Downhill on the Flats
Curtis
“I’ve never seen another horizon like I witnessed in Lubbock as a kid. It just . . . it went on forever . . . you know. Unbroken just ‘Woo’ . . . there it was.
“And at night uh . . . you could lay . . . when I was a kid you could lay on the ground, and you could see the Milky Way just as clear as the bell. And you could see the . . . the uh . . . there was enough light from the stars that you could . . . it would cast shadows
“And that was with no moon.”
Tall City
Run down black top
Click the headlights off
Watchin’ Tall City rise
Too fast chickens
Up against the law
Some crazy kids out for a drive
Come from the Sandhills
Weeknight cruise
Burnin’ up a tank of gas
Flipped out wasters
Ridin’ bulletproof
Think they gonna make it last
Sho ’nough make it last
Ready set let’s go
Revin’ up my engine, yeah
Hey, Tall City
New blood
Come to rock your soul
PART III
DOWNHILL ON THE FLATS
1966
It’s my first time. First time to ride in a VW Bus with a sunroof.
Overhead western sky is filled with stars. Every direction they throw sparkle across the sand. And every mileJack . . . Jackrabbit and The Hoodlums take another swig.
That’s my new band, you know. I’m hangin’ with the ‘Big Boys.’ Playing in a Rock-and-Roll band.
Tall City
Roll up the sidewalk
Sleepy town in by seven
Sneak out of the house
Things get goin’ ‘round eleven
Great big empty gonna fill you up
Stretch out cross the flats
Tall City just a sittin’ duck
Take you down where it’s at
Shake you down where it’s at
It’s also my first time on the road without Mom or Shuletta at the wheel. Out here ‘tween sandhills and Tall City, Texas, scenery is akin to that stretch along Jacksboro Highway where we used to go. Two-lane blacktop across High Plains.
Could be a drag. Except tonight, I’m running with Jackrabbit and the Hoodlums. Almost grown . . . sixteen . . . electrified. Got me a rocket guitar, strumming on the back bench after my first paying gig.
Jack and the Beanstalk
One morning Jack got up
And left the house around nine
He found a beanstalk
And he started to climb
Up, up, up to the top of the sky
He saw a giant out to tan his hide
And he said, “Fee (Fee)-Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be Ye live or be Ye dead
I’ll grind his bones
To make my bread”
Kimber
“Doggone you had that guitar in your hand all the time. And all we wanted to do was watch Batman. And you’d sit there and play that guitar. And we’d yell, ‘Shut up!’
“And . . . and you’d say, ‘Okay, Okay . . . just during commercials.’
Curtis
“I started on drums and uh . . . I had a kit and the band I was in was really weird. Uh . . . it was a couple of eighteen-year-old guys and me. And I was like twelve.”
Jack and the Beanstalk
“I’ll grind his bones
To make my bread”
Headwinds
Jackrabbit and the Hoodlums. Can’t do better than that. Me, a sophomore playing lead guitar with the seniors . . . all shaggy hair, smokin’ and drinkin’ beer.
Good thing Mom and Shuletta stayed home.
Guys in the band all revved up.
Talkin’ how we knocked ‘em dead. Last song Jackrabbit come rollin’ a wheelchair into the crowd doin’ wheelies across the gym floor. Kids goin’ crazy. Principal pulls the plug.
Now, burning rubber. Buckin’ a headwind of dust. Jackrabbit hollers, “Kamakazi!”
Crazy fools. Hoodlums got two cars . . . Station Wagon and VW Bus. Ninety to nothing they pull side by side. Roaring down two-lane blacktop Jackrabbit and the Hoodlums click the headlights off.
Welcome to Rock and Roll.
Jack and the Beanstalk
“Fee -Fi-Fi
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman”
Rick
“So, I started messin’ round with kids that were kinda cuttin’ up and actin’ up you know. Go smoke of something and . . .
“Then start . . . really quit . . . wouldn’t go to school sometimes. I’d just leave. Go to a movie. But mostly I’d go up to the pool hall . . . ‘Pete’s.’ And uh . . . go up there and . . . So, we just started a thing of rebellion.
“And I almost didn’t graduate . . . you know in time . . .”
Kimber
“And you came down with your . . . by yourself. No, later with your Mom . . .
“You came and lived with us for a bit because your hair was too long to go to High School up in Lubbock. But I guess were we a little more liberal in Midland. And they’d let you go with your hair touching your ears.”
Not a high school in Hub City that’ll have me. I’ve been expelled. Authorities don’t agree with electric guitar and what comes with long hair. So, find myself in Tall City.
All that keeps me going is when I pick guitar my fingers know exactly where to go.
Gonna Start Rockin’ and Rollin’
Back in nineteen sixty-five
All that I wanted was to drive
My brother’s Super Sport Chevrolet
Then one day in school assembly
I had something new get in me
When I heard a rock and roll band play
I come home wantin’ a guitar
Papa all you said was, “What for?”
