Joe Cuba - "Bang Bang" ("Beep Beep Ah"), Part I - Sound File , information, & lyrics

chinita41, Jan 8, 2009
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The total # of views as of Feb. 12, 2022 at 12:50 PM ET - 2,771,516

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: Feb. 13, 2022 

This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series about the 1966 Boogaloo song "Bang Bang" (also known by its refrain "Beep Beep Ah").

This post showcases a YouTube sound file of Joe Cuba's 1966 hit song "Bang Bang". Information about Joe Cuba is included in this post along with lyrics for that song.

Information about Boogaloo music and dance is also included in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/nuyoricans-african-americans-other.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases a song file of YouTube sound file of  Joe Cuba's 1966 hit song "Bang Bang" and presents a compilation of selected comments from that sound file and from another sound file of that song.

I'm particularly interested in comments from Puerto Rican (Nuyoricans)* and African Americans about their memories of Joe Cuba's "Bang Bang" in New York City and in other United States cities. *"Nuyoricans" = Puerto Ricans in New York City.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/three-youtube-videos-about-afro-latin.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III showcases three YouTube videos about Latin Boogaloo music and dance, with a focus on the 2015 film documentary "The Story Of Latin Boogaloo": We Like I Like That". Information about that documentary is also included in that post.   

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Joe Cuba and other members of his band for their musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT JOE CUBA
From  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cuba
"Joe Cuba (April 22, 1931 – February 15, 2009),[1] was an American conga drummer of Puerto Rican descent widely regarded as the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".

Early years

Joe Cuba (birth name: Gilberto Miguel Calderón Cardona[note 1]) was born in Harlem, New York, United States.[2] Cuba's parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York City in the late 1920s, and settled in Spanish Harlem, a Latino community located in Manhattan. Cuba was raised in an apartment building, where his father had become the owner of a candy store, located on the ground floor (street level floor). His father had organized a stickball club called the Young Devils. Stickball was the main sport activity of the neighborhood. After Cuba broke a leg he took up playing the conga and continued to practice with the conga between school and his free time. Eventually, he graduated from high school and joined a band.[3]

Musical career

In 1950, when he was 19 years old, he played for Joe Panama and also for a group called La Alfarona X. The group soon disbanded and Cuba enrolled in college to study law. While at college he attended a concert in which Tito Puente performed "Abaniquito". He went up to Puente and introduced himself as a student and fan, and soon they developed what was to become a lifetime friendship. This event motivated Cuba to organize his own band. In 1954, his agent recommended that he change the band's name from the José Calderón Sextet to the Joe Cuba Sextet,[2] and the newly named Joe Cuba Sextet made their debut at the Stardust Ballroom.[3]

In 1962, after recording three albums for Mardi Gras Records, Cuba recorded his first album with the Joe Cuba Sextet called Steppin' Out featuring the hit "To Be With You", featuring the vocals of Cheo Feliciano and Jimmy Sabater Sr. The band became popular in the New York Latin community.[2] The lyrics to Cuba's music used a mixture of Spanish and English, becoming an important part of the Nuyorican Movement.[4]

In 1965, the Sextet got their first crossover hit with the Latin and soul fusion of "El Pito (I'll Never Go Back to Georgia)".[2] The "I'll Never Go Back to Georgia" chant was taken from Dizzy Gillespie's intro to the seminal Afro-Cuban tune "Manteca." Sabater later revealed that "None of us had ever been to Georgia."[5]

Along with fellow Nuyorican artists such as Ray Barretto and Richie Ray, Cuba was at the forefront of the developing Latin soul sound in New York, merging American R&B styles with Afro-Cuban instrumentation.[6] Cuba was one of the key architects behind the emerging Latin boogaloo sound,[2] which became a popular and influential Latin style in the latter half of the 1960s.[6] In 1966, his band scored a hit on the United States Billboard Hot 100 with the song "Bang! Bang!".[7] The record peaked at No. 63 on the Hot 100,[2] and No. 21 on the R&B chart. The follow-up, "Oh Yeah", peaked at No. 62 on the Hot 100.[8]"...

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LYRICS - BANG BANG
(Joe Cuba Sextet)

Beep Beep, ah
Beep Beep, ah
Beep Beep, ah
Beep Beep. ah
Beep Beep, ah
Beep Beep, ah

Bang Bang 
Bang Bang
Bang Bang
Bang Bang
Bang Bang

Cornbread, hog maws and chitlins cornbread
Cornbread, hog maws and chitlins cornbread
Cornbread, hog maws and chitlins cornbread
Cornbread, hog maws and chitlins cornbread

Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang

Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep ahh

Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang

Beep beep ahh ahh
Beep beep ahh ahh
Beep beep ahh ahh
Beep beep ahh ahh
Beep beep ahh ahh

Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang

Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep ahh

Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang

Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh
Beep beep, ahh

Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang
Bang bang

Credits
Writer(s): Joe Cuba, Jimmy Sabater
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Online Source: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Joe-Cuba-Sextet/Bang-Bang
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These are the basic lyrics. That song also includes the line "Sock it to me", "Hanky panky with Joe" and other (ad lib?) lyrics.

Some other online music lyric sites give different lyrics by Joe Cuba for this song. Those lyrics aren't for the song that this post is showcasing. 

Cornbread, hog maws, and chitterlings (also called chitlins') are Southern Black (African American) food. However, not all African Americans in the South or elsewhere in the United States eat hog maws and/or chitlins'. Here's information about chitterlings and hog maws
from https://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/cooking/meat_recipes/chitterlings_also_known_as_pig_intestines_and_hog_maws.html#:~:text=Chitterlings%20are%20the%20pig's%20intestine,is%20very%20well%20worth%20it.&text=To%20start%20you%20will%20have,maws%20are%20usually%20thawed%20already.
"For those of you that do not know what chitterlings or hog maws are I'm here to let you in on what they are. Chitterlings are the pig's intestine and hog maws are part of the cow's stomach."

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INFORMATION ABOUT BOOGALOO MUSIC
Excerpt #1:
From https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ah-beep-beep-rediscovering-wonderful-sounds-latin-boogaloo-n544986 "Ah Beep Beep Rediscovering The Wonderful Soungs Of Latin Boogaloo" by Jack Rico, March 24, 2016
"Every generation gives way to a new musical sound that defines their youth identity and cultural influences. For Latinos living in New York City, circa 1960’s in Spanish Harlem, “Boogaloo” was exactly that, a sound that allowed them to express themselves freely, to revel in the Latin beats of their predecessors, but with the contemporary American rhythms of doo-wop and soul.

Artists like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon, Joe Cuba, Pete Rodriguez, Richie Ray and others became New York City sensations. If you ask anyone who loved this hodgepodge of musical arrangements, it was a sonorous and intoxicating time to be a Latino in the Big Apple. But as the saying goes, all good things always come to an end.

[...]

Today, Boogaloo isn’t heard as much on the airwaves, but a new documentary by Mathew Ramirez Warren called “We Like It Like That” looks not only to contribute to its revival, but to remind Latinos of their forgotten rich musical heritage.

“I found it to be this fascinating, untold New York story,” Ramirez Warren said in an interview with NBC Latino. “This community was searching for a voice, a means of expression. The music represented who they were, where they were coming from, their environment.” 

Musicians such as Willie Colón and Johnny Pacheco led the new sound of Salsa in the 70’s, and eventually sealed the fate of Boogaloo, but Joe Bataan and company have not stopped touring and releasing albums.

 Will it make a full revival? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, you can indulge in rediscovering songs such as “Bang! Bang!,” “I like It Like That,” “Micaela,” “Subway Joe” and “Boogaloo Blues”. You can find the soundtrack for the documentary out now on iTunes, Amazon Prime and On Demand, along with the soundtrack from Fania Records."

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Excerpt #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo
"Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage Hispanic and Latino Americans. The style was a fusion of popular African American rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music with mambo and son montuno, with songs in both English and Spanish. The American Bandstand television program introduced the dance and the music to the mainstream American audience. Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That"[1] was a famous boogaloo song.

