Time sure does fly when you’re in the pocket. And in the case of my latest Digging Deep mix it’s the reason that caused me to both: a) go over my hour-allotted time (sorry, LYL Radio friends) and b) completely jettison the ending of said mix from the original inspiration behind it. So, I’m asking you for a favor. Rather than stream the mix, skip all the way to the bottom and download my final cut (as it’s closer to my original intent).
What’s the reason behind all this rigamarole? I just had to find time for the music of Bobby Ross Avila.
You see, lately, I’ve been reminiscing about my formative years. As the blog gets closer to music of the ‘90s, I start to think back about what I listened to when I was a young teenager growing up in El Paso, Texas.
Looking back, I think my earliest memories of collecting music were not of buying music but of recording music. Anyone who has grown up in government-subsidized housing (the “projects”, as they’re colloquially known here) knows that the purse strings are tight and allowances for youth are nearly non-existent. So, as the entrepreneurial kid I was, I took it upon myself to save up and buy the cheapest…and I do mean cheapest AM/FM cassette recorder I could afford at the time.
Back then, I only had two sources of music I could consistently tune into. One, on bootlegged cable TV, was whatever MTV was playing throughout the day. The other was that rinky dink boom box (with both a headphone and audio-input jack, plus a built-in mic) that could pull in our local radio stations for me to listen and/or record. This was, for all intents and purposes, what guided my taste early on.
In the mornings, I would wake up to the oldies radio station, picking up whatever yesteryear late ‘60s and ‘70s hits I dug. In the evenings, I’d rush over to catch Yo! MTV Raps, MTV Jams, Buzzcut, and The Grind. I didn’t know why as this young Chicanx kid I loved contemporary R&B but there I was trying to record whatever hot new single from Tony! Toni! Toné! Then, before going to bed I’d tune in to the only period of music I dug from the local Top 40 radio station: their Quietstorm block (where they’d play the formative soul that mix classic R&B and more chill, jazzy, balladry). As you can imagine, although I hardly knew about the more “mature” themes such music spoke to, at such an age I felt that R&B had a certain groove that was different and my thing.
However, what I didn’t realize, was that all the soul music that I loved then was already rapidly segregated by the powers that be. The few black faces I saw in my life were literally all on a TV screen or heard on the radio. And people of my complexion, forget it, I don’t think I ever saw someone like me play that kind of music. Yes we can play Norteño, salsa, cumbia, etc. but as a kid with another kind of taste, I felt a bit out of place. Did we? Could we? Could I? According to 90’s culture it didn’t seem like we should or could.
You could say, things changed for me when I first heard Bobby Ross Avila on TV. It might have been on Casey Kasem’s Top 40, Star Search, or briefly on MTV, but I was like: “Yo!” that’s one of us and the song was banging. In those pre-internet days, where if you didn’t catch something you could really kiss it goodbye – with boombox in hand – I staked out time to record Bobby’s “La La Love”. Flipping my 90 minute cassette, recording over Janet’s “That’s The Way Love Goes”, (because, hey, they’re going to play that again later, whenever) little did I know I recorded the first and last time I’d see Bobby on-air. For that whole year, although I couldn’t afford to buy Bobby’s cassette, here I had a memory that lasted a while. Then I understood that a little kid, just like myself, can be into whatever they wanted to be.
So, now as I look back into my formative time, I thought it would be interesting to revisit this era and its much larger transcontinental soul scene with fresh ears, research, and more in tune with my current headspace. To dig deeper to find music in that vein (and elsewhere) that could have touched someone, elsewhere, just the same. In homage to every one of you, my younger self, and Mr. Avila, here’s a special touch of that heaven for you.
Heaven Must Be Near (Ext. Mix)
2 Men 4 Soul – So Fine
Jhelisa – Friendly Pressure
Slam Slam – Round & Round
P.M. Dawn – Paper Doll
Ingrid Chavez – Heaven Must Be Near
Anna Banana (アンナ・バナナ) – 夜明けを待ちながら
Caron Wheeler – Livin’ In The Light (The Original Story)
Drizabone – Brightest Star
Adeva – Beautiful Love
Dusty Springfield – Nothing Has Been Proved
Times Two – L.O.D. (Love On Delivery)
Color Me Badd – Choose
Bobby Ross Avila – La La Love