And I tried to make you understand
Now I’m writing you this letter
Thinking that it’s time you’d better
Listen up for once and hear my plan
‘Cause I’m gonna start rockin’ and rollin’
Papa now you’ve had your say
Yes, I’m gonna start rockin’ and rollin’
Just tell Mom to look the other way
Lewis
“You were the first Wonder Boy.
“And uh . . . everywhere I go there was a guy that was uh . . . uh young and a real good guitar player and you had sin.
“And so, you were like that little guy.”
Starlight
For miles either side of the road sand dunes drift in waves under their glow.
Me, I’m watchin’ the dash of white lines. They rise and fall . . . roll under our wheels. Brings back memories of watchin’ Uncle Sib fix TVs back in Shreveport.
He works on TVs and radios . . . you know. But more than that Uncle Sib is the family musician. And I’m thinkin’ right now, some of it must have rubbed off.
Ann and Jan
“Umm . . . big ears . . .”
“Have you ever noticed as men grow . . . grow older the bigger their ears get.
“Yeah. Yeah. And Grandad . . .”
“I had never noticed that until I . . . “
“And Grandad started off with big ones and everything. The word Dumbo sprang to mind.
“I mean they were big . . . “
Bill Cheatham
(Instrumental)
Country Folk
Big Ears
The ‘50s
Uncle Sib looks like a southern gentleman, Sherlock Holmes.
Wears a bow tie and smokes a Calabash pipe. And this visit, like every visit he’s draggin’ a violin bow ‘cross a handsaw.
Kimber
“Ooo . . . my grandfather . . . Paw Paw . . . Sib. He was quite a musician and just you know . . . kind of like you he could just play just about anything. And he played the mandolin and played the violin but I . . . the favorite . . . our favorite thing he played was the saw.”
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
(Instrumental)
Me, I keep lookin’ at his ears.
They’re not all that big even if Aunt Florence says so. Shuletta tells me it’s not size that counts anyway. Having big ears means he knows how to listen. Got to have ‘em if you want to play good.
Robert Alan and Charlotte
“That saw musta had a lot of tunes in it.”
“It had a lot of tunes and he’d . . . he’d you know . . . he and I would go play programs at the Lions Club and stuff and . . .
“There’s no sound. Have you ever . . . have you played the saw?
“He would play all those tunes.”
“Oh, I remember him . . .”
Kimber
“And it was just an old saw . . . just an old carpenter’s saw. And then he had a violin bow. And he would put that thing across his knee. And bend it back. And make the sweetest sounds with that saw.
“And he would bring that out and . . . all wrapped up in a sheet. And he would . . . he would uh . . . come bring that saw, unwrap it and we’d all gather around. And my Paw Paw would play hymns on that uh . . . on that old saw.
“That’s pretty sweet. He was a very sweet man.”
Tri-State Wrestling
The Workshop
We have a time.
Every trip to Shreveport we always go see Uncle Sib.
Oscar Sibley is a TV repairman with a workshop in his garage full of TVs, radios, and record players. Takes ‘em apart where you can see the wires and tubes flicker when he tests them out.
Saturday afternoon . . . like always he’s reading The Enquirer and watching, Tri-State Wrestlin.’ But today I’d rather watch a cowboy show so I sneak into the garage.
Little Joe the Wrangler
Ray Reed
Now Little Joe the Wrangler
Will wrangle nevermore
His days with the remuda now are o’er
Was a year ago last April
When he rode up to our herd
A little Texas stray and all alone
Roy
“I think everybody wants their children knowing right from wrong. And that’s what we tried to do. And you don’t see that today sometimes the . . . the Bad Guy is the hero in some of these pictures you know.
“And I think uh . . . it’s uh . . . a portion of entertainment that kids don’t get today. Uh . . . knowing that there is a good side of life and there’s a bad side.
“And being smart enough to pick the right one is uh . . . uh.”
Huck and Tom
I turn the dial to black and white. Got Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn on the tube. They’re playing on an island . . . a sandbar between two rivers. Both fightin’ make believe with wooden swords.
Pants legs rolled up, barefoot . . . Tom’s wearin’ a bandana on his head . . . got a patch on one eye. Chasin’ Huck into the woods, they run past a tree with the letter “M” carved on the trunk. And a sign stuck in the sand that spells out, ‘M-U-R-E-L-S . . . P-I-R-A-T-E-S . . . Murel’s Pirates.’
Marked Tree
There’s a signpost
Called Marked Tree
Between twin sister rivers
One flowin’ up
The other downstream
Where after dark you get the shivers
There, beside a hallow trail
Notched oak casts a Heka Spell
Nearby a demon devil dwells
Sword and pistol at his side
Headless he does ride
Where the Marked Tree
And twin sisters collide
TV’s actin’ up . . . goes haywire.
Horizontal lines are rolling. Screen crackles white noise . . . goes black then comes back on with tubes glowing orange.
