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For México City, it’s almost all about the titles

The title of each post in the México City category is from a song that has either México or Mexican in its title or is a Mexican song. As is often the case, the entirety of the song may not relate to the post but the chosen line of lyrics does.

NOTE: If you are using the Text to Speech feature, you need to pause its reading to prevent it from continuing to process the text over any music video you want to watch or listen to. Once paused, you will need to manually restart the TTS.

Now, let’s get started.

Americano got the sleepy eye – This is from James Taylor’s song Mexico. I thought it wrapped up my response to 23 hours of travel quite succinctly. Taylor is the composer and performer.

En la zona rosa fue, En donde yo la conoci – I drew these lyrics from the song Hoy Me Voy Para México. It translates as “In the Zona Rosa, that’s where I met her” and it nearly seemed too perfect for the situation. Our hotel was in the Zona Rosa and it’s where I met T, our NPR host for the trip. The writers are Carlos Villa and Alejandro Monroy and it was written for the boy band sensation Menudo. (Menudo also happens to be a traditional Mexican soup made with tripe in a red chili pepper broth, often featuring hominy, lime, onions, oregano, and cilantro. Make what you will of this bit of trivia.)

For post three When does the fun begin, I needed something that communicated a sense of anticipation. This line from the song Down in Mexico written by the great songwriting duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and performed by The Coasters fit the bill.

I’m eatin’ right and I’m livin’ good. – One of the highlights of our first full day of the tour was our lunch at the original Restaurante El Cardenal in the historic center of CDMX. I chose the first line of lyrics from the chorus of the song I Got Mexico by Eddie Raven and Frank Joseph Myers because it’s a song I like and it does reflect my feelings about both the day and the traveling aspect of my life.

Once again, the body of the song Mexican Divorce by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard, is divorced from the subject of the post. However, the lyric, “Mexico is different, like the travel folder says” felt too appropriate to pass up. I’m using Nicolette Larson’s cover of the song originally released by The Drifters as the B-side to their single When my Little Girl is Smiling.

(Two side notes.: Bacharach attended the recording session for The Drifters version and it featured a backup singer with whom he would build a long-term collaboration leading to great success for them both. Her name is Dionne Warwick. The other side note has to do with Nicolette Larson. I chose her cover because I think she’s a criminally underappreciated vocalist in terms of achieving pop chart success. She burst onto the scene with her cover of Neil Young’s Lotta Love that reached #8 on the US chart and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Her next highest charting single Let Me Go, Love topped out at #35. She died at age 45.)

I hope you enjoy her interpretation of Mexican Divorce.

After a bit of a leap ahead and some archaeological explorations, I returned to CDMX and our time in the Centro Historico in the post Se va perdiendo la calma (The calm is being lost). I chose this song because I believe it’s important to taste the local music and culture and there are several aspects to this song that are appropriate for a visit to the Zócalo. It’s from the song Madrugal performed by the group Café Tacvba and written by Enrique Rangel Arroyo.

Y canta la cucaracha continues a theme of Mexican music where a single line from the song was all I needed to tie it to the post’s focal event. In this instance, that lyric in English would be, “And sing La Cucaracha” which we did in our mini mariachi concert. The Jaime López composition Chilanga Banda may be a bit unexpected especially to those whose main notions of Mexican music are mariachi and cumbia but, as the 2016 performance by Cafe Tacvba shows, the 1995 song with its stream of untranslatable barrio slang is massively and enduringly popular.

Y me pongo a platicar – This is from the classic ranchera Dos Botellas de Mezcal written by Moisés Valladares Oregel and performed by Los Morros del Norte. Although the song is all about heartbreak and unrequited love and there might be other compositions about mezcal that would be more appropriate, I chose this because it’s a ranchera.

Fires are burning inside but how can I show them – This lyric from the song Wings seems to capture young Frida’s spirit. It’s part of a musical that is still being workshopped at the time I write this. Writing credits go to Jaime Lozano and Neena Beber.

