Ritchie Valens Albums (3)
'In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High'
Release Date 1/1/1963
Tracks 12
Label Del-Fi
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
With only two brief albums and some demos and rehearsal tapes to draw from, the legacy of the late Ritchie Valens rests on an extremely small canon. Bob Keene managed to release two fairly decent Valens LPs on Keene's Del-Fi label, but this third LP, In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High, was literally the bottom of a very shallow barrel material-wise, consisting of six songs drawn from a poorly recorded junior high assembly concert at Pacoima Junior High in Los Angeles (including ragged versions of Valens' hits "Come On, Let's Go," "Donna," and "La Bamba"), and five studio fragments that were little more than song sketches. Mixed in are bits of totally unnecessary commentary by Keene himself, making the whole thing sound more like a radio documentary than a coherent artistic statement, and in essence, this set may be rock & roll's first official bootleg album. As such, it has some historical and archival importance, but it doesn't add up to a very good set, and in the end just illustrates the one inescapable fact about Ritchie Valens: he died too young. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Ritchie Valens was only 17 when he died in 1959 in the same plane crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, and he had only been working in a recording studio for about seven months when the tragedy occurred; thus, his musical legacy rests on about an album and a half of completed studio material, a poorly recorded high-school concert, and a handful of demos and rehearsal tapes. This set is a straight reissue of Valens' first album for Bob Keane's Del-Fi label, and it presents essentially the only truly finished work Valens recorded. It includes Valens' big hit, "La Bamba"; its flip side, "Donna" (which was actually the A-side, but "La Bamba" has emerged over time as Valens' signature tune); a halting, beautiful version of "Bluebirds Over the Mountain"; and the oddly haunting "In a Turkish Town." Valens' output is so sparse that it is probably best to pick up something like Rhino's Best of Ritchie Valens, which has all the key tracks from this first album plus the highlights from his patched-together second album, Ritchie. It is impossible to know the kind of artist Valens would have developed into, but this set suggests that the loss to music on that fateful day in 1959 may have been even greater than many realize. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Ritchie Valens was only 17 when he died in 1959. His musical legacy rests on about an album and a half of completed studio material, a poorly recorded high-school concert, and a handful of demos and rehearsal tapes, all of which meant Bill Keane was facing a problem when it came time to release a second album of Valens material on Keane's Del-Fi label. The resulting LP, Ritchie, actually turned out better than perhaps it had a right to, and while it didn't yield any huge hits, and was essentially cobbled together, it has an internal coherence that is pretty remarkable given the circumstances. Tracks like "Cry, Cry, Cry" and the fiery "Fast Freight" sound polished and finished, while the obvious solo studio demos like "My Darling Is Gone" and "Now You're Gone" have a kind of poignant intimacy. A couple of cuts here are studio jams, and it is highly doubtful that "Big Baby Blues" or "Ritchie's Blues" would have appeared on the LP had Valens lived, while "Rockin' All Night," a studio run-through with Valens on guitar, is clearly a rehearsal for the harmony singers, who can be heard working out parts in the background. Still, given the paucity of Valens material (he had only been working in a recording studio for about seven months when he died, and that time was pieced in around tour dates and appearances), this second LP is a bit of a minor miracle. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
