Graciasland

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Graciasland
Studio album by
El Vez
Released1994
GenreRock and roll
LabelSympathy for the Record Industry[1]
ProducerEl Vez
El Vez chronology
Fun in Español
(1994) 		Graciasland
(1994) 		Merry MeX-mas
(1994)

Graciasland is an album by the American musician El Vez, released in 1994.[2][3] Often labeled as parody rock, the album addresses issues related to Mexico, immigration, and Chicano culture.[4][5]

Production[edit]

The album was produced by El Vez.[6] He recorded it with his band, the Mexican Mariachis, and his backup singers, the Elvettes.[7][8]

"Aztlan" is a reimaging of Paul Simon's "Graceland", with the Rio Grande used instead of the Mississippi; Graciasland's album cover also sends up Graceland.[9][10][11] "Immigration Time" is a takeoff of "Suspicious Minds" that also incorporates elements of "Sympathy for the Devil".[12][4] "Hurarches Azules" is an interpretation of "Blue Suede Shoes".[13]

Critical reception[edit]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[14]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide[6]

The Chicago Reader wrote that El Vez "combines one part Elvis with one part bilingual and musical puns, then adds dollops of everything from Hendrix to the Clash."[15] The Boston Globe noted that El Vez "shuffles the familiar and Williams Burroughs-like, cuts it up and recontexturalizes it into new, jarring forms, some in English, some in Spanish."[16]

The Press-Telegram called "Immigration Time" "a timely, topical tune sung to the melody of the King's 'Suspicious Minds' with lyrics right outta Prop. 187."[17]

AllMusic wrote that "Graciasland is El Vez's best work, smoothly combining humor, social and political satire, and great rock & roll in one fell swoop."[14] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide deemed it "his crowning achievement," writing that the musical references "are played neither for parody nor nostalgia, but as legitimate touchstones from our popular history."[6] In 2009, the Iowa City Press-Citizen called the album a "delightfully subversive, post-modern collision of Elvis Presley with his often-unwitting, pan-global spinoffs."[18]

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleLength
1."La Negra" 
2."Hurarches Azules" 
3."Aztlan" 
4."Chicanisma" 
5."¡Go Zapata Go!" 
6."It's Now or Never" 
7."Cinco De Mayo (W/Blackbird) Edit." 
8."Gypsy Queen" 
9."Trouble" 
10."The Cuauhtemoc Walk" 
11."Cesar Chavez" 
12."Mexican Radio" 
13."Safe (Baby Let's Play Safe)" 
14."Immigration Time" 

References[edit]

  1. ^ Moon, Tom (25 Aug 1995). "El Vez". Features Weekend. The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 17.
  2. ^ "El Vez Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
  3. ^ Lozaw, Tristram (August 26, 1994). "El Vez Sighting". Boston Herald. p. S18.
  4. ^ a b Saldivar, Jose David (Spring 2003). "In Search of the 'Mexican Elvis': Border Matters, 'Americanity,' and Post-state-centric Thinking". MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 49 (1): 84–100.
  5. ^ Marez, Curtis (Autumn 1996). "Brown: The Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style". Social Text. 48. Duke University Press: 109–132.
  6. ^ a b c MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 381.
  7. ^ Salas, Abel (12 Jan 1995). "El Vez has left the hacienda: The Mexican Elvis ain't nothin' but a rock star". XL ENT. Austin American-Statesman. p. 16.
  8. ^ "Elvis Week Events". The Commercial Appeal. August 12, 1994. p. E13.
  9. ^ Fluck, Winfried; Pease, Donald E.; Rowe, John Carlos (February 6, 2011). Re-framing the Transnational Turn in American Studies. UPNE.
  10. ^ Lifshey, Adam (2009). "The Borderlands Poetics of Bruce Springsteen". Journal of the Society for American Music. 3 (2): 223.
  11. ^ "Memphis to Mexico". News. Mohave Valley Daily News. December 11, 2018.
  12. ^ Bass, Holly (19 Aug 1994). "More Ersatz Elvis, and More Royalties for the Newlyweds — El Rey of Rock and Roll Is a Mexican-American". The Wall Street Journal Europe. p. 1.
  13. ^ Berressem, Hanjo (2001). "'Think Globally, but Better to Act Elvisly': Elvis and El Vez". Amerikastudien/American Studies: 433.
  14. ^ a b "Graciasland". AllMusic.
  15. ^ Wyman, Bill (August 11, 1994). "El Vez". Chicago Reader.
  16. ^ Sullivan, Jim (25 Aug 1994). "El Vez: Original plundering". Calendar. The Boston Globe. p. 23.
  17. ^ Grobaty, Tim (October 28, 1994). "Things That Go Thump in the Night". Press-Telegram. p. W3.
  18. ^ Musser, Jim (16 July 2009). "Record Rewind". Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. C3.
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