The Circus

[Westex]

Just posted a piece on Larry Poynor of the Circus. Larry was a super nice fellow and put up with a ton o' questions. He played with Teddy Neely, DeWayne Quirico, had help from the Plague on his session, and just missed out being the opening act on a UK tour with Gene Vincent (probably for the best).


Not much to look at, but it was salvaged from a West Texas flood in the early 80s.

http://lonestarstomp.blogspot.com/2011/07/youre-bad-seed_29.html

Sounds of Night on HAP ("Sorrow") coming up soon (ish).

 

[axel]

Great!

 

[greenfuzz]

WOW. Fantastic info...

 

[MopTopMike]

Nice job, B!

 

[Westex]

Thanks guys!

A million thanks to MopTopMike and Green Fuzz for ya'lls help.

Larry had pretty much forgotten all about the Circus until MopTopMike hit him up a few years back at which point he started digging around here and there.

Still blown away that it's DeWayne Quirico on drums. Bobby Fuller Four Forever!!!!

 

[Michael W]

Well done. Another mystery solved.

 

[EXPO67]

Excelent article.

I can still remember hearing 'Burn Witch Burn' back in 1985 for the first time on Texas Punk #2 (Eva Records) and to be honest my jaw dropped - I just didn't get it and thought it was one of the worst things I'd heard up until that point. Well, actually The Venetian Blind's 'Quit Your Belly Achin' Baby' from the same comp was the worst...still can't listen to that horror.

Over the years I've grown to love 'Burn Witch Burn' and I've just given it another spin and it sounds brilliant, totally unique.

 

[Westex]

I remember not caring much for "Burn Witch Burn" when I first heard it on one of Rich's forum comps a few years back. I thought the whole witches thing was hokey and that turned me off and I never gave it a fair shake.

Had this not been a studio thing I wonder what a guitar break would have sounded like?

 

[MopTopMike]

I just stumbled across another Larry Poynor composition, from 1963, when he was living in Abilene:

"Lonely Surfer Boy" co written with Robert M Lane, September, 1963.
Never heard the song, not sure if it was ever released

 

[Westex]

Larry made mention of "Lonely Surfer Boy", but couldn't recall details beyond that. I've never seen a West Texas 45 with that title.

He wrote a ton...

 

[Westex]

Larry doesn't recall "Lonely Surfer Boy" ever having been recorded and the songwriting partnership did not end on a positive note.

 

[Jeffers66]

Excellent job. I can't believe they're related to the Feathers. "The Dummy", to me, is hilarious. Of course the guy doesn't get any action -- he sits in his room and plays with a dummy all day!

 

[journeytotyme]

Wow, thanks for posting this! I was completely in awe of this 45 years ago when I first picked up a copy of the Texas Punk from the Sixties Volume 2 comp. It's been a personal fave of mine ever since!