Except for the name, the dance is unrelated to the Boogaloo street dance from Oakland, California and the electric boogaloo, a style of dance which developed decades later under the influence of funk music and hip-hop dance.

History

In the 1950s and '60s, African Americans in the United States listened to various styles of music, including jump blues, R&B and doo-wop. Latinos in New York City shared these tastes, but they also listened to genres like mambo or cha cha chá. There was a mixing of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and African Americans and others in clubs, whose bands tried to find common musical ground. Boogaloo was a result of this search, a marriage of many styles including Cuban son montuno, guaguancó, guajira, guaracha, mambo, and American R&B and soul. Styles like doo wop also left a sizable influence, through Tony Pabón (of the Pete Rodríguez Band), Bobby Marín, King Nando, and Johnny Colón and his vocalists Tony Rojas and Tito Ramos.

[...]

Though boogaloo did not become mainstream nationwide until later in the decade, two early Top 20 hits came in 1963: Mongo Santamaría's cover version of the Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man"[2] and Ray Barretto's "El Watusi". Inspired by these two successes, a number of bands began imitating their infectious rhythms (which were Latinized R&B), intense conga rhythms and clever novelty lyrics. Boogaloo was the only Cuban-style rhythm which occasionally acquired English lyrics. Established Cuban-influenced orchestras also recorded the occasional boogaloo, including Pérez Prado, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente[3] was an American musician, songwriter . Most of the other groups were young musicians – some were teenagers – the Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers, Joe Bataan and the Latinaires.

Use of the term boogaloo in referring to a musical style was probably coined in about 1966 by Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz. The biggest boogaloo hit of the '60s was "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba Sextet, which sold over one million copies in 1966. "El Pito" was another hit by this popular combo. Hits by other groups included Johnny Colón's "Boogaloo Blues", Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That",[1] and Héctor Rivera's "At the Party".

[…]

The older generation of Latin musicians have been accused of using their influence to repress the young movement, for commercial reasons. There was certainly pressure on booking agents by the established bands.[5] The craze was mostly over by 1970, perhaps because of the hostility of established bands and key booking agents; the reason is uncertain. Almost every major and minor Latin dance artist of the time had recorded at least a few boogaloos on their albums. It had been an intense, if brief, musical movement, and the music is still highly regarded today.[5]

The Latin boogaloo bands were mostly led by young, sometimes even teenage musicians from New York's Puerto Rican community. These included, but weren't limited to, Joe Bataan, Joe Cuba, Bobby Valentín, the Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens, Johnny Colón, and the Latinaires. As such, Latin boogaloo can be seen as "the first Nuyorican music" (René López), and has been called "the greatest potential that (Latinos) had to really cross over in terms of music" (Izzy Sanabria). However, Latino musicians and composers also made a big contribution to doo-wop.

[…]

The boogaloo faded from popularity by the end of 1969.[5]p168 What caused the fairly rapid end of the boogaloo's reign is in dispute. According to several sources, jealous older Latin music artists colluded with record labels (in particular, Fania Records), radio DJs, and dance hall promoters to blacklist boogaloo bands from venues and radio. This scenario is explored in the 2016 film We Like It Like That, a documentary on the history of Latin boogaloo. Alternatively, it was a fad that had run out of steam.[5]p168 Its demise allowed older musicians to make a comeback on the New York scene. The explosive success of salsa in the early 1970s saw former giants like Puente and the Palmieri Brothers return to the top, while most Latin boogaloo bands went out of business (Joe Bataan being a notable exception).[6]

In the 2000s, Latin boogaloo has seen a resurgence in popularity, with artists like Bataan experiencing renewed interest in their Latin boogaloo output, and new groups emerging to form a Latin boogaloo revival. [7]

In Cali, Colombia, boogaloo, salsa and pachanga are played by disk jockeys in FM and AM radio stations and dance clubs. The Caleños prefer their boogaloo sped up, from 33 to 45 RPM, to match the city's fast dance style.[citation needed]"...

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This concludes Part I of this three part pancocojams series.

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