Los Chijuas -- Changing the Colors of Life (1968)

Nine notes:

1. Released by Musart, #45-4445 in 1968. I think, but am not absolutely sure, that the top-side was the english version of the song, and the bottom the Spanish version: Estan Cambiando Los Colores De La Vida. The song was written by the Ganem brothers.

2. The band was from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. But the Ganem brothers, the driving force behind the band, were originally from El Paso, and went down to Mexico to record this single with Musart and ended up staying.

3. Mexican garage was not called garage at the time (hardly surprising since even the Brits didn't use the term). The term of the day was more likely musica a go-go or musica ye-ye.

4. The lyrics, in my estimation, are someone talking to someone else who has tripped, but not hard enough to really open their mind. The point: if that acid really kicked in for you you'd see it changing the colors of life.


5. The verse is simple garage: the verse is a i-II-VII progression I think, with the chorus alternating between the i and II and adding in the VI.

6. Arrangement simple too -- keyboard and bass sticking to basics, the guitar jangly, and the drums oddly muted except for the high-hat/tamb. Some dischord is occasionally introduced via the keyboard. Drums are restrained in the verse, with more crash in the chorus.

7. I like the solo, in addition to it being a nice garage style it sounds like there's maybe a little drone-string thing going on about midway?

8. Typical ending, repeat hook and fade at the point where you'd normally come in for another verse.

9. Weird, but maybe true -- the current MySpace page of the Ganem brothers, which seems to indicate they are living in Boxborough, Massachusetts, and currently unsiged: http://www.myspace.com/jjjules1