Different channel now . . . two men . . . same ones Shuletta and I saw in Kisatchie woods are creeping into a haunted house.
Geoff
“Well, I mean if uh . . . Mark Twain was very active in the uh . . . uh the . . . you know as a riverboat pilot uh . . . and writin’ about his experiences on the Mississippi River.
“And then writin’ ‘Huck Finn’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’ and if . . . as you just said . . . you know if he’s makin’ references to Murrell being on the Mississippi River at that time it was because he was there at that time as well. And uh . . .”
TV flips again. Goin’ crazy.
Tom and Huck are upstairs. They’re readin’ a treasure map. And have found Injun Joe diggin’ up a metal box of gold coins.
Candlelight flickers. Then from shadows two phantoms . . . the frontiersman and that preacher . . . they jump the Injun, stab ‘im in the back and drag Murel’s pirate gold down into a cave.
Marked Tree
Now, there’s a secret
‘Bout Marked Tree
And Twin Sister Rivers
Be a story ever told
With a twist
Bound to make your timbers shiver
Thereafter the event
Waters flowin’ discontent
Twin Sisters had their way
Dust Devil
Twist in Time
Dread is the feeling taking hold.
I know better than to think it’s a dream. Cold, bony fingers reaching from a whirlpool of river mud. They’d drag me down with Murrel’s pirate gold if I let ‘em. It’s the first time . . . first time a visitation . . . you know . . . first time a phantom seems to notice me at all.
Got me in a choke hold. Can’t breathe. I wake up. Blast of sandy wind. Jackrabbit is crawling over me in a big hurry to roll up the window.
Jack and the Beanstalk
He saw the hen
That laid the golden egg
Said come with me man
Yeah, there’s money to be made
He stole the harp
That played a little too loud
And he said,
“Hey (Hey)-You (You)
Get off of my cloud
Sayin,“Fee (Fee)-Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be he live or be he dead
I’ll grind his bones
To make my bread”
Swirling cloud of brown dust covers the windshield. Can hardly see the road.
Crosswinds got our VW tipped on two wheels.
Storms in West Texas come out of nowhere all the time. But that’s no thunderbolt clapping heavy thud and splatter. There’s a pickup full of cowboys alongside heaving full cans of beer at Jackrabbit and the Hoodlums.
Curtis
“We had some bad scenes though in those early bands . . . of uh . . . you know we played some rough gigs. No kiddin.’
“Yeah uh . . . I remember one night we . . . Well actually, I . . . I remember goin’ on uh . . . a job in one of those small towns in West Texas. And we got . . . we were gettin’ something to eat.
“And uh . . . two cowboys came in there . . .”
Me, just sixteen, almost grown . . .
I’m a jumble of second thoughts. Got a book report due Monday. Hadn’t even read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.
Now I’m stuck. Stuck on a two-lane blacktop . . . me, Jackrabbit, and them cowboys casting shadows with no moon.
It’s my first paying gig.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Well now run Jack run Jack
He’s hot on your trail
He’s got a 45
Pointin’ at your tail
Now hurry Jack hurry Jack
Come down to the ground
And chop your axe
And start to swing
And chop that stalk down
And he said, “Fee (Fee)-Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be Ye live or be Ye dead
I’ll grind his bones
To make my bread”
“Fee (Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be Ye live or be Ye dead
I’ll grind his bones
To make my bread”
“Fee (Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be Ye live or be Ye dead
“Fee (Fi (Fi)
Fo-Fo-Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Now be Ye live or be Ye dead”
INTERLUDE
Marked Tree
Lanny Fiel
There’s a signpost
Called Marked Tree
Between Twin Sister Rivers
One flows up
The other downstream
Where after dark you get the shivers
There beside a hollow trail
Notched oak casts a Heka Spell
Nearby a demon devil dwells
Sword and pistol at his side
Headless he does ride
Where the Marked Tree
And Twin Sisters collide
Long before the Gilded Age
The New Madrid Earthquake
Swallowed to shape the Sunken Land
In the midst of the event
The raging tempest overspent
To lose the upper hand
There above sunken hills
With all bravery and skill
Did the Marked Tree
Command Twin Sisters be stilled
Now, where the Marked Tree survived
Demon devil did abide
In a labyrinth of lies
He told the River Twins
Go flood the sunken land again
Take the oak leaves for a prize
They plotted and schemed
How best to proceed
Stealth and deceit they entertained
They’d dry their riverbeds
Playing for dead
Convince the heavens to rain
One hundred years ago
Twin Rivers overflowed
Felled the Marked Tree
Set the mighty oak afloat
Now there’s a secret‘Bout Marked Tree
And Twin Sister Rivers
Be a story ever told
With a twist
Whispered to make your timbers shiver
While thereafter the events
Every year and ever since
Twin Sisters had their way
Until early one spring
With the devil’s head slung in a sling
Came the Marked Tree
In the wind to bend and sway
