The First Time I Heard "Apache" by The Shadows

November 20, 2023

   Sometimes the oddest things take me back to the land where I was raised.

Billy Logas: King of The Quarter Mile

    Proof that the only thing new in this world is the history you don't know:

True that.

Civics Class, Fifth Period,

Mohave County Union High School,

"Walk, Don't Run."

A Classic Instrumental Takes Me Back

  My son lives in Thailand and he collects rare and esoteric rock records—all vinyl. Last week he sent me an article on, what is called over there, Wong Shadow Music, which is a genre rift off of Shadow Music developed by Thai musicians and inspired by Western groups like Cliff Richard & The Shadows. They also dig The Ventures and Dick Dale so obviously my respect for them knows no bounds. My number one son sent me a link to the tune (below). All of which took me straight back to a lonesome desert highway near Topock, Arizona on the Az-Cal border.

   The Kingman Junior High Bobcats basketball team was coming back from a road trip to Poston, Arizona on the bus we called "The Traveler" because it was tricked out with better seats. It was late at night and Wendell Havatone was anxious to have us hear this new instrumental that was climbing the charts. He went up and asked the bus driver, Finnie (real name Mr. Finnigan), if we could try and get KOMA, the 50,000 watt rocker radio station out of OKCity in Oklahoma. Finnie said yes and Wendell dialed around until he managed to find KOMA, the only station we could get at that time that played rock music (1960). 

Bus Driver Extraordinaire

Maurice "Finnie" Finnegan

   Wendell gave us the signal and Charlie Waters and I came up to the front of the bus and crouched down with our ears next to the speaker and it was quite faint and staticky, but that is the first time I heard the song "Apache" by the Shadows. Of course, we formed a band not long after that and played that classic ditty prominently in all our shows. And, to this day, every time I hear it, it takes me back to that dang bus on that dang road back to Kingman.

"Apache" by The Shadows

The Exits: L to R: Wendell Havatone, Terry Mitchell, Charlie Waters, BBB and Wayne Rutschman, New Year's Eve 1964, Girl's Gym, Kingman, Arizona

Country Roads Take Me Home

   It's been awhile, but sometimes I still go out and support live music by my old bandmates, especially if I can be home by five in the afternoon. Yesterday was just that case as my old Razz Band bandmate, Jack Alves appeared at Crying Coyote Barbecue in Cave Creek.

Jack Alves Still Rocks!

   And, here we are in a publicity shot for our gig at Dooley's back in the day. 

The Razz Band, 1986, L to R: Jack Alves,

BBB, Hans Olsen and Rick Unger

(of Cosmo Topper fame)

   Yes, I still have the hat.

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

—Beverly Sills