Artist	Song
Morrissey	Glamorous Glue
X	Los Angeles
The Plugz	La Bamba
The Gun Club	She's Like Heroin to Me
Morrissey	You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side
Stray Cats	Summertime Blues
Tiger Army	Twenty Flight Rock
Morrissey	First of the Gang to Die
Ozomatli	Cumbia de los Muertos
Manu Chao	Promiscuity
Morrissey	Sing Your Life
The Sweet & Tender Hooligans	Suedehead
Mikel Erentxun	Esta Luz Nunca Se Apagara
Morrissey	The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get
Enrique Guzman	Mu±equita
Juan Gabriel	No Tengo Dinero
The Smiths	Girlfriend in a Coma
Los Lobos	El Pescado Nadador
Los Tigres del Norte	El Gringo y el Mexicano
Morrissey	The Last of the Famous International Playboys
Thee Midniters	Whittier Blvd.
War	Low Rider
Morrissey	The Boy Racer
The Plugz	Better Luck
Concrete Blonde y Los Illegals	Another Hundred Years of Solitude
Morrissey	Mexico

Comment:

I used to dream and I used to vow /
I wouldn't dream of it now
We look to Los Angeles /
For the language we use
So sings Morrissey on the opening track, Glamorous Glue, from his 1992 rockabilly-tinged album Your Arsenal. If we are to look to Los Angeles for links to Morrissey's musical heritage, we could easily begin with the fecund punk scene of late 70s / early 80s L.A. This scene is source of the next three tracks. First, there is X's anthemically distopian Los Angeles. As a swift and necessary rejoinder to the view from Hollywood Blvd, East L.A. punkers the Plugz' boisterous take on La Bamba follows. The Gun Club rounds out this punk trio with She's Like Heroin to Me, a song which draws and thus returns us to the theme of the American rockabilly tradition.
This brings us back to another track from Arsenal, You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side. The vein is further explored with two covers of songs popularized by rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran. First is the Stray Cats' cover of Summertime Blues, followed by contemporary L.A. psychobilly band Tiger Army's take on Twenty Flight Rock.
Morrissey's own ode to Los Angeles youth comes from his latest release, You are the Quarry. First of the Gang to Die chronicles the tale of love and death much as does the Latino hip-hop of Ozomatli's Cumbia de Los Muertos. The latino diaspora is represented in French born former rockabilly singer Manu Chao's boisterous Promiscuity, which lightens the mood before a bouncy Morrissey enjoins you to Sing Your Life.
Two cover tunes are next: The Sweet & Tender Hooligans, an L.A.-based Smiths & Morrissey cover band, perform an acoustic and endearingly vernacular version of Suedehead, contrasting with Mikel Erentxun's workmanlike Spanish rendition of the Smiths' There is a Light That Never Goes Out. Esta Luz Nunca Se Apagara enjoyed its greatest success in L.A. thanks to heavy airplay on local tastemakers La Super Estrella.
Unrequited love, as articulated by Morrissey in a song such as The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get, can be heard reflected in classic Mexican pop music too, in songs like Enrique Guzman's Mu±equita and Juan Gabriel's No Tengo Dinero, even if there is a sublime ridiculousness to the lyrics in songs such as the Smiths' Girlfriend in a Coma.
A couple of ranchero tunes by two legendary bands also reflect Morrissey's Chicano-style crooner appeal. East-L.A.'s Los Lobos' classic ranchera tune El Pescado Nadador. Mexico's Los Tigres del Norte's El Gringo y el Mexicano recounts a tale of love and betrayal among wetbacks and Texans. Like the many such norte±a songs which celebrate shadowy underworld figures, so too does The Last of the Famous International Playboys serve as Morrissey's ode to British gangsters, the Kray brothers.
Latino rockers were also adept at mimicking British rock, perhaps none better than Thee Midniters. Their British Invasion-style 60s rock brought in Latino stylings in songs such as Whittier Blvd, named for the East-L.A. cruising boulevard. War's 1970s raza rock breakthrough hit Low Rider similarly celebrates L.A. car culture, before Morrissey strikes an outsider pose to spoil the fun with his The Boy Racer.
As Racer's closing cacophony gives way to the trilling of a charango on The Plugz' Better Luck, the mix adopts a sober tone as it nears its end. Los Illegals, another band from the East L.A. punk scene collaborate with fellow Angelinos alt-rockers Concrete Blonde on Another Hundred Years of Solitude. Mexico, Morrissey's lament of love lost & justice deferred closes the mix.
Cover image: William Jones, "Chris S in Los Angeles" (2003)

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