I see all I never knew – Gregory Glade and Kate Ayers get the writing credits for I Am Home, the closing song in La Casa Azul The Musical. Given the subject for this post, I think no further explanation is required. I’ll add that of the new songs, this may well be my favorite.  However, if you’re interested, you can listen to all the songs here.

In spite of living with constant pain, Kahlo’s external outlook was triumphantly life affirming. So, you might be wondering why I saw this song that welcomes death as particularly appropriate. I think its theme might have been drawn from one of her last diary entries. She wrote, “I joyfully await the exit – and hope never to return.”

(Before moving on to the song featured in next post, I want to add that in my song research I came across a pop band from Spain call La Casa Azul. I couldn’t find any evidence that the choice of name is anything beyond mere coincidence but it is that, if nothing more. Here’s one of their songs – El Final Del Amor Eterno that I think is thematically appropriate.)

Para bailar la Bamba – Wednesday night we went to see the Ballet Folklórico de México and they danced a traditional La Bamba as part of the show with their own musical arrangement. I feel comfortable saying the most Americans of a certain age are familiar with Richie Valens’ interpretation of this traditional Mexican folk song but I thought it might be more interesting to have you hear this performance by Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán.

Sentir, algo misterioso Cosas que me llamen voces que me griten – I felt it would be an error of both commission and omission to not have at least one Mexican cumbia and this is it – even if this song was written by the Colombian composer José Benito Barros Palomino. One translation of the lyrics in the post title is, “To feel something mysterious / Things that call out to me, voices that shout at me” and although the song is explicitly about romantic love, I thought this lyric captured my reaction to the paintings and objects I saw in the Museum of Archaeology.

Two of the main styles of cumbia are Colombian (where the style originated) and Mexican. (There are other variations that have arisen in Peru – where it’s also called chicha and in Panama.) With respect to Colombian and Mexican, listen for rhythmic differences and differences in instrumentation. Colombian cumbia is largely acoustic and folkloric. It’s centered on three drums (tambora, tambor alegre, and llamador) plus maracas/guache and Indigenous gaitas or caña de millo flutes. Mexican cumbia typically replaces or supplements traditional percussion and flutes with accordion, electric bass and guitar, keyboards/synths, drum set, and sometimes brass but there’s little question that Mexicans love the style and you can hear this “working people’s music blasting from buses, markets, construction sites, and parties across CDMX.

I look up at the sky-aye-aye-aye. I chose to use this lyric from the Concrete Blonde song called Mexican Moon for the post’s title because our lunch at Azul Condesa was a bit in the open air and we had a nice walk up to the castle at the top of the hill in Chapultepec. Johnette Napolitano performs the lead vocal and gets the writer’s credit.

Y no te puedo hallar. The title for the ultimate post about my week in CDMX is drawn from the song Por las calles de México. The translations are “And I can’t find you” and On the streets of México respectively. Either seems appropriate since the lyric condenses my frustration at being unable to find a piece of artwork that could fit in my carry-on at Bazar el Sábado and, while I didn’t wander all the streets of CDMX let alone those of México, I did wander the streets of this open-air “market” in the San Ángel neighborhood. The composer is Mario de Jesús and the performance belongs to La Sonora Santanera.

(Here’s another bit of information overload for you. The song is a down-tempo bolero that originated in eighteenth century Spain. It took the style some time to cross the Atlantic but it exploded in popularity in 20th-century Cuba before crossing the Caribbean to México. In my research to find appropriate Mexican music, one site wrote, “There’s a popular saying that whoever doesn’t know the Salón Los Ángeles doesn’t know Mexico.” The Salón Los Ángeles is reputed to be the most famous dance bar in CDMX and that same site called it “a rose-colored world.” They also asserted that “If you don’t know Por las Calles de México, you don’t know the Salón Los Ángeles.” Now you know both.)

And yes, the Dad joke about luggage was an intentional reference to the song Carry On Wayward Son.

But I saved a better pun to use in this section:

(What did the stern vulture dad say to his legume loving homosexual fledgling about the facts of their dietary lives?

