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Tango:  From East L.A., Not Argentina

by Mark Guerrero

     Tango was my band who had an album out on A&M Records in 1973.  It contained ten of my original songs and featured appearances by the legendary John Hartford, writer of “Gentle On My Mind,” on banjo and fiddle, and “Sneaky Pete” Kleinow, formerly of the Flying Burrito Brothers, on pedal steel guitar.  A separate single was released the following year, but probably didn’t get past being released to radio stations.  The songs we recorded were mostly rock and country rock.  The story of Tango is a classic example of all the things that can go wrong on the business side of music.  We were a very tight band that made some good records, and at least one that was great, my personal favorite, “I’m Brown.”  Unlike most other Chicano groups, we were influenced by artists such as the Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, Bob Dylan, the Band and Poco.  We did, however, acknowledge our Latino roots with songs such as the aforementioned “I’m Brown” and “Allesandro,” which was bilingual.  I did the lead vocals and played rhythm and lead guitar, as well as keyboards.  John Valenzuela played lead guitar with great style and taste, and Richard Rosas, on bass, and Ernie Hernandez, on drums, were a tight and rootsy rhythm section. 

     Tango was a band that had evolved over a ten year period.  My first band was the Escorts, later Mark & the Escorts, which started in 1963 when I was 13 years old.  (You can read the Mark & the Escorts Story on my “Miscellaneous Articles Page, article 6).  The rhythm section was the same one mentioned above. (Ernie, Richard and I would play together with various other musicians from around 1964 through 1974, with a break from 1970 through ‘72.)  Mark & the Escorts evolved into the Men From S.O.U.N.D. in 1966, morphed into Nineteen Eighty Four (named after George Orwell's classic book) in 1969, and then split up for two years.  We reconvened as the Mudd Brothers, with the addition of the aforementioned John Valenzuela on guitar, and were re-christened Tango in 1973.  I had split from Richard and Ernie in 1970 after we recorded ten of my earlier original songs with producer/engineer Tommy Coe, who had written a hit song for Bobby Bare called “How the Time Flies.”  We did the recordings on speculation but were not able to get a record deal. Nonetheless, it was a fun time and a great learning experience.  We spent months in the studio, often recording all night.  We met some amazing artists, who recorded there at the time, such as, the young Jackson 5 and country legend, Buck Owens.  With the help of East L.A. manager/producer Art Brambila, who shopped my demo, I went on to record a single on Ode Records as a solo artist with legendary producer Lou Adler, of the Mamas and the Papas and Carole King fame.  The single consisted of two of my original songs, “Lila, Love Me Tonight” and “Dare I Touch You, Marylou?.”  The sessions featured myself on vocals and lead and rhythm guitar accompanied by Joe Osborne, on bass, and Hal Blaine, on drums, who had played on some of the biggest hits of the 60s, including “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds, “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas, and “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys.  My record got lost in the midst of the phenomenal success of Carol King’s classic “Tapestry” album on the same label.  Ernie and Richard had meanwhile put together a tight band with John Valenzuela on guitar and Steve Verdugo on piano that was playing around town.  When I got my next opportunity to record, I asked them to back me and they agreed.  Art Brambila had convinced Capitol Records that there was a wealth of talent in East L.A. and got a budget to record Eastside artists with Capitol getting first refusal.  Several artists were recorded and Capitol picked my recordings to release.  We recorded 11 of my original songs for Capitol Records, through Brambila’s production company, with me as a solo artist.  The engineer on the sessions was B.B. Cunningham of Memphis, Tennessee, who had scored a hit in the 60s with “Let It All Hang Out.”  He wrote and sang lead on the song by the Hombres, which was covered by John Mellencamp in the late 80s.  We got along great with B.B. and he captured the sound we wanted.  Two singles (four sides) were released. “Rock & Roll Queen” backed with “Lonely,” and “I’m Brown” backed with “Livin’ Off the Land.”  The eleven songs could have been released as an album, but Capitol didn’t think America was ready for a Chicano band sounding like a country rock band.

