Juke Box Music has to be one of my favorite Doug Sahm LPs. Released on Antone's Records in 1988 out of Austin, it gives Sahm the opportunity to send a big wet kiss to the classic R&B and doo-wop sounds that he loved.
She Put The Hurt On Me comes from the pen of Otis Redding and if you'd like to hear his version, here you go.
The flipside of the Tribe single "The Tracker" is an eerie minor key rocker called "Blue Norther". The term "blue norther" itself is Texan for a cold front that drops the temperature suddenly and brings a storm, usually followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. With its menacing rhythm guitar, spooky backups and ominous Augie Meyer organ, this song evokes that sudden chill very effectively, signalling a uniquely Texan rock and roll band with deeper regional and musical roots than your average teenage combo.
While it's easiest to find "Blue Norther" on Tribe, the song was actually the flipside of the very first Sir Douglas Quintet single, released on Pacemaker in '64 (the topside was the Cajun stomper "Sugar Bee"). It's the same version as the Tribe version but has an earlier fade.
Sir Douglas's 2nd 45 on Tribe was fronted by this great "Searchin'" styled stalker stomp, here reproduced live on Shindig in July of 1965. Let's take a moment to note that Sir Douglas and the Quintet all have their headcoats on.
When I first came across this song, it was on the Tribe "Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet" album (which I think we'll all agree is a fine way to title your very first LP). I didn't bother to check the song titles when I'd spin it, and I thought that the lyric was "I'm a Tiger". I guess I thought Sahm was hunting this object d'affection down to gobble her up. Certain lines really had to be twisted to get the verses to follow my delusional chorus. When I finally realized that he was saying "I'm a Tracker", the whole thing made much more sense. Thing was, my wife thought it was "I'm a Tiger", too.
Shortly thereafter, a couple of friends, newly married, came to town, and we were driving around the area with a Doug Sahm comp. tape blasting away. This song came on, and was playing for a while, when the bride in the back said, "Why does he keep saying 'I'm Mick Jagger?!?'"
This made even less sense than "I'm a Tiger" but was way funnier.
Of all the tricks Doug Sahm had in his nearly bottomless bag, none made me smile more than his tendency to revel in his love for honky-tonk sounds, as he does on this 1976 album track that appeared on his Texas Rock For Country Rollers LP on the ABC-Dot label. His lyrics, delivered over a superb shuffle beat, salute country MVPs like George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, Willie Nelson and fiddler Link Davis.
By the way, the Texas Tornados that appear here are not the same Texas Tornados that Sahm recorded and toured with beginning in the early 90s, though keyboardist Augie Meyers was on hand for both projects. For much more information about this LP, and the opportunity to stream each track, head over to the Adios Lounge. You'll be glad you did.
