David Barsanti, aka Spinifex of KSFR's The Twisted Groove just informed me of an upcoming show that's bound to be one of the finest Santa Fe shows of the year.
The Budos Band is coming to Corazon on Thursday August 19th.
Budos is a 13-piece group from New York that plays right along the border of American soul and African pop. They're on Daptone Records, so that right there tells you they're going to be good.
Spinifiex his bad self will be DJing before and after The Budos Band that night.
And speaking of soul, start preparing your mind for the great Barrence Whitfield, who's coming to the Santa Fe Brewing Company Pub & Grill on Friday, Sept. 17. You'll hear more rants from me about that one in the weeks to come.
I had a fascinating phone conversation this afternoon with Rick Stone, a friendly guy from El Paso who in the mid '60s was the road manager for The Bobby Fuller 4.
Rick had contacted Kyla Fairchild of No Depression, where I'd cross-posted my recent column on the new Norton Records Bobby Fuller reissueEl Paso Rock, Early Recordings Volume 3. I wanted to find out what those might be and clear them up.
First a little background on Rick.
In July 1966 he'd just finished what sounds like a hellish tour with the Bobby Fuller 4. They toured in a hot and crowded truck and, as might be expected, tempers were short and tensions were high.
Bobby and his brother Randy, the band's bassist had gotten into a fistfight at a San Francisco Club called the Chinese Dragon. (Stone stressed it wasn't a serious fight, but something typical for young brothers.)
Bobby had decided to break up the band, Stone said. Guitarist Jim Reese had just received his draft notice. Drummer Dalton Powell was missing his wife and new baby back in El Paso. Bobby was happy about his decision, Stone said. Now he was hoping to get out from under the thumb of Bob Keene and Del-Fi Records, Stone said. "He really wanted to get away from Bob Keene."
As he's told other journalists, Stone was one of the first of Fuller's friends to arrive on the scene after Fuller's mother found Bobby's body in her car. In fact, he's told Spin magazine and others that he had crashed the night before on the couch of Bobby's apartment, just a couple of blocks from Grauman's Chinese Theatre where Bobby's mother Lorraine also was staying.
Stone said when he woke up the morning of July 18, 1966, Lorraine Fuller told him saying that Bobby hadn't come that night. At this point Stone wasn't worried. "Bobby liked women," he said.
In the Spin article, Stone said he'd thought he'd heard Fuller leaving the apartment about 2:30 a.m.
Stone told me went down to the parking lot and didn't see the silver blue Oldsmobile Bobby had been driving.
Stone said he later attended a scheduled meeting at Del-Fi Records. Other members of the band showed up, but not Bobby. On his way back to the Fuller apartment, Stone said he had a horrible feeling. Soon police cars started to pass him. Stone said deep down he knew that something terrible had happened.
The Oldsmobile was there in a lot next to Fuller's apartment building -- not on the street, as I had written.
Bobby was inside, his head in the seat facing the back, Stone said. His face was swollen and distorted from the heat and the gasoline fumes that permeated the car. "About half of his face was black and blue," Stone recalled. The rest was reddish purple.
In Fuller's right hand was a hose, which Stone said looked as if someone had placed it there. Nearby was a gas can.
Stone denied the statement in Del-Fi Records press release I quoted that the gas can "was removed by a policeman (who apparently didn’t consider it vital to the investigation) and thrown into a nearby dumpster." He also said the gas can was on the front floor board, not in the back of the car.
Stone told me something I hadn't heard before. He said the officer there put the can in the car's trunk. But later Fuller's family and friends found not one but two gas cans in the trunk, he said. Neither were empty.
Contrary to what was said in the Del-Fi press release, Stone said he doesn't remember any dried blood on Fuller's face, which he said was too discolored to immediately tell if there was any blood.
But, Stone said, the shoes Fuller was wearing -- which were his mother's house slippers -- had marks as if someone had dragged his body.