     With that setback, along with a falling out with Brambila, I moved to A&M Records, who purchased the masters from Capitol.  We recorded four more of my songs at A&M with Joe Wissert as producer.  Joe had produced such diverse artists as Earth, Wind and Fire, Gordon Lightfoot, the Turtles and Boz Scaggs.  The Tango album wound up being the four new songs along with six of the original eleven.  As a result, the album has two different sounds, which detracted from the cohesiveness of the record.  The powers that be decided that they wanted a band concept rather than me as a solo artist.  We wanted to use the name “Mudd Brothers” we had been using on gigs around Southern California.  They didn’t like the name and wanted us to come up with one that had a Latin sound since we were Chicanos, even though the music had almost nothing to do with Latin music.  The movie “Last Tango In Paris,” starring Marlon Brando, was the rage at the time, so I thought why not Tango.  They went along with it, but I was never happy about it.  The album cover was the result of another compromise.  The A&M staff  photographer wanted us to pose with our moms and dads!  When we didn’t show any enthusiasm for that idea, he said “how about with your cars.”  Ever the diplomat, I said “how about at each of our houses.”  He agreed so we each posed at our respective domiciles. These photos appeared on the back cover.  The front cover wound up resembling the front of a cereal box, with a lady, left hand cupping her mouth, shouting the word “Tango.”  In retrospect, I don’t think the name or the cover was any help to our cause.  If you saw the album in a record store with a cover that said the word “Tango” with no picture of the band on the front, you would most likely think it was an album of Argentine Tango music.  The name, or album cover, didn’t reflect what our music was all about.  In the interim, there had been a stolen master tape, dueling lawyers, a new manager who came in and left just as quickly, pulling the proverbial rug out from under our feet that were still not wet in the business.  The record company didn’t know what to make of us or how to promote us and we were too young and inexperienced to know what to do about it.  I remember a meeting with a major figure at the label, who asked me to describe our music and image in terms of other contemporary artists.  I said, “maybe the Eagles.” He replied, “I disagree.  I think it’s more like Tony Orlando.” No offense to Tony, whom I’ve met, but our music and image had absolutely no similarity to his.  I figured the executive must have thought that Orlando looked Latino and his last name also ended with an “o.”  I realized the record company had no clue who we were or what we were trying to do.  We were booked into the brand new Roxy Theater in Hollywood, where we were mismatched with Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids.  They were a 1950s revival band, so their audience were surprised to see four young Chicanos playing 70s rock and country rock music.  We went over reasonably well, but it was definitely not our crowd.  Our weekend engagement as the opening act at the Roxy received mixed reviews in the press.  We got very positive reviews from Richard Cromelin in the L.A. Times, Billboard Magazine, and Todd Everett in the L.A. Free Press, but were blasted in the conservative trade magazines, Variety and Hollywood Reporter.  With no manager, we had no one to lobby for our interests at the record company.  We got very little, if any, promotion and were not given the opportunity to tour to support the album.  Not surprisingly, the Tango album got some scattered airplay and faded. The band broke up in 1975.

     I think the Tango album still sounds good today and the songs stand up and don’t sound dated.  I’m also happy with most of the arrangements and performances to this day.  There are three or four that, if I knew then what I know now, I would have added or subtracted some things in the arrangements, and one lead vocal, which was recorded live in the studio, I would have redone. Richard Rosas, later known as Rick “the Bass Player,” went on to play for about 15 years with Joe Walsh and did a stint with Neil Young in the late eighties, touring and playing on the “Neil Young and the Blue Notes” and “Freedom” albums.  Ernie Hernandez, after touring around the Southwest and Midwest with cover bands for several years, went into the construction business.  John Valenzuela, after playing a few more years, also went into construction.  John, who married Ernie’s sister Anna, still plays in bands occasionally around the L.A. area on weekends.  I went back to school in 1976 and got a bachelor’s degree in Chicano studies at Cal State L.A. and have continued to make a living playing music.  I’ve also continued to write and record my own songs as a solo artist and will continue to do so.  In 1983, we all got together in Richard Rosas’ studio in Laurel Canyon and recorded two of my songs, “Hollywood” and “Song and Dance Man.”  It was like we’d never stopped playing together. In 1990, the Tango album was reissued in Japan on CD, but I think it is currently unavailable anywhere.  However, I’m working on getting some or all of the Tango recordings reissued.

Update

     In March of 2004, Tango reunited at the wedding of John Valenzuela's son James.  Held in the back yard of John's home in Hacienda Heights, CA, all four original members of Tango (Mark Guerrero, John Valenzuela, Richard Rosas, and Ernie Hernandez) played for about a half and hour.  With no rehearsal, we did three songs from our 1973 A&M album ("Rock & Roll Queen," "Brown Hair Growin'," and "I'm Brown") and they sounded great.  They kicked right in.  Apparently, the songs are permanently wired to our hard drives.  We also did Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues," sung by John, and I sang Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey."  Hopefully, we'll play at a public event at some point in the future. 

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I'm Brown

Tango 1972