenced by Cuban music in the 1940's – 1950's for two reasons:
1. The commercial relationship due to the geographical proximity between the island and the Eastern coast of Mexico, favored the cultural exchange.
2. When Veracruz people turned on their radio, they could only hear Cuban radio stations, since Mexico City's radio stations couldn't reach the East coast, due to the Sierra Madre mountains. (This my mom tells me about it, when she was a child)
Here's an even older and more rare clip of la Negra singing "Clave de Oro" in 1934, in the Mexican film "Payasadas De la Vida." In the 1948 film "Revancha," she interprets the Agustin Lara composition "Oracion Caribe." Here's a much later version of that same song, on a TV variety show. Here's a music blog post that points to an entire album of hers, in download form.
Here are a few clips from the 1939 film "Los Dorados de Villa," featuring a lovely, young, golden-voiced Lucha Reyes: "Que Lindo es mi Gringo" (literally, "how handsome is my gringo").
Here's "La Negra Noche," from that same film. Note that she is wearing a sash of bullets.
This is the only clip I can find of the great composer Agustin Lara. It's from his twighlight years, he plays piano while a young supermodel massages his shoulders. Here's an entire downloadable album with many fine old tracks.
The great ranchera singer Lola Beltran appeared in a ton of movies that could be described as Mexican country-n-westerns. These films often include scenes in which one dude faces off with another dude or lady in a song duel, for great justice. Here is one such duel, between Lola and Antonio Aguilar. Here's another. Naturally, Lola pwns in both.
Here's la Lola, sola, singing "La Cigarra," with one of those otherworldy falsetto passages that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Here she is in a ballroom gown singing Adorado Tormento, here's Cucurrucucu Paloma in an even more ostentatious outfit. Here's "Me Allegro Mucho," from another very old movie. Of all the clips I found with Beltran, my favorite is "Estoy Apunto de Llorar" (I'm on the verge of crying), for the super duper over the top melodrama.
Some of the most famous performances by the Costa Rica-born, out lesbian, hard-drinking, gun-toting Chavela Vargas were of Lara's compositions, like "Piensa en Mi," which she performs here in Madrid, in 2000 (at age 81). Here's another song from that same recital, "En El Ultimo Trago."
One YouTube uploader has created a bunch of Chavela Vargas clips (1, 2, 3) that consist of earlier recordings and a black screen — kind of boring to watch, but the sound quality's not bad, and these are some of her greatest hits (back when her booze-soaked voice was a little stronger). Here's a downloadable album in MP3 form, here's another. It is said that she once got it on with Frida Kahlo (for real). To paraphrase Chuck Norris Facts, The chief export of Chavela Vargas is Dolor.
You can also find a bunch of early television clips from Los Tres Diamantes and Trio Los Panchos on YouTube, too — maybe start here and click around. But the old, good ones are all so blurry, you'll feel like you've just done a bunch of tequila shots with Chavela Vargas. Man, these old songs, even in this shitty YouTube playback quality, are so lovely and bittersweet — the aforementioned grannie won't be the only one reaching for a kleenex.
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If you want to buy music from this era, Amazon is a pretty good bet. The iTunes Latino catalog has lots of certain artists, but not quite as broad a reach in this older stuff. Here are some Amazon links for you: Toña La Negra, Agustin Lara, Lucha Reyes, Chavela Vargas, Lola Beltran, Guty Cardenas, Maria Teresa Vera, Los 3 Aces, José Alfredo Jiménez, Jorge Negrete, Los Panchos, Los 3 Diamantes.
This excellent MP3 fan-blog has a metric manojo of links to free .rar archive downloads for many of these oldtime artists (mixed up with later fare, from other Latin pop genres). This post, and the related download, is a great place to start — and the blog is a fine place to begin if you want to get more of a taste before buying the real thing.