As I said in my initial column, all these details are tantalizing, but if Bobby Fuller really was murdered as his friends and family believe, it's unlikely the killer ever will be caught.
So let's remember Bobby Fuller for his music.
UPDATE:
I forgot to mention that Rick pointed out to me that Bobby Fuller's body was found about 250 feet away from the apartment where Janis Joplin would die four years later.
Fuller was found in a then vacant lot next to his apartment at 1776 N Sycamore Ave. in Hollywood. Joplin's apartment was at 7047 Franklin Ave.
The two singers didn't know each other, Stone said. But he pointed out that they were born about four months apart in southeast Texas and both left Texas the same year to move to California the same year.
There's a part on the corner of Franklin and Sycamore. Stone says there's no marker indicating that two famous rockers died in the area. Seems there ought to be.
Sunday, July 18, 2010 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres CIA Man by The Fugs Video Violence by Lou Reed Live Like A Dog by The Kill Spectors The Molasses by The Scrams Haitian Voodoo Baby by The X-Rays Licking the Frog by Manby's Head What's Wrong With You? by The Lyres Girl Gunslinger by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Garbage Head by Roscoe's Gang You Got the Love by The Cynics What A Way To Die by Nikki Corvette & The Hell On Heels Almost a God by Movie Star Junkies Nervous by Willie Dixon And Memphis Slim Sock it to Me by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels Don't Tease Me by ? & The Mysterians There But For The Grace of God Go I by The Gories Hot Aftershave Bop by The Fall Bang Your Thing at the Ball by Bob Log III
Good Time Kids by Xoe Fitzgerald Demon Stomp by The Things The Spy Who Couldn't Get Any Action by The Ray Corvair Trio Big Blond Baby by King Salami & the Cumberland 3 Kill the Messenger by The Bellrays They Call Me Big Mama by Big Mama Thornton Jolie's Nightmare by Chuck E. Weiss My Mammy by Al Jolson
Ride In My 322 by Spyder Turner The Bitch Done Quit Me by King Ivory Toug Frog to Swallow by Little Freddie King Roll That Woman by Paul "Wine" Jones Lennox Avenue Boogie by Poison Gardner & His All-Stars Ruby's Arms by Tom Waits CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos Billy the Kid by Ry Cooder Billy the Kid by John Hartford Ice Water by Glenn Barber 'Cause I'm Crazy by Kell Robertson
KELL ROBERTSON Interview
Naked Girls by Stephen W. Terrell Maria Elena by Kell Robertson Kell Live My Baby Ate Every Taco in Town I'll Walk Around Heaven With You Mary Lou (Good Time Gal)
Uh-Huh-Honey by Autry Inman You Don't Have To Do It by Reverend Beat-Man & The Un-Believers It Ain't Nobody's Biz'ness What I Do by The Hoosier Hot Shots Hog-Tied Over You by Tennessee Ernie Ford & Ella May Morse Little Dog Blues by Mel Price Oil Tanker Train by Merle Haggard Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand by Waylon Jennings Oak Tree Hangin' by Gary Gorence
Lackie's Men by Delaney Davidson John Hardy by The Sixtyniners Xoe's Favorite Honkey Tonk by Xoe Fitzgerald Moonshiner's Life by Hank III Bring 'em Home by Tao Seeger Weary Blues From Waitin' by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Red Velvet by The Kirby Sisters CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
The Godfather of New Mexico music and his son Al Hurricane, Jr., will perform 7:30 pm, Saturday, August 7 Santa Fe Community Convention Center at a benefit dance for the Santa Fe Fiesta Council. Al the Elder released his first album in 1967. Hurricane has released 29 more albums with his latest in 2007.
CLICK HERE and scroll down to find my 1998 profile of Al, Sr.
Tickets are $15 per person or $25 per couple and can be purchased at the Lensic Peforming Arts Box Offfice, by phone at (505) 988-1234 or online.
