“Talk to Me” the History of San Antonio’S West Side Sound1 Alex La Rotta
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“Talk to Me” The History of San Antonio’s West Side Sound1 Alex La Rotta 8 The Twisters (background) playing behind the Royal Jesters, ca 1958. Courtesy Ramón Hernández. 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 9 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.2 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.”3 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.”4 Both descriptions of the West Side 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 article 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.5 This article also looks at the impact of the so-called “Chitlin’ in and around San Antonio over several decades following the Circuit” on the development of the West Side Sound. The Second World War. Chitlin’ Circuit was a loosely knit network of black-friendly, Of course, as with any form of cultural expression, and often black-owned, music venues that stretched across the music is highly subjective and open to interpretation and racially segregated South and Southwest during the Jim Crow era. evaluation by a broad audience. The West Side Sound, which The Chitlin’ Circuit was vital to the emergence of the West Side is a continuouslyevolving blend of ethnic, cultural, and social Sound, because it provided an arena in which African-American influences occurring over several decades, is subject to what musicians, club owners, and audiences could share in a constantly historian Benjamin Filene calls the “cult of authenticity.”11 evolving exchange of musical innovations and experiences with This involves an ongoing debate among musicologists and Anglo and Hispanic artists and music fans in San Antonio.6 others over what is “authentic” versus “inauthentic” music. As important as the Chitlin’ Circuit was throughout the Ethnomusicologist Manuel Peña also addresses this issue by entire South, it took on a whole new significance in terms of using the terms “organic” versus “super-organic.” According to mixed-race live music performance in and around San Antonio.7 Peña, organic music is that which arises organically from within Because San Antonio had long been a very ethnically diverse city, a community and is used mainly for non-commercial purposes. with large numbers of Hispanics, African Americans, Germans, Super-organic music, by contrast, is produced primarily for Czechs, and others, it was not as rigidly segregated as most financial profit.12 major southern cities of the early twentieth century. In fact, Although the discussion of “authentic” versus “inauthentic” San Antonio was the first large city in the South to desegregate music and “organic” versus “super-organic” music provides 10 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. its public school system following the Supreme Court’s 1954 useful insight into the complex development of musical culture, Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregation as well as the manipulation and mediation of music, there are in public schools.8 In 1960, it also became the first major limits to this analytical paradigm. First of all, there is almost no southern city to integrate public lunch counters.9 music that can be clearly categorized as either totally organic or The proliferation of military bases in and around the Alamo totally super-organic. Most music contains elements of both, City during World War II, and the desegregation of the U.S. and often music that originated as organic ultimately can be military in 1948, also contributed to the increased social used for commercial purposes. Likewise, music that began as intermingling among those of different racial, ethnic, and super-organic can resonate in a way with its audience so that socioeconomic backgrounds. As Allen Olsen points out, this it becomes a truly meaningful part of the community’s culture allowed for an atmosphere of “intercultural congeniality” in San in an organic way. In a similar vein, the notion of “authentic” Antonio not found in most other cities throughout the South.10 versus “inauthentic” music is highly subjective and is often This intercultural congeniality was especially apparent in certain interpreted in dramatically different ways by different people.13 local nightclubs, where musicians and audiences from different Each veteran West Side Sound musicians offers a somewhat racial and ethnic backgrounds mingled freely. This helped different explanation of what the West Side Sound means to create a unique environment in which artists could blend an him. For example, singer Joe Jama states that his popular 1969 eclectic array of styles into something exciting and unique. The soul ballad, “Phases of Time,” is a signature song of the West saxophone-driven soul and rhythm and blues (R&B) of Clifford Side Sound. “Phases of Time” indeed features many of the Scott and Vernon “Spot” Barnett and the Tex-Mex/rock and universally recognized characteristics of the West Side Sound, roll/country sound of Doug Sahm, Randy Garibay, and others, including a big brass horn section, a Hammond organ, and all represent the complexity of the West Side Sound resulting layered harmonies, in this case provided by the R&B group, the from the cross-pollination of diverse musical influences found Royal Jesters.14 “Talk to Me” The History of San Antonio’s West Side Sound However, the Sir Douglas Quintet’s 1965 Tex-Mex classic, Currently, very little scholarship exists on the West Side “She’s About a Mover,” also represents the unique style of the Sound. There is no book devoted to the topic, and only a West Side Sound. Likewise, the West Side Sound can be heard in handful of articles have been written on this unique musical the Texas Tornados’ 1990 hit, “(Hey Baby) Que Paso?” written hybrid.16 Despite this lack of scholarly attention, the West Side and performed more than two decades after Jama’s “Phases of Sound has had a significant impact on both local and national Time.” As different as these songs are from each other, they all music. This article aims to expand the scholarship on the West share a common thread as byproducts of the unique musical Side Sound by bringing greater recognition to the music itself, environment found in San Antonio over the past half-century. as well as the musicians, and to help explain how the cultural An important goal of this study is to explore the connections and historical elements that gave rise to the West Side Sound are among these seemingly disparate styles stretching over multiple connected to larger social, political, economic, and demographic decades and to better understand how they are part of a changes taking place throughout the Southwest. larger constellation of musical influences found in the unique This study also highlights the role of time, place, identity, historical and cultural environs of South Texas. racial politics, and social mores within the grand narrative of the Emerging over several decades and from different cultural West Side Sound. In large part, this is a story about the mingling influences and generations of musicians, the West Side Sound of diverse ethnic and racial cultures, as reflected through popular is a continuallyevolving style, imbued with a sense of folkloric music in San Antonio, Texas. While some published information roots tradition. Yet, to many music veterans and aficionados, the on this music is available, little is known about the behind-the- heyday of the West Side Sound is long since over—a warm, yet scenes producers, studio owners, and record distributors who The West Side Sound is still defined by its intrinsic relationship to the city 11 of San Antonio. Even today, it continues to thrive as an “oldies” format on San Antonio radio stations.