Texas Spotlight: The Wig - Crackin' Up/Bluesscene

Day 8 of our Texas Battle of the Garage Bands takes us back to Austin, Texas. Right where we started.

We do that with The Wig and their monster single, Crackin' Up. Crackin' Up came to fame with it's inclusion on the original Pebbles series. The group of lads that were known as The Wig are Benny Rowe on lead, Rusty Wier on drums and vocals, Jess Yaryan on bass, Johnny Richardson on guitar and Bill Wilmot on Organ. A previous incarnation of the band apparently also included Boz Scaggs and Steve Miller.

Crackin' Up was the second, and last, single the band ever did. It was released on BlackKnight Records in 1966. It is a real monster with kick ass guitar leads throughout, a nice time-change and a cryptic vocal delivery. But it is the end of the song, with what sounds to this listener like an organ being run through a Tremolo, that really caps it off nicely. Rusty Wier composed the number and sings on it. He went on to same success in the country scene of Texas.

I don't own the record so I can't give you the Flip-Side, Bluescene. A rocking instrumental that shows the band's skills. Here is a YouTube vid of it. The band looks a bit like an Awkward Family Photo candidate in the pic shown on there.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Kit and The Outlaws - Don't Tread On Me

Brilliant! Some songs so crystalize the sound of 60s garage punk in America that you just take them for granted. Kit and The Outlaws of Dallas Fort Worth, Texas created one of those perfect songs. Perfect riff. Perfect anti-establishment lyrics. Perfect delivery. 

As usual we are talking about the Flip-Side of a single. In this case, their 1966 release, Don't Tread On Me. The snotty number was the Flip-Side of a very pedestrian cover of In The Midnight Hour. Originally released on local label BlacKnight Records in the Summer of '66, we feature here the Phillips Records release as unleashed on the public in December of that same fine year. 

Kit and the Outlaws were (from L-R in the photo below) Kit Massengill on guitar and vocals, Joe Jesmer on drums, Jerry Colwell on organ and back up vocals and Alan Rafkin on bass. Kit wrote Don't Tread On Me and it feels autobiographical. Kit looks like he may have had a chance to have pissed off a few people in conservative Dallas in 1966. Way too cool for that town in that day. So cool we have to share Kit's lyrics to Don't Tread On Me. 

People walking around on me
Trying to stomp my name in the ground
They use and bruise and try to confuse me
But I just don't make a sound

I'm used to having an overload
Yeah, carrying more than my share
But you sigh and cry and try to lie
And babe, you just get in my hair 

Don't tread on me (don't tread on me)
Don't you tread on me (don't tread on me)
I just want to be free (don't tread on me)
Don't you tread on me
No, no, no 

Child there are things that make me cry
Things I don't quite understand
Like you go out with other guys
But say I'm your only man 

Don't tread on me (don't tread on me)
Don't you tread on me (don't tread on me)
I just want to be free (don't tread on me)
Don't you tread on me
No, no, no 

Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it
Don't walk on me
I need yah!
I need your loving
But don't you try to walk on me 

Oh, don't tread on me (don't tread on me)
Don't, don't you tread on me baby (don't tread on me)
I, How I want things to be (don't tread on me)
Just, just like I was free (don't tread on me)
Please, don't you tread on me (don't tread on me)
No, no, no don't do it, don't do it
No, no, no, no, no, Nooooo

Photo lifted from the cool cats at Garage Hangover. You can read more about The Outlaws on that site by clicking this link.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!