"Back in the Crowd"
'Bad As Me', 2011
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David Hildalgo had a big couple years a decade ago. In 2009, the Los Lobos frontman's accordion was the breakout star of Bob Dylan's album Together Through Life. Two years later, he was the star of the second single off Tom Waits’ Bad As Me - and playing an entirely different instrument than he did with Dylan, no less!
Instruments plural, really, as on “Back in the Crowd” Hidalgo delivers a Latin jazz guitar solo alongside castanets (finger clappers) and claves (wooden sticks). No accordion to be found.
Tom explained what Hidaldo brought to the song to Pitchfork:
Well, that song was an attempt at some of the-- you know what they call it-- Spanish Tinge. It's actually a musical category, like "Under the Boardwalk" is Spanish Tinge. "It's Over" by Roy Orbison, Spanish Tinge. It was done in the 60s. You can still hear it, but most people don't even know that expression.
[Los Lobos' David Hidalgo] put castanets and claves on it-- you know [imitates Spanish Tinge]-- but this was a little more subtle. My wife had this melody on a tape recorder, just something she sang in the car or wherever, all by herself-- [sings a melody]. Like that. And I just rescued it from oblivion. Sometimes words are just music themselves. Like "Chicago" is a very musical sounding name.
Hidalgo isn't just on "Back in the Crowd" either, nor does he stick with just those three instruments (guitar, castanets, claves). He plays guitar on over half the Bad as Me tracks, plus also violin on one ("Pay Me"), and accordion, bass, and background vocals on another ("New Year's Eve").
Tom's a big David Hildalgo fan, clearly. In fact, in 2005, just a few years before Bad As Me, he showed just how big, nominating an album as one of his "20 most cherished albums of all time" for The Observer. And not even a Los Lobos album; a Hidalgo side project called Houndog. Now that’s a deep cut. Here’s what he said then:
18 Houndog by Houndog (Sony) 1999
Houndog, the David Hidalgo [Los Lobos] record he did with Mike Halby [Canned Heat]. Now that's a good record to listen to when you drive through Texas. I can't get enough of that. Anything by Latin Playboys, anything by Los Lobos. They are like a fountain. The Colossal Head album killed me. Those guys are so wild, and they've gotten so cubist. They've become like Picasso. They've gone from being purely ethnic and classical, to this strange, indescribable item that they are now. They're worthwhile to listen to under any circumstances. But the sound he got on Houndog, on the electric violin ... the whole record is a dusty road. Dark and burnished and mostly unfurnished. Superb texture and reverb. Lo fi and its highest level. Songs of depth and atmosphere. It ain't nothin' but a...
Tom appeared on a Los Lobos album in 2004…but I’m afraid we won't get that until the letter "K." So instead we'll wrap with Hidalgo and co's cover of a Tom Waits classic: