The Texas Box

[Westex]

I listened to "Four O'Clock Baby",

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bPaGxKmOGc

but I found that I could predict every note before I heard it. That's the trouble with a lot of rockabilly..

"Four O'Clock Baby" fires all the way around for me. Sleazy Texas rock n' roll with a strolling rhythm. It may be predictable, but it's rock n' roll. By a college freshman/sophmore. From a Methodist University. In an EXTRAORDINARILY conservative town that nonetheless was base to the likes of Don Feger, the Continentals, and Larry Poynor/the Circus.

Not much different from a lot of 60s garage we love… so much of it goes back to the Animals, Stones, Birds, etc.

 

[jerry dickens]

"Four O'Clock Baby" fires all the way around for me. Sleazy Texas rock n' roll with a strolling rhythm. It may be predictable, but it's rock n' roll. By a college freshman/sophmore. From a Methodist University. In an EXTRAORDINARILY conservative town that nonetheless was base to the likes of Don Feger, the Continentals, and Larry Poynor/the Circus.

Not much different from a lot of 60s garage we love… so much of it goes back to the Animals, Stones, Birds, etc.

I came across this forum while nostalgically browsing for Winston records.
In 1975 I visited Abilene where I met Gene Morris, who recorded 'Lovin' Honey' and 'I Crawfished' for Slim Willet's Edmoral label in 1957; and Slim's widow, Mrs Moores. Gene was then a local Coca Cola rep who was clearly embarrassed by his recording career - 'I buried my old records in the dump'. Mrs Moores was selling antiques and did not seem to have much interest in her late husband's legacy. The thought of him being known to people in Europe did not seem probable to her. However, she did sell me a few 45s, including 5 copies of 'Four O'Clock Baby', 2 each of Darrell Rhodes other masterpieces, 'Lou Lou' and 'Runnin' and Chasin', plus other rockers on Winston and Edmoral including Dean Beard, Paul Huffman, Telli W. Mils, The Zircons and Gene Morris. Mrs Moores did tell me that Slim Willet had been friendly with country singer Leon Payne, and sure enough, there was a mint copy of Leon's great double sided rockabilly 45 on Starday, which was issued under the alias 'Rock Rogers'. All that for $15 . . . . Well worth the bus trip to West Texas.

 

[Westex]

That is an incredible tale.

A few folks made that trip to Abilene in the 1970s. 5 copies of ANY Darrell Rhodes 45 is INSANE.

 

[jerry dickens]

Westex, in 1975 the idea that Darrell Rhodes 45s would be $1000+ items in 2014 would likewise have been regarded as insane. The most wanted Texas records back then were probably Tooter Boatman 'Will Of Love', Sonnee West 'Rock-Ola Ruby', or David Ray's 'Lonesome Baby Blues'. Of course, there were those fantasy 45s like Andy Starr's 'Rockin' Rollin' Stone on Lin which could have existed, but time proved otherwise. Had I traded all 5 copies of 'Four O'clock Baby' for 'Rock-Ola Ruby', I would have thought it a good deal.

Forty years ago in the pre-internet age, information was hard won and jealously guarded. The Winston label was small stuff compared to Starday or Meteor. Also, 'Four O'clock Baby' was not seen as rockabilly, more white rock'n'roll - a significant difference back then. The fact that it had a sax riff running though it also reduced its desirability in the eyes of purists. A minority of old school rockabilly obsessives tended to be racists who displayed Confederate flags in their record rooms, hob-nobbed with ultra-right wing extremists and denied any black influences on rockabilly music; an unknown sax player could have been a black musician, so that ruled the record out of court.

As far as I could make out, the only collectors who had been to Mrs Moores before I showed up were 2 English characters who she did not take to and who left empty handed. A few months later another Englishman scored a few records from her, including 2 more copies of 'Four O'clock Baby'. I contacted him when I saw his ad in Record Mart magazine and he confirmed his source.

Mrs Moores never let you see the total stack of 45s; she just left the room and reappeared with a handful of records. I got the impression that she never had that many, just what her late husband had left in the garage. My knowledge of antiques helped break the ice, but instinct told me not to push, even a little bit, or the door would be shown. When I asked her about Dean Beard, she said that she had never liked him as some of the musicians he mixed with used heroin. We're talking a blue-rinsed Texas conservative lady, here.

 

[Westex]

Jerry,

Did you participate on Kopper's old garage punk chat forums a few years back? It not you then it must have been the other Englishman you mentioned above (2 more copies of the Rhodes) who shared quite a few amazing cdr's from his collection of rockabilly and garage 45s.

Come to think of it he might have been named Jim.

 

[jerry dickens]

Jerry,

Did you participate on Kopper's old garage punk chat forums a few years back? It not you then it must have been the other Englishman you mentioned above (2 more copies of the Rhodes) who shared quite a few amazing cdr's from his collection of rockabilly and garage 45s.

Come to think of it he might have been named Jim.

As this is the first internet forum I have posted to - and I have no 'garage' 45s, nor do I own a CD player - I suspect that the person you refer to above was the other Englishman. If I remember correctly, he also collected British 'R&B' 45s, which was an unusual thing for a rockabilly fanatic to do back in the mid 70s. Incidentally, I heard recently that he is selling off his collection privately. Must contact him to see if he still has that Mack Banks 45 on Fame that I've hungered for since 1973.

Westex, you are not by any chance one of the Texas characters I used to buy from/trade with in the 70s and 80s? There was Ed Smith (El Paso), famous as the man who handled the Krupp warehouse find; L R Docks from San Antonio; Richard Latanzi; Mark Womble (Houston) a blues collector who also made major scores at Krupps, and others whose names escape me.

 

[Westex]

Not I. I didn't hit the garage thing until my first year of college out in Abilene in the fall of '92. I wish I knew then what I know now about Abilene records. That town woulda been ruined.

I was learning to read when people where ducking bullets, eating breakfast burritos, and digging through boxes of 45s at Ed's place. Rich Strauss here has great stories along that line.