Tag: Watusi Rodeo

Guadalcanal Diary – Trail Of Tears

I posted a song called Watusi Rodeo by Guadalcanal Diary a while back and I got a great response. I’ve been listening to these guys and it gets better and better. This band had a sophisticated and spiritual bent to the band’s lyrics.

This song is off of the EP  Watusi Rodeo released in 1983. The songwriting in this band was a step above many of their peers…clever lyrics with a mixture of jangle and country. When you start listening to this band later on you can see a lot of eclecticism as they could bounce from one style to another.

They did get picked up by a major label after this release. Their LP  Jamboree  released in 1986 was on Elektra. They unsuccessfully attempted a commercial breakthrough, adopting the style of a country-rock band with some  religious sentiment.

Jeff Walls and singer Murray Attaway were friends in high school in Marietta, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. Along with bassist Rhett Crowe and drummer John Poe, they formed Guadalcanal Diary.

In 2011, Guadalcanal Diary briefly reunited to play Athfest, and celebrated their 30th anniversary there. Jeff Walls died, May 29, 2019, of a rare pulmonary disease.

Trail Of Tears

The Sun hangs low in the Western sky
I bow my head and remember now
Someone’s lips pressed close to mine
Her cool hand upon my brow

Hell burns hot for a killer ‘s heart
A shallow grave in an unmarked plot
Crack of gunfire in the dark
Hand in hand we’ll walk at daybreak

One wore black
One wore black
One wore black

The trail of tears is winding on
Many pass along the road
Dusty soldiers march along
As they file one by one

One wore black
One wore black
One wore black

Trail of tears is winding on
Frightened soldier run no more
Arm and arm with lovers gone
No one passes on the road

Two girls wait at the railroad track
For their soldiers to come back
Knowing this will be their last
One wore blue and one wore black

One wore black…

Guadalcanal Diary – Watusi Rodeo

I’ve been listening to this band for the last few days…they combine country with jangle pop on a lot their songs.  This band came from Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, but they were often billed as being from Athens, Georgia and was lumped in with the other Athens acts.

The band formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1989. They reformed in 1997, but never recorded any new material. After going on hiatus in 2000, Guadalcanal Diary temporarily reunited for a second time in 2011 for Athfest, where they celebrated their 30th anniversary.

Still in high school, singer/guitarists Murray Attaway and Jeff Walls became musical partners when they joined the punk band Strictly American. Electing to strike out on their own, they formed Emergency Broadcast System. Walls was teaching Rhett Crowe bass at the time and she was asked to join the band. Crowe accepted the offer and quickly suggested a name change to Guadalcanal Diary (based on the 1940s movie).

Though he had no experience on the instrument (having previously played bass),  Walls friend John Poe was added as drummer.

The band quickly became staples on the Athens and Atlanta club circuit, signed by Danny Brown’s Atlanta-based dB Records.

Watusi Rodeo was on Guadalcanal Diary’s debut album called Walking In The Shadow of The Big Man released in 1984. They were constantly being overshadowed by the successes other mid-’80s alternative jangle rock bands.

Watusi Rodeo

Come along with me to the Congo land
Got a zebra by the tail and a python in my hand
Once my home was a Texas plain
But now I swing a lasso on an alien terrain

Hottentots and pygmies know where to go
Everybody’s heading for the Watusi Rodeo

Cowboys are putting up a big fence around
A sacred elephant burial ground
Native women stomping up a flurry in the mud
Villagers are looking for some cowboy blood

I guess they didn’t like them hats we made ’em wear
They don’t look right on the native hair
Don’t they know that it’s all for show
All for showing at the Watusi Rodeo

Monkeys in the trees just thumbing their nose
At the bull riders riding on rhinos
Warriors standing with spears in the hands
Wondering what’s next from a crazy white man

Natives are restless under these Stetsons
What are these cowboys doing in the Congo
Look like cows but they’re water buffaloes
Ropin and a ridin in the Watusi Rodeo

Oh they look like cows but they’re water buffaloes
Everybody’s heading for the Watusi Rodeo