La Bamba (1987)

[Skipper Duke]

Any fans?

[Skipper Duke]

Trivia: Did you that Lou Diamond Phillips insisted on actually singing the real Ritchie's Valen's songs himself.

[Skipper Duke]

Did you know that Ritchie's brother Bob Morales was really wild and drank a lot just like La Bamba movie portrays him.

[Skipper Duke]

A funny scene is Summer 1957 those 2 little boys up on top of the water tower sneaking peeks at Rosie while she's in the women's shower.

Rosie:"You little pigs! I'm gonna tell your mother's on you! You wait and see!"

[Skipper Duke]

My heart breaks for Ritchie Valens in the scene of the movie when his brother Bob Morales causes a scene during Ritchie's performance at the San Fernando Valley High School gymnasium. And he jumps into the fight to protect Bob, and then Bob turns on him with "You don't understand a G** damn thing Ritchie! You don't understand at all! What do you think, the whole (bleepin') world revolves around you!?"

[Skipper Duke]

My take on The Day The Music Died, the plane crash never should've happened. Because:

A. The weather conditions 

B. The reverse opposite order gyroscope instrument that had up and down in the wrong order

C. Accidents can happen even with experience and knowledge of the instruments layout

D. They should've waited until daylight and not taken off at 1:00 AM in blinding blizzard white out conditions 

E. The new weather updates about the storm were not relayed to Pilot Roger Peterson of that Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, every time he checked the briefings, the weather was still the same all 4 times he checked on it.

F. Mr. Dwyer himself was supposed to fly them that night himself, but turned it over to Mr. Peterson.

G. Very sad tragic results to a very sad tragic day all of which could've been avoided

H. Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly's parting jokes they made at each other when leaving.

Buddy Holly:"I hope yer ass freezes on the bus!" 

Waylon Jennings:"Yeah, well, I hope yer ol' plane crashes!"  Their jokes were funny, but in hindsight not funny. Be careful what you say, you never know when it will be the last time you see someone! 

[Skipper Duke]

Heart wrenching scenes from the movie when Ritchie Valens brother Bob Morales is working on that car, he's under there, and the way he bolts out from under there and the look on his face when the radio talks about the deaths of the 3 Rock 'N' Roll legends. When it says "Ritchie Valens 17" Bob says "What the sh!t!?"  Their mom had a terrible fit screaming "No! Not Ritchie! Not my Ritchie!" This one is emotional too.

Rosie:"Bob! Bob, did you hear what they said!?"

Bob:"Are you sure he said Ritchie?"

Then comes Bob out on that bridge. "RITCHIE!!!!!"

[Skipper Duke]

La Bamba (1987) Fun Fact: The actor playing Bob Morales hurt his foot when he jumped the fence to go comfort Ritchie's Mom. The scene when he hops the fence and paused before going around the corner to her giving her some time for a minute before going to her.

[Skipper Duke]

La Bamba (1987) Trivia: Lou Diamond Phillips learned Spanish to sing La Bamba, and he did all the singing in the movie La Bamba (1987) himself. No dubs, no lip syncing none of that jazz. It was authentic. I heard a backstory about it. The backstory goes he was approached by the production team about them dubbing him, or him lip syncing to the real Ritchie's music, and he said "No. I want to do all the singing myself."

[Skipper Duke]

I been binging 1950s Rock 'N' Roll music of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson all night on YouTube. So much better than today's Rock 'N' Roll music. Back then you could understand it. Today R&R is just noise with a few intelligible words thrown in.

[Skipper Duke]

Just saw an alternate ending to La Bamba (1987) that has me feeling all the feels! In this version, Ritchie Valens survives the plane crash and makes it back to his family. I love it! Who else wishes the movie had ended like this?  #LaBamba #AlternateEnding #RitchieValens"

[HossC]

7 hours ago, Skipper Duke said:

Just saw an alternate ending to La Bamba (1987) that has me feeling all the feels! In this version, Ritchie Valens survives the plane crash and makes it back to his family. I love it! Who else wishes the movie had ended like this?  #LaBamba #AlternateEnding #RitchieValens"

Not me. Sad as it may be, it's a true biographical story, so I want the movie to portray what actually happened. If you made a fantasy movie entirely based around the premise that he survived, that might be different, but don't change reality in a factual movie.

[HossC]

On 4/4/2025 at 1:58 PM, Skipper Duke said:

So much better than today's Rock 'N' Roll music. Back then you could understand it. Today R&R is just noise with a few intelligible words thrown in.

Who's making rock 'n' music today? There's plenty of rock bands and other genres, but I'm struggling to think of a modern rock 'n' roll act.

[Skipper Duke]

3 hours ago, HossC said:

Who's making rock 'n' music today? There's plenty of rock bands and other genres, but I'm struggling to think of a modern rock 'n' roll act.

I know about Ozzy Osbourne. He's about all though.

[Skipper Duke]

Friends... What do you think 1950s Rock 'N' Roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson would've done if they didn't die in that plane crash on February 3, 1959? Buddy Holly's Fellow band mate and friend Waylon Jennings once said "I think Buddy would've turned to Country Music!"

[Skipper Duke]

La Bamba (1987). Classroom scene.

Ritchie Valens:(Staring at Donna.)"Who's the blonde?"

Ritchie Valens Friend:"I don't know. But she's out of your league. Forget her. Concentrate on that audition."

Ritchie Valens (Continuing to stare at Donna.):"I think I'm in love!"

[HossC]

10 hours ago, Skipper Duke said:

I know about Ozzy Osbourne. He's about all though.

Ozzy might have sung 'Rock 'n' Roll Rebel', but he's a rock/metal artist, not rock 'n' roll.

I have dozens of rock 'n' roll songs in my collection, but there's also been a lot of great music before and since (I have music from the 1930s to the present day). Despite rock 'n' roll being mainly a 1950s phenomenon, it has influenced song themes of many later artists, even though they've mainly been rock or pop songs. Here's a few that I have:

Joan Jett was obviously fond of the genre when she sang 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. 

Billy Joel said 'It's Still Rock and Roll to Me'.

Bob Seger sang about 'Old Time Rock & Roll'.

Led Zeppelin just did 'Rock and Roll'.

AC/DC told us that 'Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution'.

Prefab Sprout sang about 'The King of Rock 'N' Roll'.

Oasis sang about a 'Rock 'N' Roll Star'.

Ian Dury even sang about three commonly connected themes - 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll'.

And Amy Macdonald sang about 'Mr Rock & Roll'.

I wouldn't call any of these songs rock 'n' roll, and still can't think of any recent examples of that style, but maybe Danny and the Juniors were right on the soundtrack of Christine when they sang 'Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay'.

 

[HossC]

I forgot about The Stranglers:

The worse crime that I ever did, was playing rock 'n roll

But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself