Nurse the Hate: Doug Sahm and Blown Minds

This afternoon I was driving around listening to an old Sir Douglas Quintet CD.  Yes, it was a CD.  One of the compromises I have made in driving a car with too much everything is that I could only afford an older version of this beast.  The Germans were extremely hesitant to provide any electronic creature comforts in this car, and allegedly only provided drink holders very begrudgingly.  Sometimes when you turn the car off and sit in the silence, you can hear a German accented voice say “Why would we provide distracting electronics when the experience of driving this automobile is absolutely perfect?”.  Hence, I have to listen to CDs.

The Sir Douglas Quintet is one of Doug Sahm’s old bands, and they are great.  You are likely familiar with “She’s About A Mover” and “Mendocino”, but each of the hard to find albums is packed with meat.  I particularly like the records after Sahm arrived and set down roots in San Francisco in the late 60s.  The language is awesome.  “I’m Not That Kat Anymore”, “Lord I’m Just A Country Boy Living In This Freaky City”, “Can You Dig My Vibrations” and “You Can’t Hide A Redneck (Underneath That Hippie Hair)” come to mind.  He made the kind of music I like, which is mashing together all of your influences to make a distinctive voice.  He manages to take all his Texas home influences of rock, country and Mexican music and became a pioneer of what was later called “Tex Mex”.  Go out and get yourself some of this music. 

The lyrics of this late 60s period are filled with songs about “grooving” and things that are “heavy”.  Almost every song has a mention about having your “mind blown”.  It was then I realized I have not spent nearly enough time in my lyrics discussing having your “mind blown”.  I then reached out to Krusty and Bobby Lanphier with this epiphany via text, asking them if I needed to heavy up on “mind blowing”.  Krusty attached the photo of Sahm in full cosmic cowboy regalia and then contrasted that with me in a suit holding a bottle of Krug champagne.  “You’re going to have to do a lot of work on your look before you can seem credible talking about “blown minds”.”  He then noted the photo of me from last week.  “This guy is going to talk to me about “blown minds”?  C’mon.”  At that point Lanphier weighed in with “more like a guy talking to me about blown investment opportunities”. 

Those were both valid points.  As much as I would like to insert an occasional “blown mind” reference, it just might ring hollow.  That’s a damn shame as I have had my “mind blown” a few times.  Don’t even make me reference back to that ill-fated space cake episode prior to a Swiss border cross while on tour.  Oh yes, my mind was blown.  My mind was mostly blown because I thought a German TV program I was watching was about a man pimping out his girlfriend so she could succeed in show business.  In a number of scenes the boyfriend offered her up for sex to strange men so he could advance his own agenda.  It was a sick tale of betrayal and life in the abyss.  That's when Krusty turned me onto what it was all about.  I was a little off.  It turned out it was a home improvement program.  Consider my mind blown!

I will just have to temper my desire to pepper in references to “Sunday Groovers” and “freaks” in Daredevils songs.  I don’t think I can make it sound organic.  That’s a shame.  What isn’t a shame is that the Daredevils will likely move ahead with two new releases this year.  We have the record we recorded with Gary last summer, and before long the band is going to have to get in the studio to record all the new material we have been writing.  We are also going to make our return to Europe, as a plan is afoot right now for the end of September/start of October to hit The Old Country.  As I stated in my New Year’s Resolutions, I wanted to A) make playing music fun again (check with the addition of Hector), B) lose 7 pounds (check as I knocked off 10), pass the WSET Diploma (check), and travel to Burgundy.  Ideally I would like to get to France before the end of June thereby achieving all my goals in 6 months.  We are getting shit done and moving forward over here.  If you sit and think about it, it really sort of blows your mind.  Damn.  I guess I can't say that.