Label: Warner Bros. Records, Music on Vinyl Reissue

Country: US

Released: 2013 (Original release 1984)

Genre: Blues

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How Will the Wolf Survive? is the first major label album of Los Lobos, released in 1984. In 1989, it was ranked No. 30 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 455 on the magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and at number 431 in the 2020 edition. The album's title and the title song were inspired by a National Geographic article entitled "Where Can the Wolf Survive", which the band members related to their own struggle to gain success in the United States while maintaining their Mexican roots. Drummer Louie Pérez recalled, "It was like our group, our story: What is this beast, this animal that the record companies can't figure out? Will we be given the opportunity to make it or not?"

On How Will the Wolf Survive?, the band experimented with various genres, including styles reflective of the group's traditional Mexican roots. "I Got Loaded" features influences of R&B, while "A Matter of Time" blends country and blues sensibilities. Both "A Matter of Time" and "Will the Wolf Survive?" discuss the lives of immigrants in the United States. "A Matter of Time" is about a Mexican crossing the border in search of a better life.