The public radio station operated by the University of Texas at Austin is doing an oral history project about Armadillo World Headquarters, a live music venue housed in an old armory where a lot of concerts were held and a lot of people drank a lot of beer and smoked a lot of marijuana from 1970 until 1980.
Already, I can see one problem with the project.
Does anybody honestly remember that much?
Those who actually were at the Armadillo during its 10-year existence are now in their 60s and 70s, or pushing dangerously close to those marks, and like we said in the first sentence, there was a lot of self-medicating going on before, during and after the public spectacles that took place on the 'dillo stage.
Still, we don't wish to micturate on anyone's parade and we wish the oral project success.
The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the university, interviewed Jim Franklin, who apparently earned the nickname "The Michaelangelo of Armadillo Art" for the posters he created to promote Armadillo's acts.
He told the student reporter of his first piece: "“I drew a realistic armadillo that has just come across a matchbook full of joints, and it’s puffing on one."
It caught on.
We mean the armadillo caught on.
It became, via a vote of the Legislature, one of two official state mammals (the Longhorn is the official "large" mammal) and remains to this day connected to the great State of Texas, even though the armored reptile ranges as far east as South Carolina and Florida, as far west as Nebraska and as far north as Ilinois, it is said.
Go into one of those "Texas" stores in a mall or a gift shop at a Texas airport and you can buy all sorts of armadillo-related stuff -- key chains, ash trays, postcards, you name it.
But back to the Armadillo World Headquarters.
It went bankrupt, the building was torn down and the land on which it stood was sold so that a bank or some other kind of reputable business could commence.
When that happened, people were upset, sure, but if you really want to be honest, that's how icons and legends or whatever you want to call them get made, which eventually leads to, well, stuff like oral histories.
"“The rednecks…the hippies…I miss the gathering of the tribes. It was a powerful voice of the people," Bobtom Reed, guitarist for the band Shiva’s Headband, told KUT's oral history project.
See what I mean?
The peaceful gathering of "rednecks" and "hippies" is a powerful feeling or image, so that whole idea caught on and gathered steam over the years when people reminisce about old Austin days.
For our part, we don't remember any actual "rednecks" -- just a smattering of long-haired guys that sometimes wore cowboy hats and then, of course, an occasional covey of young, short-haired soldiers from Fort Hood who'd come to Austin on weekends to drink beer and smoke weed with the rest of the crowd, which, of course, incuded LOTS and LOTS of college students who are now either retired, approaching retirement, looking for work in the current recession or trying to figure out how to recoup the 401K losses they suffered at the hands of Wall Street.
But, OK, back then they were "tribes." Whatever. But maybe they were just a bunch of people who liked to party, though we couldn't be sure. We were just there. Know what I mean?
AWHQ still has its own Web site, which is sort of amazing.
On its first page is contained what might be called a mission statement that attempted to explain what it was all about:
"We're a beer hall where you can see a ballet and a honky-tonk that's wired for video. We're a hundred barkeeps and musicians, audio engineers and lighting specialists, cooks, waitresses, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, artists, bouncers, maintenance people, stage hands and even several folks whose functions have never been determined, but who are still considered indispensable.
"We are at the center of a community that has, however implausibly, embraced an ancient, hairy-footed mammal as the symbol of the harmony we all want to bring to our lives. We are something that has never happened before. We are Armadillo World Headquarters.
"To list our accomplishments would offend even our own sense of modesty. To detail our failures would be too Dickensesque.
"...The Armadillo is more than just a local symbol. It is the center of the music industry in Texas, the premiere showcase for the rest of the nation to look at Texas talent and the spot where Texas audiences get to see national acts at their best… In the vision of Texas we want to communicate, the nine-banded Armadillo is more important than John Connally or the oil industry. It's a vision the rest of the country hasn't seen yet."
That was written in 1976.
Now, more than 30 years later, the oral history project will take another whack at Armadillo World Quarters to figure out what it all mean.
The project budget is tight and volunteers are filling the breach to get it all together. But KUT has studios and recording equipment and lots of other bells and whistles, so the production quality should be high.
The Armadillo Project, as it's called, is "being structured in accordance with guidelines from The Library of Congress and the public radio StoryCorps project. It is our intent to preserve these recordings in their entirety and in
perpetuity for the primary use of researchers and the general public. KUT Austin will retain an archive at the University of Texas, and it is our hope that the recordings will serve as the foundation for educational projects, radio documentaries, museum exhibits, municipal landmark efforts, and other not-for-profit endeavors in the arts and humanities."
Damn.
Alright, alright, I get it. Here's what I remember. Let's see, I definitely saw The Grateful Dead there. Only time I ever saw them live. They were OK, but I recall some of their songs were so interminably long that at one point I walked back to the end of darkened hall, where some rugs and shit were piled up in rolls, and just had to sit down. The room was sort of spinning and there were several other people there who were clearly
zonked out, including some young GIs from Fort Hood with burr haircuts.
Who else? Oh, yeah, I saw Michael Murphy play there several times. He now goes by Michael
Martin Murphy and dresses in authentic western attire while performing "lone cowboy concerts." His "Geronimo's Cadillac" is
a fine LP, but that
a long time ago. His big hit, "Wildfire," came long after his Austin days, but this "lone cowboy" business he uses for his concerts is not just a marketing line cause he's a real gawdamm
rancher.
And then there was, oh sure, I saw Jerry Jeff Walker at Armadillo. Always loved his voice, but I wasn't at there the night he allegedly took an on-stage piss into a pitcher of beer.
Doug Kershaw I saw for sure. How can you forget that face and those crazy bug-eyes he flashes when he leans out from the stage playing that fiddle?
And Greezy Wheels, a local act that was big in Austin at the time, pretty sure I saw them, and then there was, oh yeah, I saw ... well, let me get back to you on that ... but I know I saw a bunch of other great musician there and it was
a lot of fun. And so, for now, that's my contribution to The Armadillo Project. I've gotta hit the rack. What day is it? Drive home safely and be sure to tip your waitress ...
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