THE HOMBRES - Let It Out - (Verve) - 1967, comment, review, Memphis, garage rock.

I've been hanging to play this album since I got it … which wasn't that long ago. It was one I've been looking for for some time but it was always too expensive locally. Luckily I won this copy for under $10 on eBay so "bingo" for me.

The only song I had heard is the single, "Let it All Hang Out", which, I still have on 45. I got that in the 80s but actually only bought it because I loved the version by The Nails on their excellent "Mood Swing" (1984) album .. as an aside I think I reviewed that album for the University of Queensland newspaper, Semper. As a Nails aside please note their roadie in the mid to late 70s when they were called "The Ravers" was Jello Biafra.

Anyway, as much as I liked the Nails cover, the original version which I got on a 45, once heard, blew it away. I knew I would get the album some day but it wasn't high on my list because I had some trepidation. Wny? Because, so many of these "one hit wonder" bands, if they put out an album, only have the one song whilst the rest of the album is made of filler or material not similar to the single.

Background first, allmusic: The Hombres started life as the road band version of Ronny & the Daytonas of "G.T.O." fame ( a studio band whose leader John ‘Bucky’ Wilkin, did not like to tour): guitarist Gary McEwen, organist B. B. Cunningham (brother of Box Tops bassist Bill Cunningham), and bassist John Hunter had all attended Memphis High before they became the touring version of the Daytonas. They spent years playing under that name and doing that repertory, but had greater aspirations. Cunningham and McEwen authored a song called "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)," which seemed like it had some possibilities as a single. It took them the better part of a year to get anyone in the business interested, during which bassist Jerry Lee Masters joined their lineup. Finally, Shelby Singleton brought producer Huey P. Meaux aboard to produce the record, which was issued by Verve Forecast in the summer of 1967. By that time, the group had briefly worked as the Bandits before settling on the name the Hombres.

The Hombres play garage rock …"garage" as I have said before #52, #84: The band were a product of their time. Like many other bands they started out playing garage rock or frat rock in the early to mid 60s. "Garage", as I have said somewhere before, was an American response to the British invasion. It is fair to assume that many garage bands were inspired by the rockier side of the British invasion – The Stones, Kinks and the Who though the truth is also that many of these bands had been "frat rock" bands who incorporated elements of the new British R&B/rock to their sounds, and then – partly because of poor equipment but more so because they wanted to beat the British invasion bands at their own game – they developed a sound that was infinitely more raw and rockier.

The sound was particularly popular amongst white bands in the Midwest and the South ("The Gentrys", "Sam the Sham" and "The Jesters" were all based in Memphis around the same time).

Given The Hombres pedigree, like a lot of bands of their ilk, it was never going to be in doubt as to whether they can play or not (keep reading). Night after night working as a "working band" will make you proficient with your instruments and "tight" as a group. The big question is always going to be about whether there is anything else … namely brains, originality and passion in the mix. All three of these ingredients added to proficiency would be great but any one of those ingredients are good enough. As pretentious as that sounds all I mean to say is once a band reaches a certain level of proficiency they need something to separate them from the pack. Music history is littered with bands who are musicians extraordinaire but don't have an original idea between them. "Monkey see, monkey do" is not normally enough unless you add brains, passion or something original to the mix. The "original" I refer to does not necessarily mean "new" or "never heard before". What it can mean is that you have juxtaposed previously familiar musical styles into a new formula or at least have imparted your musical personality or intelligence in a novel manner on the existing music.* Yes, I know this is sounding even more pretentious, like an undergrad talking about music.

I note here, to avoid criticism, that the flipside of the above is not necessarily true – strikingly original bands don't have to be that proficient to get over the line though it helps if they are.

Either way, despite my limited musical ability, to my ears I like to hear a mix of the proficiency, brains, originality and passion … err, as pretentious as that sounds.

So I go back to where I started above … I was never in doubt that The Hombres could play (keep reading) but was there something more? Because, I have been let down ,in the past, by many similar bands.

The answer here is … yes, there is something more.

For starters, despite the fact that I think The Hombres can play well, I suspect the band are trying to be intentionally "loose". The organ is over the top cheesy, the playing is occasionally really "sloppy", the lyrics are obvious parodies, the vocals on some tracks aren't mixed up, and there are some bum notes. You cant do this intentionally, well not all of these things at once. I suspect the Hombres were taking the piss out of the "low fidelity" garage sound which was popular at the time.

You can only get away with this if you can actually "play". Right?

If parody is what they are doing then they have also transcended that as there is a lot of other things going on in this album … it is deceptively simple on face value but it references the musical past, it takes the piss out of the musical present, it hints at the musical future by moving beyond the standard pop rock song format. It's not a freak-out like a Zappa or Beefheart LP or even a full blown concept album like a Beatles LP. But if a concept album is, at its very least, a collection of songs which are linked by theme, philosophy and partial narrative (and I think they are) then this comes close. Interestingly the first song starts with a raspberry and the last starts with a belch. Lead vocalist Cunningham's deadpan vocals over some sharp lyrics make him come accross as some sort of of bemused musical troubadour masquerading as a working musician. Also, the last song references the first and everything in between is almost a chronology of 60s musical styles before returning to the early 60s. Beautifully though, the band have referenced those earlier musical styles without making them sound dated, (something "The Turtles", "Flo & Eddie" from the Turtles, and "The Kinks" did later). OK it's not perfect and it's not totally musically "obscure" but it is out there.

