Mexican Rock And Roll Research Paper

Seguir al Sol

- A projected Rock-u-mentary will finally tell Tijuana’s Rock and Roll story

- But ... Mexican Rock and Roll? ... Really?

YES! Even before the Beatles! of course gringo baby boomers would probably think of stars such as Ritchie Valens, Chris Montez, The Champs, that is unless they were in southern California and flocking to Tijuana’s Mike’s Bar where bands like The Tijuana Five, Dug Dugs, Peace & Love or El Ritual where packing them in, standing room only, or the Convoy club where the great Carlos Santana got his foot in the door by playing bass with Javier Batiz, “Liverpool Cavern club style” ... we are talking about Mexico becoming the second country in the world where Rock and Roll was played and created.

Something big happened in the mid-fifties: Rock and Roll exploded on the scene with the force of an earthquake!

And in Tijuana, nightclubs changed from burlesque shows to dance music, live music was played 24 hrs. a day, they had to get good! Bars employed musicians that play 45 minutes sets for 12 hours shifts, monster guitar players, keyboard players, and singers started to emerge all along the nightclub lined street. The bands played American top 40 hits but with a certain local flare.

This is about the time that the most successful and widely recognized Hispanic musician Carlos Santana got his start playing bass with his future mentor Javier Batiz in a dive called the Convoy Club.

American Rock stars came down too! To hang out, get high and sometimes jam. The Kingsmen (LouieLouie), Eric Burdon of the Animals, The Door’s Jim Morrison is quoted as saying: “hey you play the Doors music better than we do”. And so Revolucion Avenue became a breeding ground for Mexico’s top Rock musicians, so much so, that rocker wannabes from Mexico City started to come down to train in T.J. calling Revolucion Ave. the “Rock University of

Mexico”

T.J. Musicians migrated to Mexico City and then things got serious...
Original Rock music, prohibition of social content songs, violence, government repression, mass murder of dissidents – welcome to the “summer of love” in Mexico...

The film “Seguir al Sol” will describe how Rock music opened up a Pandora’s Box of cultural, philosophical and political revolutionary concepts that scared the hell out of the repressive government of Mexico in the seventies.
The landmark Rock music festival of Avandaro, like a Mexican Woodstock in 1971 with Tijuana Rock Bands as headliners Brought together approximately 400 thousand people for three days.

That stirred the hornet’s nest and the government quickly moved to choke the new art form by all the means at its reach. But the musicians just went underground playing in clandestine warehouses, like guerrilla soldiers armed with guitars and microphones.

Seguir al Sol will, of course be packed with Spanish Rock music, loud, free and yes, very subversive, including forbidden songs by singer Song Rider Pajaro Alberto , Love Army, Peace & Love, progressive rock by El Ritual, hard rock by Dug Dugs, Nahuatl and of course Javier Batiz.
The tales, anecdotes and the recording of a new a live concert of these musicians will definitely add the thrill factor to the film.