DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Augie Meyers, who helped shape the sound of Tex-Mex music with the '60s band Sir Douglas Quintet and then with the Texas Tornados, died earlier this month. He played keyboards, organ and accordion. His signature sound came from using the Vox organ, a smaller, reedier-sounding instrument than the richer-sounding Hammond B-3 organ used by more bands. The Vox organ came from England, and at one point, The Beatles approached Meyers to ask how he got his distinctive sound out of the instrument.
Author and historian Joe Nick Patoski described Augie Meyers and his Vox organ as the element in Tex-Mex music that gives it the bounce, the appeal that made Tex-Mex more than a regional sound. Meyers' bandmate in the Sir Douglas Quintet was guitar prodigy and singer Doug Sahm, a childhood friend. The group formed during the British invasion, and the band name was chosen to sound British. Their biggest hits were "She's About A Mover" and "Mendocino." The group broke up in 1972.
In 1989, Meyers and Sahm came together again to form the Grammy Award-winning band the Texas Tornados with country and Tejano star Freddy Fender and accordion aficionado Flaco Jimenez. Their hits include "(Hey Baby) Que Paso?" "Soy De San Luis" and "Who Were You Thinkin' Of." Augie Meyers was also a sideman on albums by Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Raul Malo and Bob Dylan. Terry Gross spoke with Augie Meyers in 1990. They began with the Texas Tornados song "Who Were You Thinkin' Of."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHO WERE YOU THINKIN' OF")
TEXAS TORNADOS: (Singing) Who were you thinking of when we were making love last night? Was it a good-looking stranger or a close friend of mine? You didn't want to quit when we was into it last night. Who were you thinking of when we were loving last night? Who were you thinking of when I was making love to you? There was a smile on your face I ain't seen in some time. You got more out of it than I put into it last night. Who were you thinking of when we were loving last night? Oh, squeeze it, baby. Who were you thinking of…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
TERRY GROSS: My guest, Augie Meyers, featured on both accordion and organ on that recording. You overdubbing on that?
AUGIE MEYERS: Yes.
GROSS: Yeah, I guess you'd have to (laughter). You really used organ as a rhythm instrument. I was wondering how you started playing organ that way.
MEYERS: My main instrument, I guess, years ago was piano. And that was the first Vox organ that was ever in America. I bought in sixty - 1962. And I didn't like the way it sounded trying to play solos on it. So I just started playing rhythm on it, just used it as a rhythm instrument.
GROSS: I think a lot of people picked up on that (laughter). Did you have anybody to pick up on? I mean, did - had you heard organ played that way before?
MEYERS: No, nowhere. I listened to - I guess my piano players way back then was Moon Mullican and then Ray Charles. A lot of people don't know Ray Charles played with Guitar Slim. He was called R.C. Richardson (ph) way back then. And he mostly played a lot of shuffle stuff, and it was mostly rhythm. Piano was mainly used as a rhythm instrument way back in the blues era. And that's what I mainly play, is rhythm.
GROSS: Now, you play Vox and Hammond B-3 on the new record.
MEYERS: Right.
GROSS: What's the difference between the two and what you can get out of it?
MEYERS: Oh, a lot. I mean, no, a Hammond B-3 is - you know, it's like a milkshake, you know, with whipped cream and ice cream. And a Vox organ is just a glass of water but a good glass of water. So there's a lot of difference between that. I mean, you got more sounds out of the Hammond organ for rhythm and blues and jazz and stuff, where Vox was mainly used for a lot of the English stuff.
GROSS: This is one of those little organs that kind of stand up?
MEYERS: Right.
GROSS: Yeah, a little, small keyboard.
MEYERS: Right.
GROSS: So you were the first person in the States to have a Vox organ?
MEYERS: Right.
GROSS: How did you become the first person to do that?
MEYERS: Well, I used to prescribe to a lot of English magazines back in the early '60s just to check up and see what's going on. And I remember it was $285. And a man - God bless him, he's gone now - but he owned a music store in San Antonio, named Mr. Woods (ph). He helped me get it. It was $285. Then after The Beatles and The Stones and The Dave Clark Five and everybody came out, they ran up to, like, 1,500 bucks. I still have my original one. I've got four of them. And if anybody out there that's got one want to sell it, please let me know. I'd like to buy them all.
GROSS: Oh, really (laughter)? So did this make you in demand, having this new sound and new instrument?
MEYERS: For a fact, yes, it did. And I remember when me and Doug first went to England in the '60s, George Harrison and Lennon, John Lennon, called the hotel and wanted me to come to the studio because they wanted to see how. They had a Vox organ. But they couldn't get the sound that I had out of mine as - they couldn't get their sound out of theirs. But it was only due to the amplification. They didn't have reverb in their amplifiers back then. The reverb was a new thing that came out.
GROSS: Now, I know you had polio as a child.
MEYERS: Yeah. I tell them, from when I was 2 years old till I was almost 10. I had polio. I couldn't walk.
GROSS: So you didn't start walking until you were around 10?