The most noticeable vibe is that the band doesn't take itself, or the music, seriously. Whether that is the thematic concern of the album or whether that is because these guys are "outsiders" from Memphis where everything "hip" was coming from San Francisco or New York, I'm not sure.

The whole album could be one long pisstake done by squares … I don't think it is but if it was it wouldn't lose any shine because true originality bordering on insanity doesn't come from the artificially outrageous but from the seemingly normal.

Producer Huey P. Meaux had been producing hits, especially regional ones, since the late 1950s so he is in on the joke and going along for the ride.

This is garage music … albeit garage music that does not take itself seriously. And it works.

Tracks (best in italics)

Let It All Hang Out – Apparently inspired by (and a pisstake of) Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Its got the 60s groove and blue collar, working class southern attitude to spare. Magnificent.

                (Spoken)
                A preachment, dear friend
                You are about to receive on John Barleycorn
                Nicotine and the temptations of Eve

                No parkin' by the sewer sign
                Hot dog, my razors broke
                Water drippin' up the spout
                But I dont care, let it all hang out

                Hangin' from a pine tree by my knees
                Sun is shinin' through the shade
                Nobody knows what its all about
                It's too much, man, let it all hang out

                Saw a man walkin' upside down
                My T.V.s on the blink
                Made Galileo look like a Boy Scout
                Sorry 'bout that, let it all hang out

                Sleep all day, drive all night
                Brain my numb, can't stop now
                For sure ain't no doubt
                Keep an open mind, let it all hang out

                It's rainin' inside a big brown moon
                How does that mess you baby up, leg
                Eatin' a Reuben sandwich with sauerkraut
                Don't stop now, baby, let it all hang out

                Let it all hang out
                Let it all hang out
                Let it all hang out

Little 2+2 – the band reaches back into it's beach / hotrod roots and puts over this catchy and deadpan ode to travelling.
So Sad – A Everly Brothers song from 1960 (#7). Interestingly, another Memphis band, "The Gentrys", had a single with it in 1965. The song, despite its obvious early 60s origins / inspiration, fits in well in 1967. It's not so much a grasp for material but a homage to earlier times. There could be an in-joke in there with reference to their contemporaries The Gentry's but I don't know.
Gloria – Them's #93 from 1965 sounds a little like the later "Let it All Hang Out" (same chord progression almost) which gives you an idea where that song (in part) came from. What is really interesting is about half way in they start in on an (uncredited) "Eight Miles High" (#14, 1966) by The Byrds. This is a mind fuck … think about it: the band writes a song, "Let it All Hang Out" that "rips off" "Gloria" but they cover "Gloria" on the album and draw attention to the fact … and then in the middle of the song they break into "Eight Miles High" without even crediting it. And it goes for six minutes! "Gloria" has been done many times. This version is not as frantic as other versions but it's still among the best. Interestingly garage bands The Gants (uncharted) and Shadows of Knight ( #10, ) both released the song as a single in 1965.
Am I High – another pisstake song but strangely subversive … a drug song with a double entendre … the narrator is sitting on top of a flagpole.
Mau Mau Mau – I'm sure this references "Lady Jane" by the Rolling Stones from 1966 or more likely "Femme Fatale" by the Velvet Underground from 1967 … there's also another song in there somewhere … it's catchy though.
This Little Girl – this sounds like something also … an acoustic version of the Rolling Stones "Get Off of My Cloud?" (1967) perhaps? "Louie Louie" by any number of bands? "Wild Thing" or "With a Girl like You" by the Troggs. Again it's catchy
Sorry ‘Bout That – a organ driven stomper without the stomp … a little like "Sam the Sham" with a gruff vocal that's a pinch from ?????????
Ya Ya – a cover of the song by Lee Dorsey which was a #7 in 1961. But, where are the vocals? Though audible they are so far back (and laid back) in the mix they are almost in another song. This must be intentional as producer Meaux knows what he is doing. Magnificent organ.
Hey Little Girl – a poppy Buddy Holly-esque rocker as filtered through the "Bobby Fuller Four".
Its A Gas – the last song name checks the first "Let It All Hang Out" … just like you would in a rock opera or concept album. But the song is not without its own humour, and a point … “Don’t worry about the future, forget about the past/Whether it’s good or bad, it’s a gas!”

And…

Actually all the songs are good.

This is a great album and there are lot of things going on … and I'm sure there is a story behind the album and the parodies and in-jokes …. googling reveals nothing. There are more questions than answers in relation to this album

Genius … I'm keeping it.

Chart Action

US
Singles
#12, 1967
Album

#180, 1967

England
nothing

Sounds

Let It All Hang Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWN65nAkk20&feature=related

covers:

The Nails

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7QTjyi3Xrs

Jonathan King from England doing a pop version