La Bamba
An Analysis of Ritchie Valens’ Variation of the ‘Son Jarocho’
Introduction
The rapid rise of Richard Valenzuela’s (better known by his stage name “Ritchie Valens”) rock career — that featured a few hit singles, including La Bamba — came to a tragically short end when he was only 17 years old. Yet, his limited musical contributions are not lost, as, recently, La Bamba was selected by the Library of Congress as “aural treasures worthy of preservation because of [its] cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s recorded sound heritage”:
“In spite of his brief life, Valens’ success brought a new sound to the mainstream and inspired generations of Chicano musicians.” (Library of Congress, March 2019)
The life and death of Ritchie Valens even inspired a successful movie: La Bamba (1987) (Pitchfork, August 2020). It was also, recently, selected for preservation “for its cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance”:
“La Bamba [(1987)] is a biopic of the life of the rock star Ritchie Valens, rock’s first Mexican-American superstar.” (Library of Congress, December 2017)
Ritchie Valens heard the tune for La Bamba and gave it a new spin as a rock record. The young and ambitious Ritchie Valens ran with the ideas behind the inversions presented by the original melody and brought expressive features to the harmonization to create a truly iconic record.
The ‘Son Jarocho’ La Bamba
Son Jarocho refers to a Mexican style (genre) of music originating from a region— La Huasteca — by the Gulf of Mexico (son[es] directly translates to sound[s]; Jarocho is a colloquial term — native to Mexico — used to describe people or things from the city of Veracruz). The style is a remnant of the Atlantic Slave trade: the sound “combines elements from indigenous, Baroque music from Southern Spain and the Western African music of slaves taken to the Caribbean” (Wikipedia contributors, Son Jarocho).
Being the case, common subjects of many songs include love, nature, and sailors (La Bamba’s lyrics include the line, literally, “I’m not a sailor, I’m a captain”, sung within SR A). Singing is typically done spuriously, so lyrics are typically impromptu and verses contain many jokes — think more quips or double entendres — throughout the genre (Both SRs A and B have different lyrics but both contain these types of humorous verses, with SR B’s lyrics focused more predominantly on the subject of love).
Ensembles for sones Jarocho are common, and instruments primarily include acoustic guitars (such as the Veracruz-native jarana jarocha, requinto jarocho, or leona) and vocals. Fingerstyle guitar playing is also common (SR B has the requinto playing the main melody throughout the recording, although SR A also has small sections with fingerpicking).
Both sample recordings above are to give a reference for the variation, yet consistently folksy feel, of the melody being played as La Bamba would normally sound on acoustic guitars.
The main melody of La Bamba can be modeled as a two-phrase basic idea that follows the I-IV-V chord progression. All subsequent measures of the record follow the same progression, yet each iteration varies the melodies to imply different inversions of the same I-IV-V chords, the suspension across IV-V, and the rhythm. For example, this first basic idea has all chords in root position, however, later in the piece we encounter, within the melody, the same V⁷ chord — in 4/2 and 4/3 inversions.
It’s overall a simple melody — that’s perfect for fingerpicking — with very little use of block chords throughout, typical of the son Jarocho genre. The strumming in the samples above are to be expected of the impromptu-performance nature of the style.
Ritchie Valens’ Cover of La Bamba
As a Mexican-American having lived in California, Valens more than likely heard some form of the original song growing up. Despite not speaking Spanish, Valens was said to have phonetically memorized the Spanish lyrics (although he was also not afraid to improvise his own lyrics, a key characteristic of son Jarocho) (Wikipedia contributors, Ritchie Valens). The most noticeable change he made to the song came from the instrumentation, as his preferred instrument was the electric guitar (his cover of the song is rife with his guitar riffs).
We can get a sense of Ritchie Valens’ youth and enthusiasm just from reading his interpretation of the same basic idea presented above:
Right off the bat, we see the addition of not only a pickup but also a second instrument, likely for a bass guitar. We see the use of block chords in the lead guitar for a very loud and memorable dash through I-IV⁶-IV⁶/4-V⁶/5. The use of rapid repeat block chords is an appropriate choice for the intended genre of his new piece: rock — where louder, more expressive, chords are preferred.
The pickup runs through 5–6–7–1 (scale degrees) not only foreshadowing the future cross-measure suspensions — in general, though here specifically from V-I — but also to emphasize the V from the onset. This makes for a catchy tune that also prepares the listener for the V chord, necessary because the majority of the record utilizes the V⁷chord (and associated inversions).
The suspension remains from the original melody however the 7th above V is no longer just implied as in the original melody; instead, Valens chooses to suspend the second inversion of the V⁷ chord, with the root as the highest note. Interestingly, he keeps the octave drop from the root as the lead-in to the same melody 5–7–2–4.
The V⁴/2 at the end of measure 3 is another interesting choice; note that it could be interpreted as V⁴/3, but the quick succession of parallel octaves makes this unlikely as the chord is likely used to step back to the I chord. The bass in these first three measures steps through the V⁷ chord, not only presenting a new take of the melody but also introducing the bass as the voice with the main melody.
The bass plays a larger role throughout the record as it holds the melody, thus dictating the inversion of the chord being played through the piece more explicitly that the melody alone would only imply, as in the original records.
Conclusion
Even from just analyzing a two-measure sample of La Bamba, we can see the breadth of composition design choices being made. Valens continues to expand on these ideas throughout the rest of his cover of La Bamba, increasing the initial flair and energy presented. I grew up listening to his record and watching the biopic of his life, not knowing until now how Ritchie Valens harmonized a little-known tune for the up-and-coming rock spotlight.
