September 05, 2004
Fort Worth Teen Scene 1964-67!!
Probably the highlight of my recent trip to New York (other than shopping at Century 21, anyway) was finding out, through the window of a shotgun vinyl shack, that Norton Records has put out a three-volume tribute to what their website (about ¾ of the way down) describes as "One of America's Most Intense Garage Scenes Ever!" Now, those of you who are, like me, actually from Fort Worth, can imagine my surprise. Granted that Fort Worth has a moderately distinguished recent musical track record (having birthed the Toadies and The American Analog Set in the '90s), it's not the place you can nowadays imagine as ever having been one of the most Intense anythings. But the wax does the talking – the Barons, the Jades, the Cynics, and most of the other bands on Volume 2 (the one I picked up) were teenage heathens, monstrosities whose lustful howls and bloody-knuckled shredding must have left their sharp suits in tatters after every show (if their screaming female fans didn't do it first).
But I ask you, why did I have to go to New York to find out about the proud, nationally respected music of my birthplace?
I suppose the Funky Town (Ta Da - irony!) city fathers see their lame "Cowtown" shtick as enough to define the rudiments of a municipal identity – and chances are, they're right, especially given the sizable chunk of the city's economy that's based on the apparently neo-Roper industries of killing and destroying. You wouldn't want to muddle up that sort of straightforward, gung-ho imagery with the suggestion that, wait, the Sixties actually did happen there, too. And maybe reminding the area's legions of desperately alienated teenagers that people used to have fun in the neighborhood would just be asking for trouble.
Okay, no, nothing quite so sinister, sorry. More likely, the guys running F-Dubs now were busy grooving to Sonny and Cher or Jan and Dean in those days, picking lint from their letter jackets and sneering at the shady-looking James Dean wannabes and their "noise." So the idea of latching onto that music's re-emergent cool as a way of burnishing the city's blase image likely doesn't even occur to them. Every town can't be Austin, I know. But it nonetheless depresses me to think about the opportunity that's being missed – I don't imagine the juvenile delinquents in these bands made it very far out of town, and I bet they'd be down to relive what were quite possibly their glory days. But would anyone care? Even given the proximity of Denton and Austin to hoover up, I imagine, the vast majority of dedicated music nerds in the area, there are certainly plenty of fading boomers around whose memories are bad enough that they would have no trouble suspending their disbelief long enough to imagine that this was actually the music of their youth, instead of Annette Funicello and Jim Nabors.
Anyway, not that it'll ever happen, especially since I'm not sure how easy it would be to even buy these records in Fort Worth. Does someone up there want to do some recon for me?
Woah. I'm nearly staggered that F-dub ever had a notable music scene. I knew there have been more than a few stars birthed by the Metroplex (Ornette Coleman and Erykah Badu come to mind), but a *scene*?
Now if the 817 could just get a nightlife.
ACtually if you ever went to waterloo they have a like five copies of thia I first saw this about a year ago and pointed it out to Chris.
Well, not to belabour a point that I haven't got any empirical evidence for anyway, but of course there would be stuff about it in Austin (I admittedly hadn't been getting to Waterloo all that much recently). The question is whether anyone in Fort Worth itself is interested.
Well you asked why you had to go to NYC to find this album. Just pointing out that it was closer than that.
"But it nonetheless depresses me to think about the opportunity that's being missed – I don't imagine the juvenile delinquents in these bands made it very far out of town, and I bet they'd be down to relive what were quite possibly their glory days. But would anyone care? Even given the proximity of Denton and Austin to hoover up, I imagine, the vast majority of dedicated music nerds in the area, there are certainly plenty of fading boomers around whose memories are bad enough that they would have no trouble suspending their disbelief long enough to imagine that this was actually the music of their youth, instead of Annette Funicello and Jim Nabors.
Anyway, not that it'll ever happen, especially since I'm not sure how easy it would be to even buy these records in Fort Worth. Does someone up there want to do some recon for me?"
Just thought you might like to know that there is going to be a "Teen A-Go-Go" reunion in Fort Worth on Oct. 3rd and at least 2 of the bands featured on FORT WORTH TEEN SCENE will be playing; the great Elite and Larry and the Blue Notes. All four original members of the Elite will be playing. John Nitzinger of the Barons and Ed Lively of the Mods (both featured of FWTS) will also be playing.
You asked "does anybody in FW know about this?". Well, a heck of a lot more do now that FWTS is out. Border's books in FW has sold a lot of copies and Norton in NY has sold a lot of copies, so somebody knows about it. In FW, it's mainly people who were in the bands and their families that buy them and also people who were into the bands and the scene back then. Then there are the people that are into garage music or people that just like music that is simple and direct and off the beaten track. Outside of FW, there are garage music enthusiasts and collectors that are buying, I'd imagine. There were an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about Larry Roquemore of Larry and the Blue Notes and the Elite's Roger Brownlee and how FWTS rekindled interest in their respective garagebands and how they both went from their "glory days" of Rolling Stone-wannabees to adjusting to a normal non-musician life afterwards. It was posted on their website for a while, you still might be able to catch it.
In the end, I have to agree though, it's hard to believe that FW ever had a scene that amounted to anything, but the proof is there in FWTS. And most likely it will go un-noticed in FW but appreciated elsewhere, because that's just how Fort Worthians are.
Maybe the reason you had to go to New York to find a copy is there was an article in a very influential fanzine called KICKS in the mid-80's about the FW Teen Scene. KICKS later became NORTON records, who released FWTS.
O.K You may quit speculating about the interest in Fort Worth Teen Scene.Being a resident of FW and having played music in this area all my life, and having been in all of the teen clubs and heard all of these bands when I was a teenager-I pre-ordered the CD's based on an article in Fort Worth Weekly.I actually had to wait several months for them to be available.There have been autograph signings at the local Borders Books etc. etc.
Yes-We knew about it first 'cause we were here when it happened.
Many people speculate as to why or how all of this music came out of our wonderful city.
1.All Texans possess a fierce independence and a pioneer spirit.Often wild and reckless.
2.Fort Worth has always catered to the arts.Always.
3.Unlike our neighbor to the east we aren't a bunch of pretentious tight-asses.
4. The CELLAR CLUB basically set a model that heavily influenced(skewed?) the local scene. And let us not forget Jacksboro Highway....or Panther Hall.We had lots of role models.
5.There were a huge number of Teenaged children in a fairly small city.Mostly due to a concentration of defense industries that attracted their parents as good employment.The entire city ,at that time, was easily accessible.
See you at the concert OCT. 2 or 3 or whenever it is.