Dan Hicks – I Scare Myself

A while back CB introduced me to Dan Hicks. The first thing I noticed about Dan was that he was countryish but not a standard country artist at all. He had this Country, Jazz, Bluegrass, Folk, and more thrown in there going on. I did notice he was off-centered compared to other artists. I’m thinking of a Zappa and Beefheart kind of artist with different influences.  He is one of the most fascinating artists I’ve run across. He also injected a great sense of humor in some of his songs. 

Dan HIcks was from Arkansas but his family moved to California when he was a child. He got interested in music and started off as a drummer. He transitioned to playing guitar and singing, and then he shifted toward folk and country music. He liked a little of everything from swing jazz to Western swing to folk music.

In 1965, Hicks joined The Charlatans (not the English Band), one of the pioneering bands in the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene. Though the group never achieved big commercial success, they helped create the counterculture sound. Hicks’ time with The Charlatans was short, as he eventually left to pursue his own musical direction.

In 1967 he formed Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Ironic that the band didn’t use a drummer. The Hot Licks broke up in 1973, but Hicks continued to perform as a solo artist and reformed the group several times in later years.

This song was on his 1972 album Striking It Rich along with another song at the bottom of the post called Moody Richard (The Innocent Bystander). He has released 16 albums between 1969 and 2013. He passed away on February 6, 2016, from liver cancer, leaving behind a legacy of musical innovation and humor that continues to resonate with fans and musicians alike.

He didn’t avoid mainstream completely. I did find a spot he did on the Flip Wilson Show. He was also an actor at times as well as he appeared in a few movies and television shows. 

I Scare Myself

I scare myself
When I’m without you
I scare myself
The moments that you’re gone
I scare myself
When I let my thoughts run

And when they’re runnin’
I keep thinking of you
And when they’re runnin’
What can I do?

I scare myself
And I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
It can get frightenin’
I scare myself
To think what I could do
I scare myself
It’s some kinda voodoo

And with that voodoo
I keep thinking of you
And with that voodoo
What can I do?
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You might also like
The Laughing Song
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes
Taj Mahal
’Long Come A Viper
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks

But it’s oh so, so, so different
When we’re together
And I’m oh so so much calmer, I feel bettеr
For the stars have crossed our paths forеver
And the sooner that you realize it, the better

Then I’ll be with you
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll know what to do
And I won’t scare myself
And then I’ll think of you
And I won’t scare myself
And then my thoughts’ll run
And I won’t scare myself

Then I’ll be with you
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll know what to do
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll think of you
And I won’t scare myself
And my thoughts will run
And I won’t scare myself…

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

38 thoughts on “Dan Hicks – I Scare Myself”

  1. I really liked “Moody Richard”. I’ve heard of Hot Licks. I think they were on an NPR radio show called eTown that I used to listen to religiously each week. Now it’s online.

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  2. Some would have given away all Elvis compilations and all Creedence-Clearwater-Revival records and the complete works of Hank Williams Jr. if they could have just listen once “Striking it Rich”.

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  3. The Charlatans were the birth of acid rock, and they played with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Quicksilver Messenger Service out in San Francisco. I have read about them, but I don’t know any of their songs. This is my first time hearing about Dan Hicks and this song has some Gypsie elements in it.

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      1. I’m not sure there are any recordings by the Charlatans, although, like I said, I’m not sure.

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  4. Thanks for featuring another of my favorites. Dan Hicks was a genius. As you can hear on “I Scare Myself”, he was influenced by the Gypsy Jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. On “How Can I Miss You if You Won’t Go Away?” you can hear the influence of Mose Allison. Tom Waits (and Crystal Gayle) followed in his footsteps with “Pickin’ Up After You” on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart”; highly reminiscent of Hicks’ “Is This My Happy Home?”.

    Even in 60s San Francisco he was unique.

    He employed great violinists, starting with David LaFlamme, who went on to found It’s a Beautiful Day. Maryann Price (one of The Lickettes) went on to Maryann Price and the Millionaires, playing swing. When he returned for “Beatin’ the Heat”, actor and singer Jessica Harper sang backup.

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    1. My pleasure…my first thought was this guy is completely different and I really like it.
      He did seem to get the best musicians around….I”ve been listening to Price as well…I’m going to do a post on her coming up.
      It’s another era or band I knew nothing about.

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  5. I was thinking ‘why does I scare myself sound vaguely familiar?’ then I remembered Thomas Dolby did it in the ’80s, slower and much more moody. I had thought it was his own song

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    1. Oh cool! I didn’t know that version. Based on the comments…many people knew a lot about him…I’m just now really learning the extent of it.

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  7. Different can be good. He obviously wasn’t one to be pigeon-holed; Sometimes there is gold washing around the periphery of the mainstream, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious? If it does f- fine, screw it!

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    1. Nope…it’s low on the pretentious scale lol… Yea he was different…that is why I thought of Zappa and Beefheart…not the same type of music but just out there.

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  8. Max I’m a card carrying Dan fan. An innocent bystander. Everything about his music moves me. He runs the gamut. Those backup singers are perfect and go from there, precision musicianship mixed in with soul and feel and making the kind of music you want o play. Doesnt get any better for me.

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    1. Today’s posts CB…brought out a lot of fans of each. I was taught some things that people said about both.
      He is so different but likeable at the same time. I’m listening to the Striking It Rich album now.

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      4. I fall down that hall every time CB. Most of the time I hear the artists…and I think…how the hell is this guy not known more? I could say the same with Toussaint but especially Hicks.

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      1. Sid Page was, and still is, a remarkable violinist. He did a lot of the incidental music for the movie “Jungle Fever, along with Stevie Wonder. And yes, I like the violin a lot…

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      3. I saw them play on an “In Concert” show back in the ’70’s, and Sid really put on a show on that one. By the end, I think he had gone through most of the horsehair on his bow.

        It was kind of easy to dismiss them as being more of a novelty act, but they were six outstanding musicians. They didn’t take themselves seriously, but they took the music very seriously.

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  13. Pingback: Dan Hicks – I Scare Myself – MobsterTiger

  14. Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks made one record for Epic (Original Recordings) before getting signed with Blue Thumb Records and recording Where’s The Money, Striking It Rich and Last Train To Hicksville. They combined western swing and gypsy jazz with Hicks’ remarkable sense of humor. The three Blue Thumb records are classics. That’s not to say the other recordings Hicks and company did don’t merit attention, but those three are on the top of my list.

    Somewhere along the line Hicks got dubbed “The Hippest Man in Show Business.” He could have used it himself. While such a boast is impossible, with Hicks it was acceptable. On his Le Show radio program, Harry Shearer used the term to introduce a Hicks song.

    Hicks’ music was always on the mark. I loved what he did. Saw him a handful of times and loved every performance. Because of his music I explored Western Swing (Bob Wills and the modern day Asleep At The Wheel) and gypsy jazz (Django Reinhardt) and loved almost everything I heard.

    And few can match Hicks’ wordplay:

    It’s never too late to be up to date

    You can get it now but you have to wait.

    Right!!!

    (There were a whole lot of great releases on the Blue Thumb label. Very eclectic, and great stuff. The Pointer Sisters before Richard Perry, Southwind (early country rock steeped in rockabilly), Mark-Almond, Ken Nordine, Dave Mason, Mike Finnegan, The Last Poets, and more)

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