The Sir Douglas Quintet was an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas in 1964.[1] With their first hits, they were acclaimed in their home state. When their career was established (subsequent to working with Texas record producer Huey Meaux), the band relocated to the West Coast. Their move coincided with the burgeoning San Francisco psychedelic rock scene of the mid 1960s to early 1970s.[2] Overall, the quintet were exponents of good-times music with strong roots in blues and Texas-regional traditions. The band's songs were most noted for the instantly distinguishable organ sound of Augie Meyers' Vox Continental.[3]
Doug Sahm, a veteran of the professional music scene who first sang on radio at the age of five, formed the Quintet (first called simply "Sir Douglas") in 1964 with longtime friend Augie Meyers and the other original members, Jack Barber, Frank Morin, and Johnny Perez. Sahm had started in country music and had played (at age eleven) on-stage with Hank Williams, Sr. during the latter's final performance. Sahm went on to play in blues clubs in his teenage years and had gained experience as a band leader.
The initial success of the new group, the Quintet, on the airwaves and sales charts was achieved when they made records in conjunction with Houston music producer Huey P. Meaux.[4] Houston's recording industry had become the center of Texas R&B music.[5]
The Quintet was born in a cross-cultural south Texas musical melting pot that included the sounds and traditions of Mexico, Ireland, Scotland, Appalachia, Bohemia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and African-America. Aware of major trends, producer Huey Meaux advised connecting the new group with the English pop-music trend.[6] As a consequence, the Texas-local R&B, Tex-Mex, and other veins the musicians were familiar with initially went through a period of influence by the British pop bands of the early and mid 1960s.[7] For a short while, the youthful members of the group emulated Beatles-like "mop-top" demeanor and antics on stage. However, they soon outgrew these trappings.
Best known tracks
The Quintet is perhaps best known for the 1965 hit single "She's About a Mover" written by Doug Sahm. The song, which has a 12-bar blues structure, was once named the number one 'Texas' song by Texas Monthly. With an infectious Vox Continentalorganriff provided by Augie Meyers and soulful vocals from Sahm, the track has a Tex-Mex sound. The regional smash became a breakaway hit, and the recording was used in the soundtracks of the films Echo Park (1986), American Boyfriends (1989), The Doors (1991), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Sorority Boys (2002), and Beautiful Darling (2010).[8] The Quintet's recordings were used as well in the soundtracks of other films, such as Cisco Pike and An Officer and a Gentleman.[9]
In addition to "She's About a Mover," the band is known for its songs "The Rains Came" (1966), "Mendocino" (1968), "It Didn't Even Bring Me Down" (1969), and "Dynamite Woman" (1969). "Mendocino" was released in December 1968 and reached No.27 in the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 by early 1969, spending 15 weeks in the chart. It was more successful in Europe, selling over three million copies there.[10] The track was featured in the generally highly regarded film High Fidelity, starring John Cusack and Jack Black.[11] Having made considerable musical impact, the Quintet at one point went on to share the same European bill as the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones.[7]In 1983, Sahm and Augie Meyers signed with the Swedish Sonet label, and made several extensive European tours that revitalized their careers. The single "Meet Me In Stockholm" from their Midnight Sun LP went platinum and was one of the biggest selling records ever in Scandinavia. "We were having riots on stage," said Doug. "Swedish chicks (were) running up on stage, knocking me over, ripping my clothes."[12]
Style
The Quintet played varied styles with an instrumental lineup that was typical of blues bands: one guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, and drummer, and a member who could play either trumpet or saxophone. Despite the blues band lineup and a musical influence from the blues, the Quintet's live sets did not overemphasize misery or tension in the lyrical content or musical feeling of the songs. In their sets and on record, the Quintet included such blues classics as "I Don't Believe" (originally by Bobby Blue Bland) along with the upbeat "Hey Little Girl" (originally by Texas blues man Frankie Lee Sims) and "T-Bone Shuffle" (originally by blues giant T-Bone Walker).
"The hallmark of Doug Sahm's warm, reliable, steady-rocking Tex-Mex is that it always sounds like you've heard it before—not the lyrics, which Doug just jotted down on some rolling papers five minutes ago, but the riffs. This can drive you crazy ... When the mood is right, though, it gives the music a kind of folkish inevitability that doesn't get boring because Tex-Mex is such a stew of influences."
The Sir Douglas Quintet is considered a pioneering influence in the history of rock and roll for incorporating Tex-Mex and Cajun styles into rock music.[14] However, early influences on the band's emerging Texas style were of course broader than this, and included ethnic and pop music from the 1950s and 1960s, such as doo-wop, electric blues, soul music, and British Invasion.[4]
In the mid-1960s, the band relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and absorbed features of the nascent San Francisco Sound, including the loud and lush electric bass tone and freer percussion and guitar stylings. Band members also explored musical elements specific to modern jazz. For studiorecordings, they sometimes added an extra session musician or two, often to flesh out the brass dimension of a track's sound. Good examples of what they produced by absorbing the new jazz and psychedelic elements into their music can be found on the albumSir Douglas Quintet + 2. The lyrics in a Quintet song such as "The Song of Everything" are plainly in the realm of the mystical, whimsical lyrics regarded as one of the characteristics of psychedelic music.[15]
In live performances, blues, often with swing or shuffle beats, was usually a substantial component of the set. Besides doing their own original material, the Quintet revived several classics such as Jimmie Rodgers' "In the Jailhouse Now" and Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" to be found on the albums Son of San Antonio (originally on The Best of The Sir Douglas Quintet, 1966) and Texas Fever (originally on The Return of Doug Saldana, 1971), respectively.[citation needed]
In 2005, they were among the new class of musicians nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the 2006 induction ceremony.[16]
Members
Portrait of the Sir Douglas Quintet. (L-R) Johnny Perez, Frank Morin, Augie Meyers, Jack Barber, Doug Sahm.
In addition to Sahm and Meyers, original Sir Douglas Quintet members included Jack Barber on bass; Frank Morin on saxophone, trumpet, and keyboards; and Johnny Perez, Ernie Durawa, or T.J. Ritterbach on drums. Martin Fierro joined the band on tenor sax in 1968. In 1969 Harvey Kagan joined the Quintet on bass, forming their most familiar line up – Kagan, Morin, Perez, Sahm, and Meyers. Bassist Jim Stallings also contributed to several albums during this period of shifting personnel which included, among others, guitarist Tom Nay of Sarasota, Florida (who played with the group for about a year) and John York, who later replaced Chris Hillman in The Byrds, and contributions from San Antonio crooner/saxophonist Danny Segovia. Sahm and Meyers were later also members of the Texas Tornados (with Freddy Fender and Flaco Jiménez) in the early 1990s. Frank Morin and Martin Fierro both appeared on the first Mother Earth album "Living With the Animals" (1968). In 1972, the group split up when Sahm contracted to produce a solo album. Meyers, Perez, Morin, and Stallings briefly regrouped as The Quintet, with Sonny Farlow taking Sahm's place. In 1973, several Sir Douglas Quintet outtakes were released in their final album from the group's classic era, Rough Edges.
Sahm and Meyers continued to work together throughout the late 1970s, and rejoined with Perez in 1980 for a reunion tour and album. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the band was joined by Louie Ortega, formerly of the 1960s band Louie & the Lovers and currently of the Texas Tornados.[17]
Founder Doug Sahm died of a heart attack in his sleep in a motel room in Taos, New Mexico, on November 18, 1999, at the age of 58.
Johnny Perez owned Topanga Skyline Studios, with "the Vibe and the Magic of the '70's." Skyline's grand woodwork, welcoming business culture, and "western fort" dirt courtyard set the stage for drummer Perez to mentor and inspire generations of young artists – until his death on September 11, 2012, at the age of 69, in a California hospital, from complications of cirrhosis of the liver.
Harvey Kagan performed with a San Antonio area wedding/event band, The Oh So Good! Band, best known for discovering American Idol contestant Haley Scarnato. Kagan died on July 5, 2019, aged 73.[18]
Augie Meyers continues to tour, and record on his own independent record labels, based in Bulverde, Texas. Frank Morin remains active in music, with teaching, production, and film soundtracks work. Jim Stallings lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he plays bass, guitar, and keyboards at local Pro-Jam sessions. He is also in the process of writing his autobiography with heavy emphasis on his time with the Sir Douglas Quintet and the effect that experience had on his life.
Selected discography
Albums
1966 – The Best of Sir Douglas Quintet (Tribe) (not a compilation, despite its title)
1968 – Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues (Smash)
Tejano music, also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particularly polka or waltz. Tejano music is traditionally played by small groups featuring accordion and guitar or bajo sexto. Its evolution began in northern Mexico.
Freddy Fender was an American Tejano singer-songwriter, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. His signature sound fused country, rock, swamp pop and Tex-Mex styles.
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is an American singer, songwriter and accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. He is known for playing Norteño, Tex Mex and Tejano music. Jiménez has been a solo performer and session musician, as well as a member of the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven.
Douglas Wayne Sahm was an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in San Antonio, Texas. Sahm is regarded as one of the main figures of Tex-Mex music, and as an important performer of Texan Music. He gained fame along with his band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, with a top-twenty hit in the United States and the United Kingdom with "She's About a Mover" (1965). Sahm was influenced by the San Antonio music scene that included conjunto and blues, and later by the hippie scene of San Francisco. With his blend of music, he found success performing in Austin, Texas, as the hippie counterculture soared in the 1970s.
Texas Tornados is a Tejano supergroup, composed of some of country music's biggest artists who modernized the Tex-Mex style including Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm, and Freddy Fender. Its music is a fusion of conjunto with rock, country, and various Mexican styles.
From St. Louie to Frisco is the twelfth studio album by Chuck Berry, released in 1968 by Mercury Records. One track on the album, "My Tambourine", is the same tune as Berry's later hit for Chess Records, "My Ding-a-Ling", but with less risque lyrics. The Sir Douglas Quintet backed Berry on parts of this album.
August "Augie" Meyers is an American musician, singer, songwriter, performer, studio musician, record producer, and record label owner. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados.
Mendocino is the second album by country rock group The Sir Douglas Quintet, released in April 1969 on Smash Records. The release of the album was expedited as the result of the success of the title song, which peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during a fifteen-week stay in early 1969. The album peaked at No. 81 on the Billboard 200 charts. Neon Records re-released the album in 2001 and 2008.
She's About a Mover is a 1965 song by the Sir Douglas Quintet that was quickly covered by several other artists. The song has a 12-bar blues structure, and is essentially a rewrite of The Coasters’ 1957 hit, "Searchin'"
Texas Rock for Country Rollers is the third album by American country-music singer Doug Sahm. Sahm composed for the album seven original songs, while covers constituted the rest of the album. It was released by ABC-Dot in 1976.
The discography of Doug Sahm started in 1955 with the release of "A Real American Joe" on Sarg Records. Sahm fronted three bands early in his career: The Pharaohs, The Dell-Kings and The Markays. He released the song "Crazy Daisy" (1959), and he had a local hit in San Antonio, Texas with "Why Why Why" (1960) on Renner Records. Sahm had another local hit with "Crazy, Crazy Feeling" (1961). After he disbanded the Sir Douglas Quintet in 1972, he was signed by Atlantic Records in October 1972, and he released his solo debut album Doug Sahm and Band.
Doug Sahm and Band is the debut solo album of American singer-songwriter Doug Sahm. In 1972, after leaving the Sir Douglas Quintet, Sahm moved to Austin, Texas. He was signed by Jerry Wexler to the newly opened country music division of Atlantic Records, and started the album sessions by October 1972. It featured appearances by Bob Dylan, Dr. John, David "Fathead" Newman, Flaco Jimenez, David Bromberg and Kenny Kosek.
Groover's Paradise is an album by Doug Sahm, produced by musician Doug Clifford and released on Warner Records in 1974. Following his return to Texas after his success with the Sir Douglas Quintet in California, Sahm settled in Austin, Texas. As the local music scene thrived, he was featured as the main attraction in local clubs and he recorded his debut album for Atlantic Records.
Hell of a Spell is an album by singer-songwriter Doug Sahm released by Takoma Records in January 1980. Sahm was signed to the label in 1979 after it was acquired by Chrysalis Records the same year. Upon request of the president of Takoma, Sahm recorded blues numbers and he dedicated the record to Guitar Slim. While the album was well received by the critics, it was a commercial failure.
The Last Real Texas Blues Band Featuring Doug Sahm is an album by Doug Sahm released by Antone's Record Label in February 1995.
Get a Life is a 1998 album by Doug Sahm released by the Dutch label Munich Records. The tracks were recorded in Austin and San Marcos, Texas, Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California. The producers of the tracks included Sahm, Mike Stewart, Billy Stull and Bob Flick. Sahm wrote the liner notes for the album. The recordings featured The Gourds, as well as Augie Meyers. Sahm met The Gourds as he performed at a music festival in Belgium in 1997. Sahm approached the band after he heard them sing a cover of his original "At the Crossroads".
The Return of Wayne Douglas is the last studio album recorded by Doug Sahm. It was released by his own label, Tornado Records.
Zone of Our Own is an album by the American supergroup Texas Tornados, released in 1991. The first two singles were "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone" and "La Mucura". Videos for the singles were shot in San Antonio.
Day Dreaming at Midnight is an album by the American band the Sir Douglas Quintet, released in 1994. Doug Sahm was motivated to reform the band due to his son Shawn's musicianship and the encouragement from Metallica's manager Cliff Burnstein.
Border Wave is an album by the American band the Sir Douglas Quintet, released in 1981. Doug Sahm was inspired to record the album after the success of Joe Carrasco and Elvis Costello. It was Sahm's second album for Takoma Records. Border Wave peaked at No. 184 on the Billboard 200. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
↑ V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine 2002 All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul,, 3rd edn. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, ISBN0-87930-653-X, pp. 1322-3
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