The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #308

#308: "I Can't Go Back to Austin" (2000) - Doug Sahm

The original cosmic cowboy, Doug Sahm is perhaps the most influential musical artist Texas ever produced. Melding Texas blues, Bob Wills western swing, Tejano accordion and one-step rhythms, traditional country steel guitar and two-step rhythms, a pinch of Cajun spice, a dash of Polka flavor, and a dollop of rock and roll drive, Sahm--more than any other American artist--brought Tejano music (also known as Tex-Mex) to prominence around the nation and some other parts of the world, popularizing (without diluting)the art form for the massess...and for other artists, too.

Sahm directly inspired Sam the Sham & Pharoahs ("Wooly Bully") and ? and the Mysterians ("96 Tears"), whose big hits were not only influenenced by Sahm's sound, but whose path to #1 (on the Billboard single charts) was paved by Sahm's first hit single. Without Sahm, we wouldn't have had prime-career, Red-Headed Stranger era and after Willie Nelson; nor would we have had the wonderful mid-career onward music of Dwight Yoakam; nor would we have had the wonderful mid-'70s country songs from Freddy Fender (whom Sahm brought out of retirement); nor would we have (probably, though this one's possibly a stretch) the full sonic glory from Elvis Costello & the Attractions, who copped their organ style and sound straight from Sahm's bandmate Augie Meyers; nor would we (possibly) have the batsnot crazy but brilliant mid-career records from Roky Erickson (as Sahm helped produce and release Roky's first two songs ("Starry Eyes" and "Red Temple Prayer [Two Headed Dog]") after Erickson was released from a four-year stint in an insane asylum. Suffice to say Sahm's music is important and vital; in fact, Bob Dylan once said his band was one of the three best in the world.

Sahm began his career in San Antonio as a child country-music prodigy, singing along with Hank Williams (Sr.) at one point, performing at the Louisiana Hayride as Little Doug and [his band] the Bandits. Heck, even the Grand Ole Opry offered the nine-year-old boy a permanent spot on their roster to perform on their roster (though Little Doug's mother had to turn them down).

Eventually, his music evolved as Sahm grew older; in the late '50s, he had his first regional hit(actually, it was more a local hit than regional...but still....) with a Tejano-style song, he started playing guitar in black blues clubs in San Antonio, and a few years later, he started adding elements of the music he heard at some of the local Tejano and Cajun bars, till he soon developed his own form of Tejano music. He formed his own racially integrated band (before Sly Stone ever did), and in 1965, (when Sahm was twenty-four), he recorded an album for the Crazy Cajun label. The album's producer Huey Meaux convinced Sahm and his bandmates to grow their hair long (well, Beatles-length), wear matching mod suits, and name themselves the Sir Douglas Quintet, all to capitalize on the British Invasion mania that was sweeping over the pop-rock world.
The Quintet's first album (pictured above) contained the marvelous song "She's About a Mover." The song was a hit (#12 on Billboard's pop chart, and #25 on Billboard's country chart), and Sahm and band toured to support it. Finishing his tour the next year, Sahm returned home, flying in to Corpus Christi, and once he landed, the feds busted him, charging him with possession of marijuana. He was arrested and jailed. He didn't have to stay in jail too long, though (and he got a much better sentence than his buddy Freddy Fender did for the same crime, about the same time, back in Louisiana), and when he was released, he cursed Texas for all it was worth and left the state, swearing he'd never come back.

He set up shop in San Franciso, where his (now) long-haired look (and he'd let it grow longer, too) and chemically-enhanced lifestyle made him fit right in. His music didn't quite jive, though, so he adapted, adding some psychedelica to the mix. A couple of years later, in 1969, he recorded the second biggest hit of his career, "Mendocino" (#27 on the pop chart, though the song's been covered countless numbers of times, much more so than "She's About a Mover"). After '69, he disbanded the Quintet, and he hopped record labels solo, and he played as a session musician every now and then.

Eventually, he grew homesick, and in 1971--five years later--he returned to Texas, where he recorded a couple of country/Tejano albums, including one with guest stars (Bob Dylan, Dr. John, and Tejano accordion legend Flaco Jimenez). He recorded a couple of albums with the reformed Sir Douglas Quintet, had a minor hit with "(Is Anybody Going to) San Antone?" and he acted in a couple of Hollywood joints.

In the '80s, in one of the oddest tangential career moves I've ever heard of (the success of which is the truly odd part), Sahm and Quintet organist Augie Meyers decided they needed money, so they signed a record deal with a company in Sweden (!), released a platinum-selling single ("Meet Me in Stockholm" in '83, one of the best-selling singles the country's ever had), toured the country (fighting back the panty-throwing women from the edges of the stage) and Europe as well, raking in the dollars.

In 1990, inspired by the success of the Traveling Wilburys, Sahm formed his own supergroup, this one with a Tex-Mex flavor. Sahm enlisted Augie Meyers, Flaco Jiminez, and Freddy Fender into the Texas Tornados. The Tornados recorded their debut in both English and Spanish, and won a Grammy for their song "Soy de San Luis." They recorded four albums over the next six years (all-in-all including some of the best songs of Sahm's career), going on hiatus sporadically

so that the individual members could record (or rest) on their own.

In '94, Sahm received his second Grammy (first solo) for his album The Last Great Texas Blues Band, featuring Sahm's own blend of big-band blues. He recorded his last solo album in 1999, finishing it just in time to travel to New Mexico and die of a heart attack, alone, in a motel room. The album, The Return of Wayne Douglas, released the following year, features Sahm singing (again, his style of) Texas country and western music, much of it (five songs) a paean to (Sahm's romantic image of) Texas itself. The album is solid and satisfying, but the song "I Can't Go Back to Austin Anymore" remains a bittersweet two-step, the music sumptuous and lively and lazy, the singing ever-so-slightly forlorn, and the effect is tragic. Doug Sahm loved his home state, loved it for its great expanse, and he hated it for its close-mindedness. He adored Texas for its cultural diversity, and he despised it for its casual racism. Here was a man who once--okay, more than once--swore never to go back to Texas, and yet felt homesick when he left. Here was a man who returned home, was later greatly applauded and appreciated by his fellow Texans, yet recorded a song entitled "I Can't Go Back to Austin Anymore," flew away to New Mexico, and died, never being able to return home one last time.

Doug Sahm can't go back to Austin anymore now, no; yet, as evidenced by his music, he never truly left.