El Vez

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El Vez with the Lovely Elvettes and the Memphis Mariachis performing on stage

El Vez (born 1960^[1]) is the stage name of Robert Lopez, a Mexican-American rock and roll artist,^[2] who performs and records original material and covers classic rock songs. Mixing the styles of Elvis Presley and many other American rock artists with his own Latin-American heritage and music, he is known for expressing revolutionary views through his the satire and humor in his songs.^[3]

Lopez's main persona and style is very similar to Elvis Presley, as his stage name suggests. However, he is not strictly an Elvis impersonator; on his recordings and in his live show, he covers many non-Mexican artists, such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, T. Rex, Queen and the Beatles.^[1] Also known as the "Thin Brown Duke",^[4] "The Chicano Elvis",^{[citation needed]} or "The Mexican Elvis",^[2] he got his start in the Latino punk band The Zeros, and played in Catholic Discipline with the folk singer Phranc.^[3]

In Spanish, "El Vez" literally means "The Time", despite its gender-noun disagreement in the Spanish language; it should be "Una Vez" or "La Vez". The non-literal translation of a "Vez" would be a certain time (ie. "The time I went swimming"), a "Tiempo" refers to the actual hour (ie. "I went swimming at that time").

1 Discography
- 1.1 Albums
2 Filmography
3 Notes and references
4 External links

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums


Paul Simon's Graceland and El Vez's Graciasland

Fun in Español
Graciasland (the cover art is a play on Paul Simon's Graceland)
Merry Mex-Mas
El Vez is Alive
Never Been to Spain (Until Now)
G.I. Ay! Ay! Blues (A play on Elvis's G.I. Blues)
A Lad from Spain? and Son of a Lad From Spain (the cover graphics play on David Bowie's Aladdin Sane)
Boxing with God
Sno-Way José
How Great Thou Art (the cover art is a play on Elvis Presley's How Great Thou Art (album) album.)

[edit] Filmography

El Rey De Rock 'N' Roll (2000, documentary)
Mi vida loca (1993)
Several other appearances in documentaries

Source: IMDB

[edit] Notes and references

^ ^a ^b "El Vez", St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Thomson Gale 2005-2006. reproduced online at BookRags.com and accessed online 28 April 2007.
^ ^a ^b El Rey De Rock 'N' Roll, short film review on the site of the New York Times. Accessed online 31 October 2006
^ ^a ^b El Vez Biography, All Music Guide. Accessed online 28 April 2007.
^ Michelle Habell-Pallan, "El Vez is 'Taking Care of Business': The Inter/national Appeal of Chicano Popular Music", Cultural Studies, Volume 13, Issue 2, April 1999, p. 195–210. Abstract accessed online 28 April 2007.