Los Lobos Remember Pee-wee Herman with Archival “Friday Night Videos” Clip
- “Farewell, Amigo, you were a good soul,” Louie Pérez says
Whether one was “from” East L.A. or one was “from” Los Lobos, Pee-wee Herman was gonna charge them a buck to sit on Chairry. And pity the sucker who tricked him into saying the secret word.
Both of these things happened when David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez and Conrad Lozano - from Los Lobos - visited Herman on “Friday Night Videos” while promoting By the Light of the Moon.
Los Lobos unearthed the 1987 video to remember their “amigo” Herman, whose creator and alter ego, Paul Reubens, died this week.
And it turned out Herman wasn’t impressed by celebrity.
It’s an uproariously ridiculous segment that begins with the band fighting over Chairry and ends with Herman refusing to air the Wolves’ video. He was kidding, of course, and the band remembers the ordeal fondly.
“So much fun hanging with Pee-wee …,” Pérez said in a statement.
Los Lobos Celebrate 50 Years with Five-song Set at California’s KCRW
A half-century into their career, Los Lobos are still adding canonical numbers to their songbook.
The wistful, 1950s-rooted “Native Son” is the latest, the centerpiece of the group’s recent 25-minute set at California’s KCRW radio station. A paean to their Los Angeles roots, the (almost) title track from the Wolves’ 2021 LP finds songwriters Louie Pérez and David Hidalgo taking stock; looking back while moving forward.
I was a fool to run away/and forget where I’d come from/I think about the day you’ll take me back/I’m your native son, Hidalgo sings with sweet melancholia in his voice.
Opening with the semi-autobiographical “Will the Wolf Survive?” and wrapping with “La Bamba” -> “Good Lovin’” -> “La Bamba,” the band treated the small audience to a modern Lobos gig in miniature and recorded it for posterity. Truncation notwithstanding, Cesar Rosas still found time to beseech and thank music lovers as he led his bandmates through “Chucio’s Cumbia” and “Don’t Worry Baby,” spotlighting their respective south-of-the-border and south-of-Chicago sides.
Rosas also held the mic for “Love Special Delivery,” another Native Sons track that reinforced the continuing relevance of what on any given stage is potentially America’s greatest live band.