You can't get much more specialized than this four-CD box when it comes to historical recordings, but it's an impressive accomplishment with great value for researchers into Mexican music and history. The 180-page booklet (informative social history notes, period photos, and full English-Spanish lyrics for all 59 songs) in
The Mexican Revolution place the corrido as a people's newspaper (see calypso, rai) in depicting events associated with the early-20th century political developments in Mexico. The songs are mini history lessons and exercises in popular myth-making, which make them a pretty direct link to the current crop of narco-corridos released by
Los Tigres del Norte and others. They were almost certainly the vehicle for the vast majority of everyday Mexicans to hear the details of major battles, or events related to the life of Pancho Villa, or the heroism of some local figures who otherwise would have passed into anonymity. The earliest track, "Jesús Leal" by Rafael Herrera Robinson, was recorded to wax cylinder in 1904 and may be the first corrido ever recorded and a second comes from 1908, so the depth of the research is obvious. The majority come from the so-called Golden Age of the '20s and '30s, with a significant minority from the '60s in what looks like a generational rediscovery. Most were initially divided into parts one and two to fit on both sides of a 78, but are very smoothly united here. It wasn't that hard given the simple structure of corridos -- just stop at the end of a verse to close part one, add a couple introductory bars of the same guitar melody to start part two, and away you go. The problem for most listeners on a musical level is that there are limits to how much of one form and general lyric theme you can take, especially since most of the artists simply tell their tales without many arrangement adornments. Arhoolie wrings the maximum possible variety out of the music via dividing the discs by themes and savvy sequencing ruled by listening flow and not chronology. Following are some thoughts should the discs be available individually.