He said, “We’re scavengers. We eat carrion my gay bird son. There’ll be peas when you are done.”)

The first Top 40 hit for the group Kansas, it was written by the band’s guitarist Kenny Livgren.

Something else a little different

Before I move on to the songs I incorporated into the posts about the CDMX Olympics, I think there’s a little more Mexican music that merits inclusion and, since I discovered them through research but couldn’t work them into the posts or post titles, I’ll address that near oversight here. (Please note that while I’m usually familiar with any songs chosen from twentieth and twenty-first century popular American music, and with songs from Broadway, movies, or the Great American Songbook, that’s almost never the case in discovering music that’s culturally specific. So, if you’re wondering, I knew very few of the Mexican songs I included above and nothing of the music below.)

First the popular styles

The first song I’m going to look at is La Negra Tomasa by Cuban songwriter Guillermo Rodriguez Fiffe. Composed in 1937, it’s a Cuban son montuno. Traditional son cubano originated in the mountains of eastern Cuba in the late 19th century where it blended Spanish (lyrical style, vocal meter and the primary use of the tres – a three-course chordophone) and African elements (clave rhythm, strong percussion, and a call and response vocal structure). Montuno originally described the final up-tempo section of a son. However, rhythmic variations and expanded complexity of arrangements and instrumentation pioneered by songwriter and bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez, led to the development of son montuno as its own form of dance music. Here’s La Negra Tomasa performed in its traditional style by Company Segundo.

Then the Mexican rock band Caifanes latched onto it. One site describes the band as “post-punk, gothic rock, new wave, and progressive elements with Latin percussion and Mexican folk influences.”

Here’s their version of La Negra Tomasa.

On 19 September 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shook CDMX. Estimates of the death toll range from 5,000 at the low end to as high as 35,000. More than 400 buildings collapsed, with thousands more seriously damaged. The damage estimate was between 3–5 billion US dollars. Among the casualties was Rodrigo “Rockdrigo” González sometimes said to be the voice of the youth movement that arose from the Tlatelolco student massacre of 1968. González became popular with the song Las Aventuras en el Defe. The title refers to the Spanish pronunciation of DF, short for Distrito Federal, as CDMX was known until 2016. He’s known for expressing the realities of urban chilango life and for launching the acoustic movimiento rupestre that encouraged young rock musicians who couldn’t afford to buy an amplifier to use acoustic instruments. (As you listen to the harsh tones of Las Aventuras, keep in mind that while chilango is often used to describe the residents of CDMX, some still view it through a pejorative lens and associate it with traits like urban hustle.)

Finally, let’s take one more look at cumbia. One of the many neighborhoods in CDMX that our group didn’t visit is called Tepito. Earthbound probably had sound reasons for excluding the “barrio bravo” or fierce neighborhood as it’s sometimes called. I’ll leave you to reach your own conclusions regarding those reasons. It’s said that here you can find DJs chatting and sending messages while the music is playing: “A shoutout to Mireya and her miniskirt …” You’ll also encounter trucks parked crossways blocking the street so that no cars—and no police—can get in. You can get in, however, if you’re willing to dance among the others circling, whistling, and eating carnitas, roast chicken, and nopales. It’s a big neighborhood dance where no one cares how old you are, or whether you’re gay or straight, cis or trans. All that’s important is how passionately you move. Te Recuerdo was written by Tommy Torres and is performed here by Alberto Pedraza.

Modern orchestral music

It’s probable that before 1 February 2026 many of you reading this post were entirely unfamiliar with Gabriela Ortiz. It’s also possible that many of you remain unfamiliar with even her name even if you were watching that night’s broadcast of the 68th Annual Grammy Awards – three of which were handed to Ortiz.

Born in CDMX in 1964, and educated at the University of London, Ortiz was widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary composers in México even prior to receiving Grammy recognition. Compositionally, her music is described as having a rhythmically charged style that blends avant‑garde techniques with popular and folkloric Mexican elements.

