El Vez

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
El Vez (2009)

Robert López (* 1960 in Chula Vista , California ), better known by his stage name El Vez , is a Mexican-American musician and singer-songwriter . As the self-proclaimed "Mexican Elvis" he mixes his Mexican ancestry and Chicano culture with Elvis Presley and other musical influences in a humorous - satirical way .

Life

Robert López grew up in a family of civil servants , including an ambitious Chicana activist, in Chula Vista , Southern California . At that time, the suburbs of San Diego were still dominated by the Anglo-American middle class . His father worked as an MC at Jai-Alai games in Tijuana . After musical beginnings in the Los Angeles underground , López, who is not fluent in Spanish , traveled through Mexico as a curator and collected iconography from the Día de los Muertos and other Mexican native art. Today he lives in East Los Angeles , is involved in anti- gang programs alongside his music career and does social public relations work . López has run as an independent candidate in US presidential elections several times , most recently in 2016.

Musical creation

In the Los Angeles scene, López initially worked as a singer and guitarist for the punk bands The Zeros and Catholic Discipline - alongside the later folk singer Phranc . As part of an Elvis exhibition, López immersed himself deeper in his culture and in 1988 developed the fictional character El Vez . Inspired by childhood memories of his uncles, who not only wore similar trousers but also hairstyles like the "King", El Vez initially presented himself as a true-to-original personification with texts translated into Spanish . One of his first songs, Esta Bien Mamacita , was released in 1991 and is a literal translation of Presley's debut single That's All Right, accompanied by ranchera sounds. Other influences soon found expression in his music, such as his 1994 album Graciasland, an allusion to Paul Simon's Graceland , proves. The included track Immigration Time, a rewrite by Suspicious Minds , offers a sample of his humorous and socially critical texts. While the original tells of being “imprisoned” in a dysfunctional relationship, El Vez describes the fate of a contemporary migrant from the perspective of an undesirable Mexican:

I'm caught in a trap, I can't walk out / Because my foot's caught in this border fence / Why can't you see, Statue of Liberty / I am your homeless, tired and weary / We can grow on together, It's immigration time / And we can build our dreams, it's immigration time.

"I'm trapped, I can't get out / Because my foot is caught in this border fence / Why, Statue of Liberty, you can't understand it / I'm homeless, tired and worn out / We can continue to grow together, now it's immigration time / And together we can build our dreams, now is immigration time. "

El Vez has his stage shows with the band Memphis Mariachis and the singing group Lovely El Vettes, whose members, based on women from Elvis' environment, are named Priscillita, Gladysita, Lisa Maria and Que Linda Thompson. In appreciation of his role model opulent El Vez performs each concert at least six costume changes on stage, with a skin-tight, red paint - jumpsuit , which he presents in lascivious movements that has become his trademark. The audience often gets to hear fragments of up to 200 songs, which are presented as medleys .

In 1998 he won Say It Loud! I'm Brown and I'm Proud, a transcription of James Brown's Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud, the award for the best music video at the San Francisco International Film Festival . In addition to appearances as El Vez, López runs other musical projects such as the band The Little Richards and has been active again with the sporadically reuniting The Zeros since 1995.

Movie and TV

López used his popularity several times for guest appearances in feature films , television series , documentaries and talk shows . He first appeared as a DJ in 1993 in the American- British co-production Mi vida loca . On German television in 1996 he honored the Harald Schmidt Show alongside Mark Spitz , in which he appeared with his band in revolutionary uniforms. Documentaries that López contributed to cover the Los Angeles punk scene (e.g. Lexicon Devil about Darby Crash and the Germs ) or the life of Hispanics in the United States. A documentary dedicated to him from 2000 is entitled El Rey de Rock 'N' Roll . In 2010 he also took part in a debate on the political program Democracy Now! His cover version of It's Now or Never introduces the soundtrack to the box office hit Hangover (2009).

reception

El Vez at a concert (2009)

López is widely regarded as the best-known Elvis impersonator who, unlike most of his colleagues, was able to create his very own successful fictional character from the legacy of the "King". The Rolling Stone called El Vez a cultural "ambassador of goodwill (...) who made estranged Hispanics proud again to be Mexican-Americans". Stylistically he mix his cultural background in the Chicano movement with the punk and New Wave - kitsch of the 1970s and 80s. Although he allows himself more freedom than other imitators, he manages to continue Elvis Presley's own practice of "multiple identifications, stylistic hybridity and theme variations". Michelle Habell-Pallán sees El Vez as an “intercultural crusader for truth, justice and the 'Mexican American way '” and dubbed him “Thinking man's Elvis”.