MEYERS: Till I was about 10. So I lived with my grandparents. And when they used to go out in the field every day and pick cotton, they took me over to this Black lady's house. And her husband picked cotton for my grandfolks. And they had a piano. And he played in their church, in the Black church. But they used to set me up on a piano just to pacify my time away all day. And that's what I did because there was no TV back then. They didn't have radio or electricity in the house.
GROSS: Were your hands and fingers strong enough to play?
MEYERS: Well, my right one was. My left one was a little affected by the polio. But my grandfather, I owe it all to him. He made me walk again, plus the good Lord, you know? But my grandfather, he did his home remedies on me.
GROSS: So do you think learning to play when one hand was still weak affected the way you ended up playing, you know, the style that you ended up having?
MEYERS: Well, I think so because I do a lot of rhythm on my right hand. And my left hand just kind of hits, you know, the dominant chord on there. I still have problems. I do therapy. I play. That's why I bought my accordion, for therapy and for my hands and my fingers. And I learned to play guitar that way, too.
GROSS: Did you get full strength back in your hands?
MEYERS: Well, I'll put it this way. I appreciate what I got. If I got - if I had any more, I don't know what I'd do with it.
GROSS: How did you meet Doug Sahm, who you played with for many years and are still playing with on the Texas Tornados record?
MEYERS: Well, his folks traded in my mother's grocery store. And he used to come there and buy all his baseball cards. And I was a sack boy, and that was it. That was in - we were - I guess we were 14, 15 years old.
GROSS: One of the, like, great rock 'n' roll stories was how, when you were produced by Huey Meaux, how he wanted to pass you off as a British invasion group.
MEYERS: Who (laughter)?
GROSS: Yeah. Do you feel that way also?
MEYERS: No, no.
GROSS: Are you into The Who also?
MEYERS: No, no, no, no, no. Freddy just looked at me and said who, I just said who.
GROSS: OK.
MEYERS: No. But, yeah, Huey wanted to pass. But, I mean, it was really hard because there were two gringos and three Mexicans in a band, you know? And trying to get these Spanish dudes to sit there and try to, you know, (imitating English accent) I'd like a spot of tea, you know, and try to talk to English, when they'd sit there and say, (imitating Mexican accent) Hey, vato, man, what time is it, man? Let's go get a beer, you know?
GROSS: (Laughter).
MEYERS: And that was their kind of accent, you know? So trying to be English, it pulled it off till Trini Lopez on - I think it was "Hullabaloo" said, man, they're from Texas, you know?
GROSS: Well, what is your ethnic group? What's your ethnic background?
MEYERS: Gemini.
GROSS: (Laughter).
FREDDY FENDER: So am I.
MEYERS: Freddy a Gemini, too. No, what do you mean my ethnic background? Yeah.
GROSS: Well, I'm thinking, you know, you're, you know, a gringo playing a lot of, you know, Tex-Mex, Mexican-inspired music. So, no, I wasn't sure what your ethnic background is.
MEYERS: I'm German and Polish.
GROSS: German and Polish. OK.
MEYERS: Yes.
GROSS: So you probably heard the music of a lot of different ethnic groups growing up in Texas.
MEYERS: Oh, yes. Well, back - I mean, actually, back - I guess Freddy can say, when we were growing up in Texas, there was either country music or Spanish music. I mean, there was no - you know, then all of a sudden, MOR came in, which was Little Richard and Elvis Presley, you know? So we kind of combined all three of them.
GROSS: Well, you know, why don't I play something that's kind of half Spanish (laughter)? This is a song that you wrote called "(Hey Baby) Que Paso?" Do you want to say anything about the song and about...
MEYERS: Well, I mean, I wanted to write something that was, you know - at one point, nobody would play my records back home because I either had - the country station wouldn't play it. It had horns on it. The rock station wouldn't play because I had a fiddle or steel. The Spanish stations wouldn't play it because there was no Spanish in it. So I just did "Que Paso," you know, to half English, half Spanish, put a little accordion in it. Actually, I wrote that song about one of my girlfriends running off with my best friends.
GROSS: OK.
MEYERS: I miss him, too, because we used to go out and shoot pool and drink beer.
GROSS: Well, this is the version of it from the new Texas Tornados record. And it features Augie Meyers on vocals, accordion and organ. Freddy Fender is on electric guitar. And here we go.
MEYERS: You can hear him yelling in the background, too.
GROSS: OK.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "(HEY BABY) QUE PASO?")
TEXAS TORNADOS: (Singing) Hey, baby, ¿qué pasó? ¿No que yo era tu vato? Hey, baby, ¿qué pasó? No me dejes de ese modo. Come on, baby, ven acá. Quiero ver tu cara linda. ¿Qué no ves que te quiero? No me dejes de ese modo. Hey, baby, ¿qué pasó? ¿Por qué me tiras a loco? Hey, baby, ¿qué pasó? No me dejes de ese modo.
DAVIES: That's Augie Meyers on organ, accordion and vocals with the Texas Tornados. Meyers spoke with Terry Gross in 1990. He died March 7 at the age of 85. This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
