THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,515) Los Ovnis/The UFOs — “Infinito”/“Infinite”
From “the greatest punk band that Mexico has ever produced” (wirtis, http://garagelatino.blogspot.com/2013/09/los-ovnis-hippies-1968.html?m=1) (see #654), from an LP of “arguably the most filthy and authentic sounding garage rock ever sung in Spanish” (Spanish Pop Lyrics, https://spanishpoplyrics.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/cuando-era-nino-by-los-ovnis/) that was “a musical punch right in the face of the Mexican middle-class society” (Light in the Attic Records, https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1218-hippies), comes “a grade-A fuzz monster that belongs in anyone’s garage collection” (getitinyoursoul, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/los-ovnis/hippies/), with “[p]owerful distorted guitar chords by the great Ernesto de León” (Viaje al Espacio Visceral/Journey into Visceral Space (courtesy of Google Translate), http://viajealespaciovisceral.blogspot.com/2018/04/los-ovnis-hippies.html?m=1)
“Infinito” is a track on the UFO’s ‘68 album Hippies, the first completely original Mexican rock album, “a superb album of psych fuzz music, sung in Spanish, from a great Mexican band” (Hectorvadair1, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/los-ovnis/hippies/). Light in the Attic Records writes:
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.
Gustavo Zamora lets Ernesto de León give us his history of the band (courtesy of Google Translate):
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 in high school and I was about twelve years old when I started to get interested in rock and roll. My greatest dream was to be able to play the guitar, like I saw the Beatniks, the Locos or the Teen Tops doing in their groups. My first musical experiences were with my cousins Pepe and Raúl Rodríguez. We played improvised instruments, since we made the drums with a tub and the guitars were made of cardboard. At that time, I loved going to XEW on Saturdays, to the program “Sábados Alegres” to listen to the groups that performed there, among which were the Beatniks and the Teddy Bears. By then I was already organizing my group called the “Flashes”, but we didn’t last long because they wanted to continue playing the Ventur[es]’ vibe and I was fascinated by the “Liverpool Sound”, that was around 1963, in the middle of my adolescence, it was a very confusing time for me… I went back to my studies, but I was still depressed… Then I discovered that if I didn’t play the guitar I would die of sadness. That was when Jorge del Razo (El Calaco) put me in contact with Armando Vázquez and soon after I became part of the Ovnis… I had already seen them as Teddy Bears. Then I saw them as UFOs in various existentialist cafes and at a rock and roll festival at the National Auditorium . . . . We toured the interior of the country; I remember having played in soccer stadiums packed with fans. That was in the golden age of the Cafés Cantantes: the Roselli, the Trip and the Tiki Tiki and others. It was one of the best periods for Mexican rock. . . . [A]s we played every day, I had to evolve; there was work for all the rock and rollers and there were more girls, the youth movement in general was very good. I participated in the recording of an original album with the UFOs, that was in 1968, and although the album was good, it was not accepted because the public still did not like the original songs very much. Apart from that, inexplicably, the UFOs never made the definitive leap, despite being a very good group; also, since they were older than me, we could never fully understand each other. Age was like a barrier between us and due 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 entire world. We fully identify with the movement and its ideals of peace, justice and love… That’s why we decided to record a rock album with original songs, which would reflect the mentality of Mexican youth in those years and would serve as a message for the new generations of young rock and roll lovers.”
https://estroncio90.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/cuando-era-ni%C3%B1o-rese%C3%B1a-de-los-ovnis.html
Armando Vázquez recalls (courtesy of Google Translate):
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 [do a] cover . . . 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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