Her catalog includes the 2008 video opera Unicamente La Verdad (Only the Truth), large orchestral works such as Yanga (2019), and the violin and orchestra piece Fractalis (2022). She is also known for programmatic pieces and solo or chamber works such as Altar de muertos (1997) and Canto a Hanna (2005).

Revolución diamantina, her first full album of orchestral works was recorded with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and it won these three Grammys.:

• • Best Classical Compendium.
  • Best Orchestral Performance.
  • Best Contemporary Classical COmposition. (Revolución diamantina).

I won’t include the entire work here because it’s nearly 50 minutes. However, here’s a brief excerpt. It’s Act IV and called Speaking the Unspeakable. If you want to listen to the entire album you can find many streaming or download options here at the LA Philharmonic website.

The México City Olympics

I don’t typically make many song references when writing for the Olympic Host Cities series but the combined circumstances of my motivation to take this trip, the importance of 1968 to me personally, and the global turmoil prompted a different approach. I’ve decoded those songs below.

I started with the section header High – but not Rocky Mountain High and hope I evoked the John Denver and Mike Taylor song with that title.

I’m fairly certain the subsequent section header referring to the Ring of Fire is a repeat offender but not everyone who reads this would have necessarily seen a previous reference and this June Carter Merle Kilgore composition is always worth a listen.

I was on a roll with the section headers in this geology post so the next reference is to a traditional American folk song often called Birmingham Jail but that’s also known as Down in the Valley. It was first recorded in 1927 by Jimmie Tarleton (who also claimed to have written at least some of the lyrics) and his partner Tom Darby. While you can hear more traditional arrangements by many artists, I chose a slightly different interpretation by the great Otis Redding.

Yes, the Buffalo Springfield released the Stephen Stills composition For What it’s Worth in 1966. But it was part of the crescendo of protests and protest music leading up to 1968 and beyond and it remained cogent and relevant capturing the essence of the time. Here’s the original Buffalo Springfield version.

I jumped right onto another song reference in the section header that follows quickly on the heels of the previous one. The line, “And it’s 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for” Is from Country Joe McDonald’s I feel like I’m Fixing to Die Rag. Here’s his band Country Joe and the Fish performing it live at Woodstock.

There’s considerably more text before the next section header than there was between the prior two but it, too, is a lyric reference – albeit a very short one. Here’s James Brown performing Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud – the anthem he co-wrote with his bandleader Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis.

Yes, I know the text mentions the title Sixteen Going on Seventeen from The Sound of Music and yes, I chose the phrase deliberately. However, I’ll let you seek that one on your own if you’re interested.

The final Olympics reference is in the third post about the games and, like its predecessor, barely more than a snippet from the lyrics, “Simply the best.” The song is called, even more concisely, The Best. Of course, Tina Turner likely released the best known version of this song co-written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman. However, it’s first iteration appears on the album Hide Your Heart by another of my favorite singers of the era, Bonnie Tyler.

Turner asked Knight and Chapman to make some changes. Here’s her version.

And there you have it – the full wrap up of this trip’s music. As always, I hope you found something new or revived some great memories and are perhaps motivated to revisit some of your other favorites or, better yet, seek out more performances by any unfamiliar artists and composers in this post who entertained you or struck an emotional chord.

BONUS TRACKS:

A friend who’s among my regular readers recently asked my why this series included no Eva Cassidy songs. My answer was simple and straightforward: Nothing appropriate came to my mind while I was writing. However, as I’ve done previously, I’ll append a pair of Eva’s performances at this point because it’s my blog and I can do that. These are for you, D.

I’ll start with Fields of Gold. Though I’ve found no specific source, he is reported to have been brought to tears by her interpretation and even adjusted his own live performances to incorporate elements of her arrangement. Some say he ultimately called it “her song,” acknowledging how she made it her own. (This is at least indirectly confirmed by David Foster in the documentary Timeless Voice {jump to about 42:30 to hear Foster with Michael Bolton}). As is preferable, let’s go with a live version.

Keeping things live but changing the pace a little here’s Eva’s take on Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek.

Até à próxima.