Global A Go-Go: Wednesday August 31, 3:00-5:00 PM

Global A Go-Go presents:

Juan Gabriel, Mexico’s most revered pop music icon, died on Sunday at age 66. It’s impossible for non-Mexicans to fully understand his cultural role: imagine Elvis, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, James Brown and Liberace rolled up into one pansexual persona, and you’ll start to get an idea.

Nothing was less hip than digging JuanGa, yet no one was more hip than he himself. Here’s a thoughtful tribute to the man: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-arellano-juan-gabriel-20160829-snap-story.html.

I’m not going to offer a full musical tribute to JuanGa (that’s a statue of him above in Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi, decorated with death offerings from his fans, in an AP photo by Eduardo Verdugo) — I’ll leave that to someone with more expertise. But I will play you his last hit, a cover of a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival (no joke), and some more selections to get you thinking about the enormous influence of Mexico on American culture.

Also this week: descarga and salsa dura; Jamaican lovers rock; and Dzambo Agusev, the next Balkan trumpet star.

Podcast: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/88113

All the podcasts: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Global+A+Go-Go