Original Vato-Billy, Texas style....My old man used to party ALOT with him in the early '60s before and after gigs.....he was the sax player for Sunny & the Sunliners (Sunny and the Sunglows) at the time and did too many shows on the same bill to count....Tex-Mex, Rock & Roll, and Soul groups in Texas and touring Texas had a tight fraternity of venues and session players in those days....My old man related many tales of the staggering amount of "smoking" going on backstage with Freddy- remember, this was the late '50s -early '60s....he always had great stories about Freddy..... Texas music loses another great one...reunited with Doug Sahm. I still remember doing a PUNK version of "Rancho Grande" in 1977, with a '72 Gibson Flying V and a Billy Gibbons goatroper cowboy hat ......
Freddy lived here in Corpus not too far from where I live. I used to see him all the time on Saratoga Blvd. riding his Harley. Looked like a sixties model, real clean. This used to be his town when I got out of the Army in the mid-seventies and took up residence here. Those trully were the "good ole days". Things have changed so much here that I can't recognize it anymore. Anyway, see you on the other side mi amigo. Adios!
[FONT="]In the mid 70's we would go see him at the Huntsville prison rodeo. I was in the 6th and 7th grade. I called to my mom to let her know. She cried.[/FONT]
I read that he'd gone home from the hospital and he wasn't doing well. I guess he went home to die with family. I still remember Christmas, women making tamales in the kitchen, guys shooting the **** and drinking beer in the garage, Freddy Fender playing in the background. Via con Dios,man
When I was A small kid my mom use to take me to see him and Sunny and the Sunliners. I am getting older and the heros of my youth are going. Via con dios, Gods speed.
Yea, that ****s. I loved that guy. I've always wanted to name a car "Wasted Dayz". That may have been done all ready, I don't know? I've played drums in my Dads band since I was thirteen. I can't tell you hows many smoky Texas honky tonks I've played in and watched the dance floor fill to capacity with people polishing their belt buckles to "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". God, that brings back memories....... RIP brother. Via con Dios.
I remember when I first got my drivers license and my stepdad lent me his beat up old ford pickup for the summer. The radio didn't work, but the eight-track player did and the only tape in that old thing was Freddy Fender. Being 16 and uneducated, I was like, WTF?! But the summer was long and the roads were longer and before I knew it I was singing along to all the songs, even the ones in Spanish (like I knew what I was trying to say/sing). I still know all the songs by heart, and when I hear "When the Last Teardrop Falls" I get mistyeyed, everytime. Good memories of parking that truck on a logging road under the stars. Blanket and girl in the old rusty bed and Freddy playing softly through the cab ... Damn. If it weren't for the mosquitos, that could quite possibly one of the best memories I 've got. I'll miss him ... wonder if I can find that 8-track and a player to put it in.
Damn. Every time one of my heros, and Freddy sure was one of 'em, dies, my world gets smaller. Most days I feel pretty spry and young for my sixty years on this whirling blue ball, but today I feel lonely and old. Jeepers comment about tamales and Christmas hit me like a ton of bricks. Gonna miss his gigs. Via con Dios, pardner.
RIP Freddy, can't say as I didn't expect to hear this news, I saw a report a few months back saying he wasn't doing well battling cancer. A couple of Freddy memories from my youth. First, riding to Little League games in my dads buddies early Econoline van, listening to Freddy on the eight track while frying my **** sitting on the motor cover. Second, sitting in Lindas Bar in Mira Loma on a stool by the jukebox with a pile of quarters while my dad shot pool with his buddies. My job was to keep Cash, Hank Sr., Charlie Rich, Charlie Pride or Freddy playing at ALL times. When my dad had a little too much he would get angry if I snoozed keeping the tunes coming. But I would get to drive home then too, (at 12 or 13) which was a treat!
It was a sad day at the Garcia casa yesterday. We listen to Freddy all the time. Another great one gone...................E
yeah, his tunes take me back too. My family is all from Abq. NM so we would always have tex-mex music playing in the house and he was one of my favorites too. Got to see him play twice. My dad would sometimes play "wasted days, wasted nights" to piss off my mom. RIP man.
When Freddy was doing his stint in "Branson" a few years back he lived in a house across the street from my family's lake house. The landlord was always *****in about his lifestyle. "A drunken fornicator" I believe was the expression.
yeah it was real sad. He was a friend of my fathers. It was real sad when doug salm died now this.The texas tornados music will live on forever.
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