Los Ovnis (The UFOs) — “Te Doy Tu Lugar”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 30, 2022

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

654) Los Ovnis — “Te Doy Tu Lugar”/ (“I Give You Your Place”)

Raunchy ’68 album track from the first completely original Mexican rock album. Hectorvadair1 says that “[i]t’s a superb album of psych fuzz music, sung in Spanish, from a great Mexican band” (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/los-ovnis/hippies/) and Spanish Pop Lyrics says “it’s arguably the most filthy and authentic sounding garage rock ever sung in Spanish.” (https://spanishpoplyrics.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/cuando-era-nino-by-los-ovnis/)

Light in the Attic Records says:

When we are talking about really rare and great albums from Mexico . . . Los Ovnis-Hippies is perhaps the second rarest one right after Kaleidoscope. . . . The 1968 Summer Of Love and the political protest of the young rebel culture created the desire to produce a stronger album with own songs, heavier garage sounds and counter-culture lyrics. This album became something the Mexican society in 1968 was not ready for. It was too idealistic and too psychedelic to become popular and the original label released it with no promotion at all. That’s why this album became so good and so rare. Los Ovnis are 5 musicians from Mexico City. Strong garage songs, great Spanish vocals, amazing guitars, organ and rough sounds. Like a musical punch right in the face of the Mexican middle-class society. No more nice guys.

https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1218-hippies

Gustavo Zamora gives us the history of the band:

In 1961 . . . singer and composer Armando Vázquez formed the “Teddy Bears” . . . .  In 1965, they changed their name to Los Ovnis . . . . In later LPs a fundamental element was present, [guitarist] Ernesto de Jesús de León Rodríguez . . . . [who] remembers . . .

“I was going to secondary school and I was about twelve years old . . . when rock and roll began to attract my attention. My greatest dream was to be able to play the guitar . . . .  I was already organizing my group called the “Flashes”, but we didn’t last long because they wanted to continue playing the waves of the Venturosos and I was fascinated by the “Liverpool Sound”, that was around 1963 . . . . I discovered that if I didn’t play the guitar I would die of sadness. That was when . . . I became part of the UFOs. . . .  We toured the interior of the country; I remember playing in football stadiums full of fans. . . . [W]e played daily, it necessarily had to evolve; there was work for all rock and roll players and there were girls more easily, the youth movement in general was very good. With the UFOs I participated in the recording of an original album that was around 1968, and although the album was good, it was not accepted because the public still did not like the original songs very much. Besides, inexplicably, the UFOs never gave the definitive growth spurt, despite being a very good group; also, since they were older than me, we could never fully understand each other. . . . [D]ue to many internal problems the group disintegrated. . . . In those years the hippie movement was emerging in San Francisco and from there it spread to the whole world. We fully identify with the movement and its ideals of peace, justice and love. . . . That is why we decided to record a rock album with original songs, which would reflect the mentality of the Mexican youth of those years and remain as a message for the new generations of young lovers of rock and roll”. 

https://estroncio90-typepad-com.translate.goog/blog/2009/08/cuando-era-ni%C3%B1o-rese%C3%B1a-de-los-ovnis.html?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Armando Vázquez recalls (by way of an internet translation):

When Discos Peers signed us as Los Ovnis in 1965 . . . now what we wanted was to make original music and not versions in Spanish, but the label just wanted us to continue making songs like ‘ Enrique VIII’ or ‘ Little Help from Mama’  who was from The Rolling Stones.  We gave them everything they wanted, because we even released three albums in less than a year, which were Los Ovnis, Somos Amantes and Napoleón XIV.  It wasn’t until I told the label that we were going to release an album with original songs with or without them, and that’s how Hippies came out. Even though they made us cover them, I only accepted ‘Light My Fire’ by The Doors.  So, look, it took eight years for us to finally get to the sound we wanted. . . . The best moment for the band was with Hippies , of course, it’s a record that I’m very proud of . . . .  However, when that record came out in 1968, the massacre of the students also occurred, and the record company told us that they were not going to put us on the radio or anything, because the President had vetoed anything young, anything rebellious.  That demotivated me a lot, that and the depressing atmosphere that was felt were the reasons that led me to leave the band and better finish my degree.

https://www.indierocks.mx/musica/entrevistas/entrevista-con-los-ovnis/

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