Then I saw the Texas Tornados live in LA in the early ’90s, my group of friends and I really went to see Flaco Jiménez, but we all fell for Doug Sahm.

If Augie Meyers’s organ was the backbone of the Tornados, Freddy Fender’s voice its sweetness, and Flaco’s accordion its heart, Sahm was the band’s soul. He had it all: the heart-wrenching raspy voice, the guitar attack, the songs, the stamina, and, most importantly, the attitude.

“[Doug Sahm] was number one,” said fellow Tornado Augie Meyers, who befriended Sahm during their early teens and who was a founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet in the ’60s. “He was a great songwriter and guitar player, and got a tremendous voice. He could play country music, fiddle, steel guitar, sax, lead guitar. … You name it.”

Sahm’s passing exactly 10 years ago today was a horrible blow not only for the Tornados, who had never been hotter and better, but for Texas music in general. In the midst of the “Tejano explosion,” the Tornados represented the edgiest, coolest side of Texan music. Selena and Emilio Navaira may have kicked ass in the charts but, musically speaking, no one could touch the Tornados in the ’90s.

Sahm explored the musical range of the great Texan genres and he excelled at everything from country, rock, and blues, to R&B, Tejano, and Chicano and Mexican sounds. He started performing as a child prodigy at age 5, released his first album (A Real American Joe) as “Little Doug Sahm” in 1955, and would find fame and respect from public and peers (if not mega sales) thanks to his work with the SDQ — the first American rock band to “invade” England during the British Invasion of the ’60s — the Texas Tornados, and as a solo artist and producer (the 1970 recently re-released Rise, the debut by East LA’s Louie & the Lovers, was dubbed “a Latin-rock classic” by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke).

In 1964, after opening with their respective bands for the Dave Clark Five in San Antonio, producer Huey Meaux suggested Sahm and Meyers form a band, because “you both have long hair.” The ridiculously named Sir Douglas Quintet was born, but the sound they wanted had no pseudo-British feel to it.

“I told Doug, ‘Why don’t you get a bajo [sexto] and I’ll get an accordion? Let’s do some conjunto music,” said Meyers. The rest is history.

The first song they recorded, in 1965, is an irresistible Tex-Mex classic that even Dylan performed live on more than one occasion.

“We were playing at the Blue Note in SA,” remembers Meyers. “There was a very sexy dancer on the floor, and I said, ‘She’s a body mover.’ So he wrote a song called ‘She’s a Body Mover,’ but the record label would have none of it because they said it sounded nasty. So we changed it to ‘She’s About a Mover.’”

In addition to his work with the SDQ, which never officially disbanded, Sahm launched his solo career in 1973 with Doug Sahm and Band, which featured friends Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Flaco Jiménez, and others.

Then Warner Brothers asked Sahm to form a Texan super group. Doug picked Freddy Fender, and Augie picked Flaco.

“Soy de San Luis,” included in the Tornados’ self-titled 1990 debut, won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance, and the band would go on to record five superb albums while touring extensively.

At the peak of his talent, Sahm, 58, died on November 18, 1999, of a heart attack in a motel room in Taos, New Mexico.

“It was a total surprise,” said Meyers. “He was healthy, but had high blood pressure and got in a hot tub in the altitude. You don’t get in a hot tub when you have high blood pressure. That’s what killed him.”

“It was a combination of things,” said son Shawn Sham. “I spoke to him the day he left for Taos, and he seemed to have a flu, but said he was all right.”

“We just had to sit back and regroup,” said Meyers. “We didn’t know what we were going to do.”

After years of mixing and planning, the new Texas Tornados album (featuring the two surviving members plus Shawn Sahm) should see the light in early 2010. The album will include one new Doug Sahm track and the last songs recorded by Fender.

“My dad would absolutely freak out in joy,” Shawn Sahm said. “It sounds like what it is: the Tornados at the top of their powers.”

Shawn, who had a close father-son-colleague relationship with his dad, produced the album, and both he and Meyers have dozens of still-unreleased tracks that they plan to release eventually. Until then, Shawn will continue to record and perform his own music with The Tex-Mex Experience.

“When I play with Shawn, I see Doug and I hear Doug,” said Meyers.

“Of course I have my own voice, but I learned everything I know from [Doug],” said Shawn. “We used to write songs together and, on one occasion, he told me, ‘Oh … This sounds similar to a song of mine.’ ‘It all comes from you, dad!’ He would embrace me and say, ‘That’s my boy!’”

“Doug had a heavy frequency and it was in his nerves,” Bob Dylan said in the May 2009 issue of Rolling Stone. “It’s like what [Delta bluesman] Charley Patton says: ‘My God, what solid power.’ I miss Doug. He got caught in the grind. He should still be here.”

“I wish he’d still be here,” Meyers says. “He’s been gone for 10 years, but it doesn’t feel that long.” •

---

Doug we dig

San Antonio Rock: The Harlem Recordings
(1957-1961)

A jewel collection of pre-SDQ and pre-raspy voice.

The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet

The British Invasion, in reverse.

Chuck Berry’s From St.
Louie to Frisco (1968)
(I haven’t heard this one, but I’m dying to hear the tracks produced by Sahm, even though Meyers claims that Berry was “an asshole”)

Doug Sahm and Band

His solo debut, with a little help from friends like Bob Dylan.

The Texas Tornados

Anything. Just get them all.

Louie and the Lovers’ Rise (1970)

A recently re-released Doug Sahm-produced classic Chicano rock album. Look for The Louie and the Lovers Anthology (Bear Family)

Singles: “Mendocino” and “She’s About a Mover” (make sure whatever collection you get has both of these essentials.)

blog comments powered by Disqus

San Antonio Current on Facebook