This one is for the Clickers Club Summer Retrospective. Classic '50's Rock'n'Roll was all about dancing and having fun.
Story behind the song
All instruments and vocals performed by Michael Duran.
La Bamba is the name of a folk dance from Veracruz, Mexico, circa 1900, best known from a classic 1958 Rock & Roll adaptation by 17 year old Ritchie Valens.
The first Summer I actually paid any attention to, was Summer break after my 2nd year in school, when I was 7 years old.
It was the summer of 1959, and Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper & Ritchie Valens had just died in a plane crash 4 months earlier, so their music was saturating the airwaves, and the radios in my older siblings rooms, I heard them everywhere.
the tune that really stuck with me, and FELT like "Summer" was "La Bamba".
So that tune has always reminded me of youthful Summer time fun.
What exactly does "La Bamba" mean?
"Bamba" has no direct English translation, but is presumably connected with two Spanish verbs
"bambolear" meaning to sway, or to dangle, as in the dances' body movements, and
"bambollero" which is someone "showy" who likes to boast. (yo no soy marinero, soy capitan!) meaning, I'm not a sailor, I'm a captain!
So the song is a clever play on Spanish words.
Perhaps that's why it's better left in Spanish.
Lyrics
La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Ay, arriba arriba
Por ti sere, por ti sere, por ti sere
Yo no soy marinero
Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan
Soy capitan, soy capitan
Bam ba bamba,
Bam ba bamba,
Bam ba bamba,
Bam
Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Oye! (Guitar solo) Orale!
Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Ay, arriba arriba
Por ti sere, por ti sere, por ti sere
Bam ba bamba,
Bam ba bamba,
Bam ba bamba,
Bam ba bamba.