Thee Midniters

Los Lobos, America’s leading Latino rock band since the1980s, always honored the memory of its predecessor from East Los Angeles, Thee Midniters. Curiously, Thee CompleteMidniters,a four-disc set collecting the 1960s-era band’s four LPs plus B-sides and bonustracks, gives only slight sonic evidence of Chicano heritage. Track one, discone, the band’s signature tune, “Whittier Blvd.” (1966), was a pile-driving rocker with afuzztone edge and a touch of exultant mariachi-style vocals. The final track ondisc four, “Baila Cinderella” (1969), sounds a lot like another Latino bandthat made its national debut that same year, Santana. Otherwise, if you don’tknow where they came from, Thee Midniters sound as if they could have been fromanywherejust like hundreds of Anglo contemporaries fired up by the Stones,Stax-Volt and whatever else was in the air.

And that’s just it:Thee Midniters were capable of doing several things very well without everquite developing a sound of their own, except perhaps in their final year, whentheir arrangements for brass and woodwinds brought them to jazz rocknotfusion, but closer to Chicago Transit Authority. One imagines Thee Midniterswere called on to be all-around entertainers at the crowded dances where theyhoned their skillsan ace garage punk band one number and slow-dance group thenext. They recorded many covers, including decent versions of songs as variedas “Yesterday” and “Devil With a Blue Dress” that made no one forget theBeatles or Mitch Ryder. Occasionally, they overstepped. Little Willie G. was afine singer, but asking him to sing “Strangers in the Night” only raisedunwarranted comparisons to Sinatra.

Even within the lessrigid, emerging formats of the late ’60s, Thee Midniters weren’t destined forglobal stardom. Instead, the band members became stars in their ownneighborhood, balancing romance with swaggerlocal heroes entertaining theirfans and setting an example for Chicano musicians to come.