Search - Sir Douglas Quintet :: Prime of Sdq-the Best of

Confusingly documented but excellent contents

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 09/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"She's About A Mover was one of the great singles in a year which had an embarrassment of great singles (Like A Rolling Stone, My Generation, Help!, Mr Tambourine Man, California Girls, I Got You Babe) and as this collection demonstrates the Sir Douglas Quintet were very much more than a fake British cash in. That they failed at impersonating the Mersey sound was inevitable being that they came from the Texas-Mexico borders, but in the attempt the band featuring Doug Sahm's earthy vocals and guitar and Augie Meyer's Vox Continental organ sound, created a unique and wonderful niche of their own.

A haze of confusion surrounds the albums of the Sir Douglas Quintet, most of which are unavailable in their original form, which this set, excellent as its contents are, does little to demist. Their first album, for example, which contained their three biggest hits, She's About A Mover, The Tracker and The Rains Came, was entitled The Best Of The Sir Douglas Quintet in the US, a name it soon had to share with several actual compilations. 

There has also previously been a single CD compilation called The Prime Of Sir Douglas Quintet, but this is not exactly its expanded edition, despite sharing a very similar cover, as it has a different running order and lacks one of its 18 tracks (I Don't Want To Go Home) while adding a further 24. It seems instead to be a re-issue of a 1998 album entitled The Crazy Cajun Recordings. The contradictory subtitle that now adorns the cover, The Best Of The Tribe Recordings, is also rather misleading as this compilation includes additionally recordings made for Smash and, it would seem, Crazy Cajun; quite possibly other labels too as the liner note author seems to have been starved of such information, and furthermore hazards the opinion that some of the tracks are not by the Quintet at all, but were recorded by Doug Sahm as a solo artist. Composer credits are incomplete with those responsible unaware of who wrote One Too Many Mornings despite a name-check to "Bobby Dylan" during the song.

Admirers of their Tribe period, however, need not turn away as there is a comprehensive representation from that era. All the Tribe singles from their 1964 debut (Sugar Bee) to the last in 1966 (She Digs My Love) are represented, though the absence of the A-side The Story Of John Hardy and a B-side (Love Don't Treat Me Fair) render the set incomplete.

The original tracklisting of The Best Of Sir Douglas Quintet was: She's About A Mover/Beginning Of The End/The Tracker/You're Out Walking The Streets Tonight/In The Pines/In The Jailhouse Now/Quarter To Three/It's A Man Down There/The Rains Came/Please Just Say So/We'll Take Our Last Walk Tonight/Walking The Streets.

With the exception of the rearranged reprise of You're Out Walking The Streets Tonight at the end, it would appear that these are all included. It's A Man Down There is a version of the Sonny Boy Williamson/Elmore James standard better known as One Way Out, and the re-titling of the track here may indicate a later re-recording but a date of 1966 is given in the tracklisting.

The album was produced by Huey P Meaux, nicknamed Crazy Cajun and who ran a record label of that name. In 1977 he put out a Sir Douglas Quintet compilation called The Tracker which contained released and unreleased material from the 1965-1966 mono sessions: It's A Man Down There/You Got Me Hurtin'/She Digs My Love/In The Jailhouse Now/In The Pines/Beginning Of The End/The Tracker/Wolverton Mountain/ Hot Tomato Man/Image Of Me. All those titles are included on this set.

More recently BeatRocket (a subsidiary of Sundazed) put out The Sir Douglas Quintet Is Back!, another collection of singles, B-sides and outtakes from the 1965-66 sessions comprising Sugar Bee/Love Don't Treat Me Fair/You Got Me Hurtin'/We'll Never Tell/Oh, What a Mistake!/She Digs My Love/When I Sing the Blues/Story Of John Hardy/In Time/Old Bill Baetty/Isabella/Blues Pass Me By/Wine, Wine, Wine/She's Gotta Be Boss.

Titles omitted from the present compilation therefore are Love Don't Treat Me Fair, We'll Never Tell, Story Of John Hardy, Old Bill Baetty and Wine, Wine, Wine.

Of the remaining tracks Nuevo Laredo (also a single), Dallas Alice, T-Bone Shuffle, Son Of Bill Baety, Revolutionary Ways, Seguin and One Too Many Mornings/Got To Sing A Happy Song all appear from the tracklist to come from the 1970 reunion stereo album Together After Five, recorded for the Mercury subsidiary label Smash. Nothing is included from the previous Smash album, Mendocino.

The rest remain unaccounted before but may presumably be the Doug Sahm solo recordings for Crazy Cajun alluded to in the booklet. These are also stereo recordings (apart from Ain't Nothing Wrong With You Baby) and so may also belong to a later period. Just A Teeny Bit Of Your Love turns out to be Rosco Gordon's Just A Little Bit.

The Sir Douglas catalogue obviously needs sorting out and overhauling, but despite the sparsity of information, some of which I hope I've addressed here, this is the most comprehensive overview currently available"

Epic CD set

Dan Rauch | San Francisco, CA USA | 10/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Doug Sham is very energetic and thrilling to listen to. The versions of the songs on this set are great and the musicianship is top notch. After hearing this CD set I can only imagine what a thril it must have been to hear these guys live. The variation of songs and styles is entertaining and moving. Get it, you'll probably be glad you did if you're into this style and genre of music."