Texas Tornados – Mendocino

Last week, I posted a Sir Douglas Quintet song called She’s About A Mover. Many people commented about the song and about another Sir Douglas Quintet song Mendocino as well. So, hearing the Texas Tornados with Doug Sahm do it, I had to post about Doug again because I couldn’t resist. I’ve been listening to his other music and I love it. This song was a top 40 hit in 1969. It peaked at #27 on the Billboard 100 and #14 in Canada. The song has been covered over 100 times, according to Secondhand Songs.

They were a Tex-Mex supergroup before anyone called them that: Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas Quintet), Augie Meyers (Sir Douglas Quintet), Freddy Fender (the man of many hits), and accordion ace Flaco Jiménez. They first gigged under the name “Tex-Mex Revue,” then took the name from Sahm’s earlier Texas Tornado. They formed around 1989-1990. It was lightning in a bottle.

Sahm wrote it, he rode it up the charts with the Sir Douglas Quintet back in 1968-69, and then, a couple of decades later, he brought it back to the table with his Tex-Mex supergroup, the Texas Tornados, Augie Meyers, Flaco Jiménez, and Freddy Fender. Flaco Jiménez, who had a long career, just passed on July 31 at age 86.

What I love here is how the Tornados make nostalgia feel alive. Plenty of bands drag their old hits around like they are carrying bulky luggage; these guys plug in and let it go. They play loose, not trying to change the song, but not bound to the original record. They revitalize this song, and it sounds like it was written yesterday. It’s not an easy thing to do, but they pull it off.

BTW… Mendocino is a small town located in Northern California; it’s about 150 miles north of San Francisco. 

This song was off the album Live from Austin, TX released in 2005 from a performance in 1990.

Here is the original band, Sir Douglas Quintet, doing Mendocino. This is the Playboy After Dark studio. Bring back muttonchops!

Mendocino

Teeny Bopper, my teenage loverI caught your waves last nightIt sent my mind to wonderin’.You’re such a groovePlease don’t movePlease stay in my love house by the river.Fast talkin’ guys with strange red eyesHave put things in your headAnd started your mind to wonderin’I love you so, please don’t goPlease stay here with me in Mendocino.Mendocino, Mendocino,Where life’s such a grooveYou blow your mind in the morning.We used to walk through the park,Make love along the way in Mendocino.(Ah, play it, Augie! Yeah!)Like I told you, can you dig it?If you wanna groove, I’ll be glad to have you.‘Cause I love you so, please don’t go,Please stay here with me in Mendocino,Mendocino, MendocinoWhere life’s such a groove,You blow your mind in the morningWe used to walk through the park,Make love along the way in MendocinoMendocino, Mendocino, Mendocino

…

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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.

40 thoughts on “Texas Tornados – Mendocino”

  1. Great stuff. Love both versions. I have the live in Austin album, but never saw the video. I didn’t realize Freddy Fender was such a good guitarist. Always liked his singing. I wasn’t aware Flaco had died. First heard him on Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music album where he plays on a few tracks. Accordions can rock in the right hands.

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    1. I didn’t know about Flaco until halffastcyclingclub posted that post I linked about it. Since then when researching others…he pops up in a lot of music.

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  7. OMG, I know that song, but not by Texas Tornadoes or Sir Douglas Quintet. In the late ’60s, German crooner Michael Holm had a hit with a German version of that song. While it’s unlikely I heard it at the time (since I would have only been 3 years old), I remember that song from the ’70s. I probably saw Holm perform his rendition on German TV. Suffice to say I much prefer the original!

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    1. Glad you know the song anyway! I knew the song but never paid attention to the title until last week. Very rootsy… I never would have thought abour a German version though….that is cool.

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  9. Well you don’t hear many accordion solos in rock. Maybe there should be more! I like this one, it really grabbed my ears. Tex Mex at its best, even if it’s singing about California.
    RIP Flaco , I thought I might have seen something about him passing away. Surprised I didn’t hear more- he was well known in these parts.

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    1. I didn’t know much about him at all until he was mentioned in that post I linked…but ever since Dave…I’ve been noticing him everywhere when I do research on songs.

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      1. I’d never heard of him until I came here, but he seems well known in the Mexican-American community and made traditional music but also did play with quite a few mainstream acts I think. He’s really good, weird as it might sound to say about an accordionist (if that is the word!)

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    1. That is really cool. Last week I started to really follow Doug Sahm around on his other stuff other than the Sir Douglas Quintet. Everyone mentioned this one and it is really good and what a great deal!

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  11. Flaco also did a few songs with The Mavericks, who are now based out of Austin instead of South Florida. Freddy Fender was huge in Texas back in the late ’70s and ’80s. Everyone was singing Before The Next Teardrop Falls, sort of an earworm you couldn’t get rid of.

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    1. I think Freddy did some Doug Sahm songs as well…they must have ran in the same circle. Talented guys! I can see why everyone talked about that song and them.

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  14. They just enjoy their playing, don’t they? Accordion? Well, it works, oddly enough.

    I remember when Freddie was at the top of his ‘Teardrop’ fame he wasn’t allowed to tour NZ because of some old pot bust. NZ was so small minded and provincial back then.

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      1. It always pi**ed me off at the time. Some long hair heading down the road for a pizza went straight to a stay to jail overnight on the evidence of the officer in a prowl car who stopped him and then ‘I smelled somethin’ funny Judge.’ But the mayor/lawyer/head of the Kiwanis/Big Businessman of the town could be rolling down the road, all over the road and running through Stop signs and the same officer would stop him, wag a finger and say ‘take it slow and safe on the way home Sir. By the way, you’d better put on your seat belt and cap that bottle of Johnny Walker before you go.’

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      2. I never understood the pot vs alcohol. I’ve been around both…I would rather deal with people with pot over alcohol anyday of the week and twice on Sunday…as the old saying goes.
        I’ve seen people turn into raging hulks by drinking…never by pot…just the opposite…it cools them down. When we played bars I always kept an eye out for the drinking…never the pot smokers.

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      3. Oh yeah. I have/had a friend Steve, who I haven’t seen for a decade or so. You lose touch… Anyway, as a teen he was a bit stroppy (had a bit of an attitude, usual small time teen macho sh*t) but you get a bottle or two of Dominion Bitter in him and he was no-one me or the rest of our gang wanted to be friends with. Complete Hulk.

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      4. In bars I ran across that when playing. More than once a pool playing drunk off his ass guy would break a pool stick and off it would go.
        Not saying everyone that drinks does that…but I have never ran across a pot head that would.

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  15. Flaco is all over my record pile. Man these guys would have been fun live. Wish I would have caught them live. Good on you for bring this music out. It should be heard. Always good when music doesnt follow the mainstream. This goes back to Clifton Chenier and Queen Ida. It’s the Flaco influence.

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    1. I just learned about Flaco recently…one of the most sought after guys around…and on accordian! That shows how great he was.
      I’m listening now to “Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band” … I love this….it’s fun.
      The hell with the mainstream.

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      1. Her and Clifton were Zydeco but the accordion is the lead. Party music for the cajun crowd. Pretty simple but infectious and has a place in my collection for sure. The live thing is where it’s at with the music.

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    1. I totally agree…he is underrated. I’ve been checking out his other music…I love it. It’s so cool you got to see them.

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