V05-T03 Hombre Secreto

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.....I first saw the movie "Repo Man" in the theater and fell in love immediately. It's one more reason the human race has to thank Mike Nesmith. He's credited as an executive producer, which usually translates to financing a project rather than any hands-on participation, but though the punk music dominating the soundtrack and nihilism dominating the characters are both outside of his usual modus operandi his trademark dry humor is all over the dialogue.

Volume 5: DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL (YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S BEEN), track 3

• 01:48 "HOMBRE SECRETO" (P.F. Sloan, Steve Barri; Spanish translation by Tito Larriva)
• performed by The Plugz
• original source: VALP MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK "REPO MAN" San Andreas Records/MCA SAR 39019 (US) 1984
• and my source: the same

.....Sloan's co-writer, Steve Barri, was actually credited on the label as "S.B. Lipkin", his real name. I used his professional name because it's more widely recognized (and to be fair, Sloan's name is a pseudonym, too). Below are my notes from 1994.

....."What? No Japanese? Well, these compilations wouldn't be complete without a foreign language number in there somewhere. Of course, you may know this in English as the Johnny Rivers song 'SECRET AGENT MAN'. Being a long time fan of the TV show 'The Prisoner' (and its antecedent 'Secret Agent', with which Americans associate the song), those opening chords always catch my ear. I think there's a Lou Miami recording of this out there. In English, I mean.

....."The Plugz are a fine example of L.A. punk's dirtiest little secret-- i.e., that it isn't any more homegrown than the rest of the rock in L.A. Just like in the big commercial rock world, the best 'L.A.' punk bands weren't from Los Angeles; they were from San Francisco or Mexico. At first the only clubs to play in were in L.A. and the minute clubs opened elsewhere bands stopped making the haul to L.A. to perform. When the mass media types no longer saw punk bands in Los Angeles they assumed that there couldn't be anything going on in the 'lesser' towns and declared that punk was dead. Michael Nesmith, on the other hand, decided to look beyond the end of his nose and decided that it was not. He backed the production of 'Repo Man' (for which Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton will be forever grateful), whose soundtrack album was probably the first mass-marketed example of the fourth phase of punk (hardcore). The CD finally came out nearly ten years after the movie."

.....Shortly after the movie was released The Plugz renamed themselves the Cruzados and signed to Arista. They had previously released their own records. The new identity didn't last very long and the Cruzados also ended their existence with a movie, 1989's 'Road House'. They actually appeared on screen for that one, part of Tito Larriva's extensive list of film credits. The line-up for this particular track was:

• Tito Larriva- vocals
• Steven Hufsteter- lead guitar
• Chalo 'Charlie' Quintana- drums
• Tony Marsico- bass

.....None of the selections give individual producer credits, although the project was produced by Peter McCarthy and Jonathan Wacks. I'm not sure if they had any direct involvement with the recording since there are two other Plugz tracks on the soundtrack with different personnel and were likely recorded earlier than "HOMBRE SECRETO". Actually, the whole album is killer, as is the movie, and both are heartily recommended in their entirety.