Doo Wop Radical Recap

"The present-day Pachuco refuses to die!"

From the January 2016 preview.

Met Rubén Guevara in the spring of 1972 while he was cutting For Real! at Paramount Recording. (In L.A. from 'Frisco w/ friends for spring break, I called F.Z. to see how his leg was healing & was invited to view the recording sessions. Somewhere I have/had a semi-focused picture of Frog, a good-sized gentleman who'd had a few too many somethings being wheeled out of Paramount in Frank's wheelchair.)

No idea about Frog, but Rubén's still at it. Six shows, this wknd. & next. (Six left. How'd I miss last wknd.?)

They released two albums with Zappa’s help: "For Real!" and "Con Safos." But the music, the tours and the fame all evaporated. Band members started bickering, other projects came calling, and the curtain came down on Ruben and the Jets.

Over the decades, Guevara never stopped singing or acting. Under the watchful eye of theatre director Dan Kwong, the hard-working performer isn’t letting up as he prepares for his show. Kwong says it’s important for Guevara not to underplay his courageous tenacity:

His highs are so high and therefore the falls are crashes. He’s [gone from performing] for 40,000 people in a baseball stadium to delivering fried chicken. How do you not give up? How do you keep moving forward? How do you hold onto your vision, or adjust your dreams when something isn’t working? There’s something about watching someone crash and burn over and over again that’s kind of cathartic. And you think, Wow, if he can survive that, what can’t I survive?(Laughs)

[KPPC]