Graciasland

Graciasland is an album by the American musician El Vez, released in 1994.[2][3] Often labeled as parody rock, the album addresses issues related to Mexico, immigration, and Chicano culture.[4][5]

Graciasland
Studio album by
El Vez
Released1994
GenreRock and roll
LabelSympathy for the Record Industry[1]
ProducerEl Vez
El Vez chronology
Fun in Español
(1994)		 Graciasland
(1994)		 Merry MeX-mas
(1994)

Production

The album was produced by El Vez.[6] He recorded it with his band, the Mexican Mariachis, and his backup singers, the Elvettes.[7][8]

"Aztlan" is a reimaging of Paul Simon's "Graceland", with the Rio Grande used instead of the Mississippi; Graciasland's album cover also sends up Graceland.[9][10][11] "Immigration Time" is a takeoff of "Suspicious Minds" that also incorporates elements of "Sympathy for the Devil".[12][4] "Hurarches Azules" is an interpretation of "Blue Suede Shoes".[13]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[14]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide[6]

The Chicago Reader wrote that El Vez "combines one part Elvis with one part bilingual and musical puns, then adds dollops of everything from Hendrix to the Clash."[15] The Boston Globe noted that El Vez "shuffles the familiar and Williams Burroughs-like, cuts it up and recontexturalizes it into new, jarring forms, some in English, some in Spanish."[16]

The Press-Telegram called "Immigration Time" "a timely, topical tune sung to the melody of the King's 'Suspicious Minds' with lyrics right outta Prop. 187."[17]

AllMusic wrote that "Graciasland is El Vez's best work, smoothly combining humor, social and political satire, and great rock & roll in one fell swoop."[14] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide deemed it "his crowning achievement," writing that the musical references "are played neither for parody nor nostalgia, but as legitimate touchstones from our popular history."[6] The Iowa City Press-Citizen called the album a "delightfully subversive, post-modern collision of Elvis Presley with his often-unwitting, pan-global spinoffs."[18]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."La Negra" 
2."Hurarches Azules" 
3."Aztlan" 
4."Chicanisma" 
5."¡Go Zapata Go!" 
6."It's Now Or Never" 
7."Cinco De Mayo (W/Blackbird) Edit." 
8."Gypsy Queen" 
9."Trouble" 
10."The Cuauhtemoc Walk" 
11."Cesar Chavez" 
12."Mexican Radio" 
13."Safe (Baby Let's Play Safe)" 
14."Immigration Time" 

References
  1. Moon, Tom (25 Aug 1995). "EL VEZ". The Philadelphia Inquirer. FEATURES WEEKEND. p. 17.
  2. "El Vez Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
  3. Lozaw, Tristram (August 26, 1994). "EL VEZ SIGHTING". Boston Herald. p. S18.
  4. Saldivar, Jose David (Spring 2003). "In Search of the 'Mexican Elvis': Border Matters, 'Americanity,' and Post-state-centric Thinking". MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 49 (1): 84–100.
  5. Marez, Curtis (Autumn 1996). "Brown: The Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style". Social Text. Duke University Press. 48: 109–132.
  6. MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 381.
  7. Salas, Abel (12 Jan 1995). "El Vez has left the hacienda: The Mexican Elvis ain't nothin' but a rock star". Austin American-Statesman. XL ENT. p. 16.
  8. "ELVIS WEEK EVENTS". The Commercial Appeal. August 12, 1994. p. E13.
  9. Fluck, Winfried; Pease, Donald E.; Rowe, John Carlos (February 6, 2011). "Re-framing the Transnational Turn in American Studies". UPNE – via Google Books.
  10. Lifshey, Adam (2009). "The Borderlands Poetics of Bruce Springsteen". Journal of the Society for American Music. 3 (2): 223.
  11. "Memphis to Mexico". Mohave Valley Daily News. News. December 11, 2018.
  12. Bass, Holly (19 Aug 1994). "More Ersatz Elvis, And More Royalties For the Newlyweds --- El Rey of Rock and Roll Is a Mexican-American". The Wall Street Journal Europe. p. 1.
  13. Berressem, Hanjo (2001). "'Think Globally, But Better to Act Elvisly': Elvis and El Vez". Amerikastudien/American Studies: 433.
  14. "Graciasland - El Vez | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  15. Wyman, Bill (August 11, 1994). "El Vez". Chicago Reader.
  16. Sullivan, Jim (25 Aug 1994). "El Vez: Original plundering". The Boston Globe. Calendar. p. 23.
  17. Grobaty, Tim (October 28, 1994). "THINGS THAT GO THUMP IN THE NIGHT". Press-Telegram. p. W3.
  18. Musser, Jim (16 July 2009). "record REWIND". Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. C3.
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