The Story of San Antonio's West Side Sound Thesis
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“TALK TO ME”: THE STORY OF SAN ANTONIO’S WEST SIDE SOUND THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of ARTS by Alex La Rotta, B.A. San Marcos, Texas August 2013 “TALK TO ME”: THE STORY OF SAN ANTONIO’S WEST SIDE SOUND Committee Members Approved: Gary Hartman, Chair Jason Mellard Paul Hart Approved: J. Michael Willoughby Dean of the Graduate College COPYRIGHT by Alex La Rotta 2013 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Alex La Rotta, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. DEDICATION To Gaga & Pacho ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The professors in the Department of History at Texas State University-San Marcos are among the world’s top-tier educators, and I am truly privileged to have studied under their tutelage. I am grateful for my friends, colleagues, and professors in the Department who have guided and constructively criticized my scholarship with such intellectual vigor and who have, above all, taught me so much in what now seems such little time. I want to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Gary Hartman, thesis chair and mentor, who steered my academic interest in Texas music with a special care and learned wisdom that only the greatest scholars possess. I am especially grateful for his seemingly endless supply of patience, guidance, and editorial acumen in the making of this thesis. None of this is possible without him. I also owe Dr. Jason Mellard my gratitude for his shaping and guiding of my varied interests in popular music scholarship, as both a member of this thesis committee and professor. Dr. Paul Hart’s honest critiques, humor, and counsel kept me steadily sharp in the pursuit of my master’s degree in more ways than many. I also owe Department chair Dr. Mary Brennan, Dr. James McWilliams, and Dr. Anadelia Romo my everlasting appreciation for their informed direction and moral support. I am indebted to the excellent music vi archivists and staff at Texas State University’s Wittliff Collections, the University of Texas at Austin’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, and the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Cultures for their expertise and assistance. A very special ‘thank you’ goes out to Allen Olsen, whose unpublished manuscript, “Overlooked Americana: San Antonio’s West Side Sound,” was vital to this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank all of the musicians, deejays, producers, record collectors, archivists, local historians, journalists, and the many friends in music I have made in the great city of San Antonio, Texas, to which this study is devoted. My thanks to Ramón Hernández—and his essential Hispanic Entertainment Archives—for his reliable counsel and willingness to humor my seemingly endless queries on the West Side Sound, and for his all-around good nature. He is truly indispensable to San Antonio’s musical memory. Lastly, I am thankful for my family, who are the cornerstone of my constitution. My mother, Alegria, and my father, Felipe, have always encouraged my intellectual interests and varied pursuits in life. For that, and so much more, I am eternally grateful for everything they have provided me. My brother, sister-in-law, sister, and nephew are my rock and have kept me grounded throughout my graduate career. Finally, importantly, I would like to thank my fiancé, D’Arcy Kerschen—best friend, soul mate, recurrent proofreader. Without her patience, support, love, and unfaltering belief in me as a scholar and writer on a daily basis, none of this would be possible. Thank you, all. This manuscript was submitted on May 22nd, 2013. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1 II. THE EARLY YEARS OF THE WEST SIDE SOUND, 1944-1954.....................11 III. THE GOLDEN YEARS OF THE WEST SIDE SOUND, 1955-1969.................35 IV. “THE WEST SIDE SOUND ROLLS AGAIN”: 1970-1999................................62 V. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................87 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................92 viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Contrary to its name, the “West Side Sound” did not actually originate on the West Side of San Antonio. Nor, for that matter, is it a singular “sound” that can be easily defined or categorized. In fact, the term “West Side Sound” was not widely used until San Antonio musician Doug Sahm applied it to his band, the West Side Horns, on his 1983 album, The West Side Sound Rolls Again. Since then, journalists, music fans, and even Sahm himself have retrofitted the term to describe a particular style that emerged from San Antonio and the greater South Texas region beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the early twenty-first century. So what, then, is the West Side Sound? To quote historian Allen Olsen, the West Side Sound is “a remarkable amalgamation of different ethnic musical influences found in and around San Antonio and South-Central Texas. It includes blues, conjunto, country, rhythm and blues, polka, swamp pop, rock and roll, and other seemingly disparate styles.”1 To others, the West Side Sound is more of a feeling than a specific musical genre. In the words of Texas Tornados drummer Ernie Durawa, “it’s just that San Antonio thing…nowhere else in the world has it.”2 Both descriptions of the West Side 1 Allen Olsen, “San Antonio’s West Side Sound,” Journal of Texas Music History 5, no. 1, Spring 2005, 27. 2 Ernie Durawa, interview by the author, Austin, TX, February 3, 2013. 1 2 Sound are accurate, but they really only tell part of the story of this remarkable musical hybrid. In order to fully understand the origins, evolution, and long-term impact of the West Side Sound, it is necessary to examine the social, cultural, and historical roots of this phenomenon, as well as the ways in which it helped redefine the larger musical landscape of the American Southwest and the entire nation. In an effort to provide a more complete understanding of this uniquely Texan musical idiom, this thesis examines the history of the West Side Sound throughout three distinct periods: its origins, its “golden years,” and its long-term impact on mainstream popular music. In addition to analyzing the origins and evolution of the West Side Sound, this study examines other related genres, such as Chicano Soul of the 1960s and Texas-Mexican music (or música tejana) of the 1970s, and how they influenced the West Side Sound.3 This thesis also looks at the impact of the so-called “Chitlin’ Circuit” on the development of the West Side Sound. The Chitlin’ Circuit was a loosely-knit network of black-friendly, and often black-owned, music venues that stretched across the racially- segregated South and Southwest during the Jim Crow era. The Chitlin’ Circuit was vital to the emergence of the West Side Sound, because it provided an arena in which African- American musicians, club owners, and audiences could share in a constantly evolving exchange of musical innovations and experiences with Anglo and Hispanic artists and music fans in San Antonio.4 3 Perhaps the best source for additional information on Chicano Soul is Ruben Molina’s Chicano Soul: Recordings and History of an American Culture (Los Angeles: Mictlan Publishing, 2007); The most comprehensive examination of Texas-Mexican music, or Música Tejana, is Manuel Peña’s Música Tejana: The Cultural Economy of Artistic Transformation (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999). 4 For more on the Chitlin’ Circuit, see Alan Govenar, Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound, (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008). 3 As important as the “Chitlin’ Circuit” was throughout the entire South, it took on a whole new significance in terms of mixed-race live music performance in and around San Antonio.5 Because San Antonio had long been a very ethnically diverse city, with large numbers of Hispanics, African Americans, Germans, Czechs, and others, it was not as rigidly segregated as most major southern cities of the early twentieth century. In fact, San Antonio was the first large city in the South to desegregate its public school system following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregation in public schools.6 In 1960, it also became the first major southern city to integrate public lunch counters.7 The proliferation of military bases in and around the Alamo City during World War II, and the desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948, also contributed to the increased social intermingling among those of different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. As Allen Olsen points out, this allowed for an atmosphere of “intercultural congeniality” in San Antonio not found in most other cities throughout the South.8 This intercultural congeniality was especially apparent in certain local nightclubs, where musicians and audiences from different racial and ethnic backgrounds mingled rather freely. This helped create a unique environment in which artists could blend an eclectic array of styles into something exciting and unique. The saxophone-driven soul and 5 Preston Lauterbach, The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n Roll (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2011), 18. 6 “San Antonio: A City Already Desegregated,” St.