Spicing Up a Boring Week With Freddy Fender!

I'm bored. The mysterious explosions at Iranian nuclear facilities were fun, but I need something more. Aha! Then I thought of Freddy Fender.

Freddy sang "Tex-Mex" style and one of his songs that I love is "Rancho Grande." I always loved it but didn't understand a single word; now I am taking Spanish and have the highest grade in the class (I got 100% right on my last midterm). Now I understand the words to "Rancho Grande." Here's Freddy singing it live, followed by "Before the Next Teardrop Falls."  (Freddy was born in Texas and was a U.S. Marine, but valued his Mexican heritage mucho.)



"Rancho Grande" is a traditional Ranchero song, very popular in Mexico, and often performed by Mariachi bands. Freddy, however, altered the song with a new verse of his own making:

Cuando se muere mi suegra,
Que la entieren boca abajo,
Que si quiere salirse,
Que se vaya más abajo

It translates: When my mother-in-law dies, let them bury her upside down, so if she wants to get out, she'll just go further down.

Nasty! I liked my mother-in-law, but I guess Freddy didn't like his.

Freddy Fender and a Great Bowl of Chili

Freddy Fender was a good ole boy from Mexico who sang really great cryin'-in-your beer music. There was nothing fancy about it, it was just plain and corny, as subtle as an electric cattle prod. It was music for cowboys, construction workers in hard hats and big-rig truck drivers with ball caps. And I loved it.

Freddy left us three years ago this October. I do hope they serve cerveza in Heaven.

This is the kind of music Bro and I like to play in bars before an older crowd who like to get a little drunk and cry in their beer remembering the good and bad about love and family. I like this kind of music too -- listening to it is like peeling away the layers of the heart, getting past the callouses and down to the soft tissue where you can still feel life in all its gritty glory. Freddie music gets to your center, boils life down to its essentials. And it is so fun to play!

I think of Freddy Fender music the way I do a great bowl of chili. They both satisfy the soul where fancier fare fails.

Here's the first of Freddy's song for you to consider: Before the Next Teardrop Falls.

Here's the second song: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights