Song of the Week: Sir Douglas Quintet - I Don't Want

I don't know a whole lot about the Sir Douglas Quintet. They were always a bit of an enigma to me. Particularly when viewed through my garage and punk glasses that filtered much of my view of life many years ago. They were always in the same record bins with groups like the Left Banke, Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds, but they never seemed to have that stuck-in-time sound those other bands had. In other words, in my self defeating myopic way I couldn't easily peg their song as being from 1966 (cool) or 1969 (not cool). Maybe with one or two exceptions. The organ heavy She's About a Mover was obviously a cool gem that appropriately reeked of it's recording date. Despite their unpredictability, I would occasionally pull out the Mendocino album and put it on. Oddly it has the aforementioned She's About A Mover re-recorded 4 years after it first charted. It has the quasi-hit Mendocino with Augie Meyer's up-front organ pounding away and a number of other odd tunes with horns, fiddle, steel guitar and accordion that don't fit obviously together to form "a sound".

It should be clear to you by now that I am not being critical of the album or the band, but rather my way of trying to fit them into a category. The Sir Douglas Quintet were led by San Antonio, Texas child music prodigy Doug Sahm who began his recording career at the age of 9. He called upon country and western, swing, cajun, rock-n-roll, blues and Mexican norteño to form what would become the corner-stone of the flowering Tex-Mex scene. A style of music that pulls together a mosaic of sounds to form a wholly new one.

Despite repeated listenings, the album never quite grabbed me. Then one day a San Diego drummer named Dave Klowden suggested to his bandmates, The Tell-Tale Hearts, while sitting in a Winchells Donut shop at 1am that they cover I Don't Want from the Mendocino album. I couldn't even think of the song. I went back to listen to it and realized it was a brilliantly understated song. Sahm's powerful vocals are matched by Meyer's smooth coating of organ and Sahm's own gentle doubled guitar work that is as melodic as anything you'll hear. And at the 3:28 mark, the song takes a decidedly different avenue to wrap the number up. The guitar pushed to the fore, the drums mixing up the beat. Way cool. As were other songs on that album like, If You Really Want Me To I'll Go, At The Crossroads and the pushing the VU into the red song, Texas Me. And the European version has other cool songs such as the New Orleans soul inflected gem, A Nice Song.

Give I Don't Want a listen and let us know, by way of comment (below), how you like it. We love hearing your thoughts. Below is a video of the San Antonio quintet performing their 1965 hit She's About A Mover. I do believe that this is one of Jack Hayden's favorite songs ever.

Have a great week. We'll see you on the flip-side.

Song of the Week: Willie Nelson - Sad Songs and Waltzes

Sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year. A simple, yet poignant declaration of a man's depression and frustration. A declaration from a man who wants to sing to the whole world about his cheating, leaving lover. But he has no way to say it other than to put it into a sad little waltz. And they just ain't selling this year.

It's a good thing that I'm not a star/you don't know how lucky you are
Though my record may say it/no one will play it
Because sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year

This is the type of song that has no noticeable artifact of its recording that would clue the listener in on the recording date. This could have been recorded in the late 50s or the 60s and I would have believed it. But this song was actually recorded in New York in 1973 with Doug Sahm of the Sir Douglas Quintet (a two time SotW spotlighter for A Nice Song and I Don't Want) providing the band for Willie.  Leon Russel was apparently kicking around the studio as well. Enjoy. 

Song Of The Week: The Sir Douglas Quintet - A Nice Song

Flip-sides On The Flip-Side! Here is the flip-side of a Sir Douglas Quintet single that followed their rock solid 1969 album, Mendocino. The song is A Nice Song. Both in title and in presentation. It was released in 1970 for Phillips Records in the USA. Mercury Records abroad. The title and song are emblematic of how Doug Sahm wrote and recorded songs that were fundamentally sound and free of gimmicks that many of his fellow San Francisco area musicians were employing at the time. In fact, much of Sahm's work at this time was about how he didn't fit in with the Bay Area crowd and his desire to return to San Antonio.

Doug Sahm's gravely voice is at it's best on this New Orleans style soul song. I'm particularly fond of the simple, but effective musical conversation between Augie Meyers' piano and Sahm's guitar at 1:07. The first time I heard the song I was a bit shocked by the blasting Gibson guitar work at the end of the song (a very common tone and approach for the SF bands like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Moby Grape). I thought it out of character with the simplicity of the rest of the song, but, as with many things in life, I've come to change my mind. The A-Side of this single is quite tasty too, making this a nice gem that can be had on the cheap.

Enjoy and let us know what you think.

All recordings are for educational purposes only. If you love it, go buy it. If you feel that your recording is being unfairly used, drop us a line and we’ll make the situation right. We’re cool like that.