When I was around 15 I lived in Florida for about a year and I hated it for many reasons, but mostly because my dad was still working in Puerto Rico so we’d only see him a few times a month and as my parents’ marriage disintegrated, the visits became even less frequent. During that otherwise dark period of time, my dad sent me a box of what I thought was the entire collection of Art Laboe’s Oldies But Goodies on CD (vol. 13 was missing but I assumed at the time that they skipped it because of superstition). I was already an oldies fan and I had no idea who Art Laboe was, but the collection introduced me to oldies I was not familiar with. More soul, no Beatles, Stones or Jackson 5 and even some Spanish! I devoured the liner notes and learned what songs like “Memories of El Monte” were about and lots of other interesting facts about something called “lowriders,” the LA-Eastside-SFV-SGV music scene in the 50s 60s & 70s, never imagining that I’d end up living the majority of my life so far in Los Angeles. The idea that I’d start doing a poor imitation of Art Laboe’s dedication show during a worldwide pandemic on something called Twitch sounds too ridiculous to have imagined. The radio business can be cruel and unforgiving but I’m glad Laboe always found a home for his show as most of commercial radio continued to cannibalize itself into irrelevance. All this to say, thank you Mr. Laboe for curating a collection of songs that saved my soul. I’d like to dedicate Memories of El Monte to you. #ArtLaboe #OldiesButGoodies #MemoriesofElMonte #LoveSongsOnTheTwitch #radiolegend #lowrideroldies (at El Monte, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjj5O_tu7K5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=