His live shows, which Allmusic compared with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue , a Las Vegas concert by Tom Jones and the '68 Comeback Special by Elvis, are also well received. By combining humor with the glam rock of T. Rex and the New York Dolls , he challenges traditional notions of nationality and masculinity with his performances . In addition, like Rage Against the Machine , he allows plenty of political allusions to flow into his program , above all to Emiliano Zapata , César Chávez and Che Guevara .

El Vez also celebrated success outside of the USA and has performed in Europe at the Roskilde Festival as well as in Germany and Austria . His most prominent admirers include music greats such as Jarvis Cocker , Lenny Kaye , Eddie Vedder and Iggy Pop .

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1992: Not Hispanic
  • 1994: Merry Mex-Mas
  • 1994: Fun in Español
  • 1994: Graciasland
  • 1995: El Vez Is Alive
  • 1996: GI Ay! Ay! blues
  • 1998: Son of a Lad from Spain
  • 2000: NoElVezSi
  • 2001: Boxing with God
  • 2002: Sno-Way José

Compilations

  • 1994: How Great Thou Art (The Greatest Hits of El Vez)
  • 1996: Never Been to Spain (Until Now)
  • 2000: Pure Aztec Gold
  • 2004: Endless Revolution
  • 2013: God Save the King

Singles and EPs

  • 1991: El Vez Calling
  • 1991: The Mexican Elvis (with Esta Bien Mamacita and En El Barrio )
  • 1994: Cindo De Mayao (with Kcalbbird)
  • 1995: Like a Hole in the Head: Remixes, Rewrites & Extras
  • 1996: The Mexican Elvis! (EP)
  • 1998: A Lad from Spain? (EP)
  • 2000: Feliz Navidad
  • 2000: El Vez!
  • 2017: To the Rescue (with Los Straitjackets & Big Sandy)

Filmography (selection)

  • 1993: Mi vida loca
  • 2000: El Rey de Rock 'N' Roll (documentary)
  • 2004: Colorvision (TV series)
  • 2008: Dead Country
  • 2008: Gospel Show in Madrid (live concert)
  • 2 Hip 4 TV ( NBC variety show)
  • 2015: Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel
  • 2017: Fags in the Fast Lane

literature

  • Michelle Habell-Pallán: El Vez Is 'Taking Care of Business': The Inter / National Appeal of Chicano Popular Music. In: Cultural Studies . 13/2 (1999), pp. 195-210 (English).
  • Jason Oakes: All the King's Elvii: identifying with Elvis through musical tribute. In: Access All Eras: Tribute Bands and Global Pop Culture. Open University Press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-335-21690-0 , pp. 175-178 (English).

Web links

Commons : El Vez  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Kembrew McLeod: AllMusic - El Vez Biography. Allmusic , accessed October 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Michelle Habell-Pallán: El Vez Is 'Taking Care of Business': The Inter / National Appeal of Chicano Popular Music. In: Cultural Studies. 13/2 (1999), pp. 195-210 (English).
  3. ^ A b c Jason Oakes: All the King's Elvii: identifying with Elvis through musical tribute. In: Access All Eras: Tribute Bands and Global Pop Culture. Open University Press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-335-21690-0 , pp. 175–178 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  4. ^ Larry Wilson: El Vez for leader of the free world, and the other one: Opinion. Los Angeles Daily News, September 10, 2015, accessed October 7, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Robert 'El Vez' López in the Internet Movie Database (English).
  6. ↑ a b El Vez in the greenhouse. Greenhouse , accessed May 10, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Thomson Gale: St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture . Online (English).
personal data
SURNAME El Vez
ALTERNATIVE NAMES López, Robert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican-American musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Chula Vista