Southwest F.O.B.

[Lightning Rod]

The other day on the MOOL's board I was responding to a post by jim vinny about his shift from the bass to the drums. I mentioned the name of my old friend and colleague Zeke Durrell. Jim Furnish was kind enough to search out and publish the article below.

Zeke has played bass and percussion on several of my recording projects. Just last year he unearthed an old 2" analog master tape of one of the sessions we had done. It had been sitting under his stairway for twenty years through three marriages etc. Unbeknownst to me, he sent the tape to our other partner, Barry Gremillion, in LA. Barry literally had to bake the tape in an oven in order to make it pliable enough to play so he could have it digitized.

One day several months ago, I received a CD in the mail of that session digitally transferred and mastered. I thought those tunes were lost forever. What a gift it was.

Soon as I get some mp3 files up, I'll let you guys listen to some of those tunes.

here's the article.

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Southwest F.O.B.

Personnel incl:
JOHN "LASSIE" COLEY keyb'ds, vcls A B C
TONY "ZEKE" DURRELL drms A B C D
(ENGLAND) DAN SEALS ld vcls, sax A B C
LARRY "OVID" STEVENS gtr, vcls A B C D
MIKE "DOC" WOOLBRIGHT bs, vcls A B
RANDY BATES trumpet B
SHANE KEISTER keyb'ds C D
BOYD WILLIAMS bs, vcls C D


ALBUM:
1(A) THE SMELL OF INCENSE (Hip HLS 7001) Dec. 1968


NB: (1) has been "reissued" on vinyl (Big Beat WIK 81)
and CD (Sundazed SC 11060). The original Hip LP
contains just eight tracks, the Big Beat version
thirteen (including a medley of two from the Hip LP
Baytown / And Another Thing), and Sundazed twenty,
including two versions of And Another Thing.

45s:
1 The Smell Of Incense/'Green Skies (GPC 1945) July
1968 -
2 The Smell Of Incense/'Green Skies (Hip 8002) 1968 56

3 Nadine/All One Big Game (Hip 8009) 1968/9 -
4 As I Look At You/Independent Me (Hip 8015) 1969 -
5 Feelin' Groovy/*Beggar Man (Hip 8022) 1969 115


NB: (4) and (5) are non-LP.

This Dallas outfit was originally called Theze Few and
included England Dan and John Ford Coley, who went on
to achieve considerable success as a duo. In 1967 they
played a gig in Dallas with visiting L.A outfit, the
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Impressed by the
latter's tune, Smell Of Incense, they decided to
record it, shortening it for AM radio consumption and
adding superbly-executed five-part harmonies. The
result was a hit single which reached No. 56 in the
Billboard chart.

Their pleasant soft rock album was recorded at Robin
Hood Brians studios in Tyler, Texas on October
25/27th, 1968, and has some psychedelic influences as
well as a risque (for 1968) cover shot of four naked
women enclosed in a plexiglass box (calling Dr.
Freud!).

And Another Thing is an interesting extended track,
much in the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida mould, with echoing
drums rolling back and forth across the stereo mix
over a bass ostinato. There are also good versions of
Buffalo Springfield's Rock 'N' Roll Woman and Chuck
Berry's Nadine as well as a few harbingers of England
Dan and John Ford Coley's somewhat bland future sound.


Southwest F.O.B were apparently a killer live act to
the extent that they reportedly blew Led Zeppelin off
stage in August, 1969 (a gig which culminated in Zeke
setting his cymbals on fire and throwing his drumkit
all over the stage). They generally opened with a set
of soul covers then, after a costume change, did a set
of Cream-like hard rock and finished with a set of
original material. They were also known for their
attire (powder blue double-breasted suits with high
collars) which were designed by their guitarist, Ovid.


After Woolbridge and Bates left the band, ennui set in
and sessions for a proposed second album were aborted
(in Coley's words, "Everyone was pretty disorganized;
people were drunk and passed out." Soon after, Seals
and Coley left and the remaining quartet settled into
playing a Southern blues styled music but the group
fell apart a year later when Zeke got married and
pulled out of a tour.

On the Big Beat release And Another Thing was edited
down to just over two minutes. This release also
substitutes the weaker album cuts with the singles and
three otherwise unreleased tracks You're Looking So
Fine, Monday's World, and I'm Coming. These seem to
date from late in the group's career. Curiously the
Sundazed CD omits these three tracks but includes all
the rest of their output including Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
from the Soul Explosion album, and both sides of the
Theze Few single.

The Smell Of Incense has also resurfaced on
Psychedelic Microdots Of The Sixties, Vol. 1 (CD). The
non-album flip, Green Skies, has resurfaced on,
Psychedelic Microdots Of The Sixties Vol. 2 (CD).

The "F.O.B." apparently stood for "Freight On Board".

(Vernon Joynson / John Melbourne / Lloyd Peasley)