The 500 - #455 - Los Lobos - How Will the Wolf Survive?

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 1 record per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.

Album # 455

Album Title: How Will the Wolf Survive?
Artist: Los Lobos
Released: October, 1984
My age at release: 19
How familiar was I with it: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Will the Wolf Survive?
Great Lyric:
"Drifting by the roadside
Climbs a strong and aging face
Wants to make some honest pay
Losing to the rainstorm
He's got two strong legs to guide him
Two strong arms keep him alive
Will the wolf survive?


This journey through The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time has inspired me to post over 80 times this year. It's helped me as a writer and I've discovered some incredible music, including this entry How Will the Wolf Survive? by Los Lobos. Like many my age, Los Lobos was a band that appeared on my radar when they hit the popular music charts with the song La Bamba. It was a remake of the 1958 song by Ritchie Valens and appeared on the soundtrack to the film of the same name. 

It was the summer of 1987 when the film and song were released and I was life-guarding at Thames Pool in London, Ontario, one of many outdoor swimming facility run by our Parks and Recreation Department. Being a lifeguard seemed incredibly cool and I'd hoped I would get a job at a beach on Lake Erie or Huron. I pictured myself, positioned majestically atop a lifeguard tower, shirtless and bronze-skinned, surrounded by a landscape of bikini-clad beauties. At the pool, the reality was hours of boredom, standing on a concrete deck surrounded by screaming children. I did get a hell of a tan though.

During swimming sessions, daily from 1:00 - 4:30 and 6:00 - 8:00, we would pipe the local hit-radio station through a half-dozen speakers lining the outside of the pool-house. In retrospect, the Top 40 was reasonably entertaining and quite diverse but, by summer's end, I'd had my fill of Whitesnake, U2, Bon Jovi, Genesis, Whitney Houston and definitely the song La Bamba.

I pigeon-holed Los Lobos as a band that did Mexican folk songs. They do - but, that barely scratches the surface of the complex variety of styles they explore on this terrific record. This is a band that is difficult to quantify. They have been called Chicano Rock, Roots Rock, Latino Rock, Tex Mex, Country Rock, Americana, Brown Eyed Soul, Heartland Rock and even Cowpunk. How Will the Wolf Survive? contains influences from R&B, Blues, Zydeco and traditional Mexican Folk music. It is one of those records, like Queen's A Night at the Opera, that switches genre with every song. Much like the weather in San Diego - if you don't like it, just wait and it will change.

The title track addresses issues faced by Mexican immigrants in the United States and is as poignant today as it was when it was penned in the early 80s.  I'm glad this journey led me to this record. I see this band in an entirely different light and now, 32 years later, I might not mind hearing La Bamba again - but probably not.