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!

Texas Spotlight: The 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me/Tried To Hide

The region by region Battle of the Garage Bands moves on to Texas. It is a documented fact (from the1966 Census of Garage Bands) that every kid in Texas between the age of 13 and 23 was in no less than three garage bands at each time. Even that weird kid, Marvin, from Waco. He was in three bands just like everybody else. It's a fact. Look it up.

We launch our Texas spotlight with an infamous record from a legendary band. The 13th Floor Elevators. They need no introduction. The song needs no introduction. But I guess we have to say something about it.

You're Gonna Miss Me was composed by 17-year old frontman, Roky Erickson. Roky had already recorded the number in 1965 with his high school band, The Spades. When he met up with The Elevators, they gave the song a fresh coat of paint, changed the tires and added a big fuzzy jug to the song. They recorded the number in '65 and released it in the first week of '66 on Contact Records. Four months later it was released again on International Artists Records in May.

I think we all agree, this is one of the all time greats. Particularly the ominous bridge with the brilliant chord progression that lifts the song to new heights (just like a bridge should).

I gave you the warning
But you never heeded it
How can you say you missed my loving
When you never needed it
You're gonna wake up wondering
Find yourself all alone
But what's going to stop you baby?
I'm not coming home (x3)

Let's be honest, every casual 13th Floor Elevators fan knows both these songs as they are both on the debut album. But what you may not have known is that this Flip-Side, Tried To Hide, is a very different, earlier take than what appeared on the album. We present to you today, that single version. Faster, bassier, boppier. Even a little bit like Love's My Little Red Book there at the opening.

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

It's an On The Flip-Side 5th Birthday Party!

Five years ago this week, we humbly launched our little music blog dedicated to spinning some of our favorite dusty records. That's right, On The Flip-Side is blowing out some candles this week and making a bucket list. 60s Garage, Rockabilly, Jazz, Original Songs, Original Busker Recordings, Blues, Soul and Punk Rock has all had a chance to crawl out of the analog crypt and get a little digital love from us. In that five years we've grown quite a bit. The earliest rambling posts have hits in the single digits. Today each post gets hundreds of hits...in minutes. We've written too many "in memorium" posts and we've been thrilled to become a connecting point for many artists who thought their record was long forgotten. The best thing about writing On The Flip-Side is hearing from the musicians who recorded the music or hearing from the children of the musicians who beam with pride that their mom or dad's work is still touching other people. And, of course, we love hearing from you in the way of comments!

We're going to look back all this week at some of our most pivotal posts, personal favorite posts, and, of course, our most popular posts ever. We may even post more than once a day. That's how excited we are to be strutting around in our birthday suit, letting our Flip-Side hang out for all the world to see.

Let's start our celebration by looking at the band and song that inspired our first ever On The Flip-Side post way back on October 15th, 2008. It was a song that strikes me so deep in the core that EACH and EVERY SINGLE TIME I hear this song I want to scream to the world about the greatness that is contained in this little off-key warble of an offering from a bunch of kids in the 60s. The song is I Had To Tell You by The 13th Floor Elevators, the Austin, Texas band from the mid-60s that busted doors down and created an odd music that sounded nothing like anything before. I Had To Tell You was tucked away on the Flip-Side of the band's criminally underrated second album, Easter Everywhere, released on International Artists in November of 1967. The band was, at that time, singer Roky Erickson, guitarist Stacy Sutherland, bassist Dan Galindo, drummer Danny Thomas and jug player, Tommy Hall.

I Had To Tell You was written by Roky Erickson and poet Clementine Hall, Tommy Hall's wife. I think you'll agree, it was a great place to start. I'm giving you some newly found photos of the earliest days of the 13th Floor Elevators playing a high school dance as well as a scan of the original dust cover of Easter Everywhere with the lyrics to I Had To Tell You. Enjoy. 

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