Los Lobos
How Will the Wolf Survive?

THE REVIEW

«Hey guys, thank goodness they went out to smoke a joint, I thought they'd never leave; let's take advantage of it, now or never. Pull out the bajo sexto and accordion and let's record the last two».

That's exactly how it went, with «Serenata Nortena» and «Corrida #1».

So blessed be the wayward joint, otherwise those two tracks would never have left the drawer and «How Will The Wolf Survive?» would not have been the same.

It surely would have been a bit less fun, because the only reason I find it impossible to dance to the rhythm of «Serenata Nortena» and «Corrida #1» is that the atmosphere, more than the 100 Club, resembles that of a dance hall and I, in any case, am gasping with laughter.

Which certainly doesn't prevent me from acknowledging how talented the Little Wolves are, because the time change in the chorus of «Serenata Nortena», to the point of transforming a frenzied shuffle into a waltz, is one of many reasons to never forget the Eighties and to observe, with bitterness, that bands like this will no longer arise.

But the best has already come, so, in order, I'll start from the beginning.

And the beginning is «Don't Worry Baby», a furious R&B that is nice to think of as a tribute to the great Howlin' Wolf; but also because, since we're in Slash's neighborhood and the neighbors are named the Blasters, it exudes electricity from every pore, and then that ever-reverberating guitar in the background is another reason why the Eighties blah blah blah ...

Perhaps «Serenata Nortena» and «Corrida #1» give the illusion that it's still time to dance, but Los Lobos have changed the course and started writing great songs; because what truly distinguishes «How Will The Wolf Survive?» from «... And A Time To Dance» is the presence of genuine gems; the first, of course, is «Don't Worry Baby».

The others are the rock'n'roll «I Got Loaded» and «Evangeline», which make the Alvin brothers exclaim in unison, also present at the sessions together with John Doe and Billy Zoom: «These guys really get us all revved up», just like Steve Berlin the previous year, in that famous and smoky Los Angeles venue from which the whole imaginative tale began.

And here, passing into history (they don't, but they should), are the handclaps marking the rhythm in «I Got Loaded»; and, to speak of «Evangeline», well, «Evangeline» should pass into history as such, if only for being the most beautiful song by Los Lobos and, in short, one of the most exciting rock'n'rolls of modern times, with Steve Berlin who may be Roman from Rome, but he's inherited his sense of rhythm from Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard - or maybe Jovanotti, certainly not from Ludwig Van.

Having mentioned the sumptuous «Don't Worry Baby», «I Got Loaded», and «Evangeline», the rest of the program lines up the mournful Tex-Mex of «A Matter Of Time», because even the poor Christ who day after day puts his life on the line to cross the border that excludes him from the American dream has a life and a story worthy of existence, and «The Breakdown»; the mid-tempo rock’n’roll of «Our Last Night» and the one pushed to the limit of «I Got To Let You Know»; and then the acoustic fragment «Lil’ King Of Everything», which once again confirms, if there was ever a need to, how passionate, radical, and technically skilled these wolves from the Barrio are.

In a word, blessed with grace, which a benign rock goddess has generously dispensed in the California lands.

Because grace can reveal itself in a thousand different ways, maybe in «Sex And Dying In The High Society», or «Just Another Sunday», or again in the two crisp drum beats and the riff of «Will The Wolf Survive».

And then you understand that what seemed at first to be a question - whether the wolf would manage to survive - is actually a certainty. The wolf will survive ...

However, such a close is too pompous, so I will reveal one last anecdote; it was precisely the fright of being played like a fiddle that pushed the Alvin brothers onto the path of "adult" rock with «Hard Line», just before breaking ranks.

Even though, later on, neither of them has yet understood why, at times, they find themselves uttering colorful expressions worthy of a sonnet by Gioacchino Belli.

Yes, that's exactly how it happened.