In the Heart of Texas – Johnny Mystery – a Column in Xperience Monthly

Is it the heat? Is something in the water? It should be no surprise that some of our greatest rock artists have come out of the lone star state. Texas is also rich in Country and Blues. In fact, Alan Lomax spent a good amount of time, particularly in Dallas, putting together the Great American Blues Catalog. We all know Alan Freed coined the term Rock N Roll in Cleveland, but that town has got nothing on Texas.

Buddy Holly, strapped on his Stratocaster in his hometown of Lubbock back in the early 50’s and pretty much set the template for the rock n roll band as we know it. In his brief time on Earth, Buddy along with his band The Crickets recorded: “That’ll Be The Day,” “Peggy Sue,” ”Maybe Baby,” “Think It Over,” “Rave On,” and dozens of other tunes. They have inspired everybody in the business, and you can still hear their influence. Buddy is one of the great “what ifs” of rock and roll and his roots are firmly planted in Texas, along with a lot more artists.

From El Paso came “The Bobby Fuller Four” who formed in 1961 and recorded their first single “You’re in Love” in Bobby’s parents living room.  That’s home recording before they had a name for it. Of course, they eventually set sail for L.A. and recorded a great string of records, including: “I Fought the Law”, “Let Her Dance”, Another Sad And Lonely Night” and “Love’s Made A Fool Of You” as well as many others. Unfortunately, Bobby Fuller met an early demise just like Buddy Holly. On July 18, 1966, Bobby was found dead in his car outside his home under mysterious circumstances. It’s safe to say, I’ll be going into more detail on this in a future article because his death has still not been explained to anyone’s satisfaction.

You want to trace the beginnings of Psychedelic Rock? You can follow it back to Austin. That’s where “The 13th Floor Elevators” are from. If fact, they named their first album “Psychedelic Sounds.” They were the first, but definitely not the last band to refer to themselves with “The Psych” word. The song they are remembered for after all these years is “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” sung by one of the greatest acid casualties of all time, Roky Ericson. His soulful voice influenced fellow Texan, Janis Joplin. Patti Smith, who once claimed to put on 13th Floor records every night before she went to bed was/is a big fan. You know, there’s a lot of peyote out in the desert and I’m pretty sure The 13th Floor Elevators found it all!!!

Another artist who was influenced by Roky was Billy Gibbons from Houston, who formed “The Moving Sidewalks” and recorded a fuzz heavy tune called “The 99th Floor.” After doing several opening shows with Jimi Hendrix, Jimi himself claimed that Billy was one of his favorite players. That’s a good endorsement for future reference eh… Billy Gibbons continues to wow us all in ZZ Top.

From Corpus Christi, Texas comes Zackery Thacks who were an incredible tight outfit who paid a lot of attention to British Invasion with heavy influence from The Yardbirds. The closest they ever came to a national hit was their first single, ”Bad Girl” which was picked up by Mercury Records but failed to chart. They made a few more 45s before the draft broke them up. Considered to this day, to be one of the great lost bands of the 60’s.

From San Antonio came “The Sir Douglas Quintet” and they had a Tex Mex Garage sound. They enjoyed a couple of chart hits. “She’s About A Mover” and “Mendiceno” both hit the top 40. I would venture to say from their sound they were a great party band and probably played a few frat houses in their day.

From Bridgeport, Texas comes “The Green Fuz” and their one record. “The Green Fuz” is one of the crudest singles ever made. I had the chance to speak with their lead guitarist and co-writer, Les Dale on several occasions and the way he puts it “We didn’t record it in a studio. We had a reel-to-reel tape deck and did a session in a closed diner one night. It was in the middle of the winter and pretty cold. The electronics were not working right.” “Green Fuz” has been covered by the likes of “The Cramps” and “The Lemonheads.”

Also noteworthy are “The Gentlemen” from Dallas who recorded “It’s A Cryin’ Shame” and “Kenny and The Casuals”, also from Dallas and their record “Journey Into Tyme.” Both of these records are considered to be among the greatest rare garage tunes of all time. In fact, there are so many more cool records from Texas, I can’t rule out a part 2.

Stay tuned kids and go hit your local record shop!