{"id":6803,"date":"2014-12-12T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T10:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2014-12-12T05:30:42","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T10:30:42","slug":"psychedelic-resurrection-the-blues-magoos-interview-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/12\/psychedelic-resurrection-the-blues-magoos-interview-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychedelic Resurrection: The Blues Magoos Interview, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

From a commercial standpoint, The Blues Magoo<\/strong>s were largely over after the lackluster chart performance of their third LP. \u201cAfter Basic Blues Magoos<\/em>, we broke up, because we knew we were banging our heads against the wall,\u201d Peppy Castro<\/strong> admits.<\/p>\n

But the band did<\/em> continue, albeit in an unusual fashion. With a new lineup \u2013 only Castro would remain \u2013 and a wholly different musical approach, a reconstituted Blues Magoos would release Never Goin’ Back to Georgia<\/em> (1969) and 1970’s Gulf Coast Bound.<\/em> Castro is pleased to be given the opportunity to discuss those rarely-considered (and long out of print) albums.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>\u201cFirst,\u201d he stresses, \u201cyou have to understand that at that point in time I was only nineteen years old. My father was born in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia. He died when I was five months old, so I never got the history or the culture of being half Colombian. So I decided that if I was going to continue to do music, I wanted to do something new for myself. I started putting a band together to explore, to be the first band to come out with ‘Latin rock.’ And at the time, the only things I had access to were offices with The Blues Magoos’ managers, and they offered me a place to rehearse and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy idea was to come out with a whole new band, in that style. But when they saw what I was doing, they came to me and said that they \u2013 the managers \u2013 owned the name The Blues Magoos, and that they had signed the name<\/em> to ABC Dunhill. So if I wanted to, they wanted me to continue as The Blues Magoos. They were ready to offer me a deal.\u201d Their strategy would be to take Castro’s new project and leverage it with a \u201cbrand\u201d that was already known.<\/p>\n

But, Castro says, \u201cI turned down the deal. This wasn’t The Blues Magoos. But what I realized \u2013 at age nineteen \u2013 is that what I’d have to do is go back to square one with this entirely new entity. And that was going to take an awfully long time to get it off the ground. And I was worried that it might take so long, that the style might come and go, and it wouldn\u2019t be fresh any more.\u201d He recalls what he told himself at the time: \u201cIf I take the deal, at least I can still be productive. I can still move along as a talent, as an artist.\u201d So he reconsidered, and took the deal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Complicating matters, the remaining members (or ex-members, depending on how one views the complicated circumstances) regrouped and released a single of their own, “Let Your Love Ride” b\/w “Who Do You Love,” on a small west coast record label, billing themselves as \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 The Blues Magoos. The inevitable round of legal wrangling quickly ensued. As a result, Castro says, \u201cthe release of Never Goin’ Back to Georgia<\/em> got tied up for nine months. And in that time…Santana<\/em> came out! I had the record cut, covered, and in the can.\u201d Castro’s plan of premiering the first Latin rock band were preempted by the Carlos Santana<\/strong>-led band’s debut. Eventually Never Goin’ Back to Georgia<\/em> came out, with the Blues Magoos name on it. Old fans were confused, and as for new fans, there weren’t many. (\u201cIt got tremendous airplay in New York,\u201d says Castro.) He pauses. \u201cLooking back on it now, I would have done things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Castro makes clear that he can’t \u2013 and doesn’t \u2013 complain. \u201cI’ve been able to make music on my own terms for fifty years,\u201d he points out with pride. And part of those terms led to Castro reforming The Blues Magoos (with some original\/early members plus some younger, new ones) in 2008. He felt the time was right. \u201cThere’s a feeding frenzy in modern culture,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery week there’s a new this<\/em>, a new that<\/em>. Our society is so fast-paced, it’s like a runaway train. You never know where the fashion is going to go, what’s going to hit next. But when push comes to shove, people still look back upon the [1960s] era as being the most potent, the most intense. A new generation comes along every ten years, rediscovering the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And a key part of that genre was always the visual presentation. The Blues Magoos were famed for their Diana Dew<\/strong>-designed electric suits; the lights grew brighter as the music’s intensity increased. So what ever became of those suits? \u201cGod knows what the others did with theirs,\u201d Castro laughs. \u201cBut I still have mine. It’s in ratty condition.\u201d He mentions that at some point he might donate it to the Hard Rock Caf\u00e9; I strongly suggest he send it instead to a place of honor at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. \u201cOne of the suits,\u201d Castro chuckles, \u201cwas put into a time capsule by the Smithsonian Institute. It’s there as an example of 1960s art. It’s to be opened in the year 2065! Hopefully my kid can go see it then with his grandkids, and tell ’em, ‘Hey, here’s your great-grandfather.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to bring back the Magoos,\u201d Castro says, \u201cthis is like my high school reunion! I left home at fourteen, and I never went through high school. Now, I’m retired; it’s not about money. This is about a love for the genre, and it’s nice to spend a moment going back to the era that was the most exciting time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Continued from Part One… From a commercial standpoint, The Blues Magoos were largely over after the lackluster chart performance of their third LP. \u201cAfter Basic Blues Magoos, we broke up, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,57,62],"tags":[353,1679],"class_list":["post-6803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-psych","category-rawk","tag-blues-magoos","tag-peppy-castro","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}