The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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HOMBRES

“LET IT OUT (LET IT ALL HANG OUT)”

(Bill Cunningham)

Verve Forecast 5058

No. 12   November 18, 1967

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Hombre roots date back to the ’50s and Cover Records in Memphis.   “My father was one of the Sun artists

that didn’t fit in,” said B.B. Cunningham, the Hombres key­boardist, eldest brother to the Box Tops’ Bill

Cunning­ ham, in an exclusive interview.   “He was variously Buddy Cunningham or Buddy Blake.   His

‘Right or Wrong’ was the release just before Elvis’s ‘That’s All Right.’ Daddy was an Eddy Arnold-like

singer, a big band singer and Sun didn’t make many records of that sort.   After that he did some recording

in Chicago and came back and set up a studio.   It was there that I got toyin’ around with sounds.”

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B. B. (b. Blake Baker Cunningham, 1942, Panama City, FL, vocals, keyboards, bass) got the chance to

have six singles issued by his daddy’s label in the late ’50s.   “We was B-B. & The Six O’Clock Boys.  We did

‘Scratchin’ and ‘Trip to Bandstand,” rockabilly stuff.   I couldn’t get enough Sun Records.   I was there in

the studio when CARL PERKINS was recordin’ ‘That’s Right.’   That stuff was hotter ‘an a pistol. …   They

was puttin’ black music on white kids, and we was diggin’ the rhythm.”

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For a while B. B. was an accompanist for Jerry Lee Lewis; latter he served time in the Air Force.   In 1964,

John “Bucky” Wilkin was having success with a pseudo-group, a studio creation called Ronnie & The

Daytonas.   In a Nashville studio, Bucky, Buzz Cason (a.k.a. GARRY MILES), and tunesmith Bobby Russell

(wrote “Honey,” spouse to VICKIE LAWRENCE) were creating surf music,­ “Sandy,” “Bucket T,” “G.T.O.”

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“Buck elected to go to college, so a touring Ronnie & The Daytonas group was needed. BILL JUSTIS [Buck’s

producer] approached Ray Brown, president of National Artist Attractions, about putting this group

together.   Ray picked Jerry [Lee Masters, an ex-sideman for Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1940, Little

Rock, AK, bass)], and he found this Memphis High guy, Gary [Wayne McEwen (b. 1944, Memphis, TN,

guitar)].   And there was also Lee Comeau (drums) and Jimmy Vincent (keyboards), for awhile.   I took

Vincent’s place when he dropped out for the service in ’65.

Shortly after, Lee left and we found this Southside High guy, Johnny [Will Hunter (b. 1942, Mem­phis,

TN)] drummin’ in a local dub, the Rebel Room; playing with Wayne Jackson and some of the other

Memphis Horn/MAR-KEYS characters.

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“You wouldn’t figure it, but the times were great.   I loved that surf music.   It was much different than my

Jerry Lee Lewis and rockabilly background, but it was energetic; specially “California Bound.” and “Little

G.T.O.”

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B. B. and the road version of the group got to record a portions of things as Ronny & The Daytonas, “Hey

Little Girl,” “All American Girl”… But as the road crew got better and better it got frustrating.

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”I’ll tell ya how it happened; how the Hombres came about … Memphis is located in a tri-state area,” said

B. B.   “You got Arkansas across the river, Missis­sippi to the south, and Memphis being in Tennessee­ you

got three states close.   In Arkansas you can get mixed drinks, so that’s where the hot spot clubs were; just

across the river.   In Memphis–in the ’60s–you couldn’t get it; you’d ‘brown bag it,’ if you could.   So, there

was this Mexican restaurant over there called Pancho’s and Lewis Jack Bergman had entertainment in the

club behind–the El Toro Lounge.   It was there we played when we weren’t on the road.   ‘Course we

weren’t makin’ more than a $120 a week, but it kept us hot for the next road jobs.   We didn’t mind workin’

 for that money ’cause it kept us honed up; we kept our chops.

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“The road gigs as the Daytonas was gettin’ played out.   This is late ’66 and the hits weren’t happenin’ any­

more.   Ray suggested that when we toured again through Bay Town, Texas, we meet with this producer,

Huey P. Meaux.   He liked our stuff and said he wanted to sign us to a production agreement.   So, we were

now able to get away from the Wilkin stigma and gettin’ to be our own group.   We did five, six, seven songs

for him and ‘Let It All Hang Out’ was one of ’em.”

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“Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out),” the band’s first release and only chart-chumper, was a verbal collage of

profound nonsense, featuring a lead vocal that sounded like a funked-up Dylan with a face full of marbles.

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“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it now,” said B. B., the song’s creator.   “I had the title of that ‘un in my mind; my

‘back pocket; we called it.   This friend in the service was always sayin’ that phrase.   He didn’t invent it

neither, it was just in the wind.   What prompted me to write it was Dylan playing on the radio.   We heard

‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and realized right there that Bob was really putting these kids on.   Shit,

man, this junk don’t mean anything.   Isaid, ‘Hell, we can do that.’   Well, we were on the road and ridin’ so

long, we were giddy.   I was noticin’ this sewer plant with a wide-lipped curb and a no parkin’ sign, then,

Joe’s Hot Dog stand, and a billboard for Gillette…. Put it all together:  ‘No parking by the sewer sign/hot

dog, my razor broke.’   Hell, the first verse. After that we realized we didn’t need to look at nothin’, stuff in

our heads was comin’ faster than we could write it down.”

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Against the will of Cunningham and the rest of the boys, Meaux and the record company figured it was best

to continue to issue silly singles.   Subsequent singles and cuts bore titles like “It’s a Gas” “Am I High (Boy,

Am I High!),” “Mau, Mau, Ma,” and “Take My Overwhelming Love and Cram It Up Your Heart,”   Sales

were miserable.   A lone album, bearing a cover photo of the Hombres posing as bandoleros in a garbage

dump, was released and quickly dropped from sight.   Shortly after, the Hombres did likewise.

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“We were evolving into a good vocal group,” said B . B.   “That Daytona run was good practice for us, and

we woulda liked to compare ourselves with the Associa­tion.   Now, maybe we weren’t there yet; though we

thought we were.   We wanted to come back with something strong and more serious.   We woulda had a

good shot at it if they’d put out this thing called ‘The Prodigal.’   It woulda made us legitimate, as a group.

Things weren’t to be, you know …

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”I’m not gonna say, I’m sorry I ever wrote it, ever sang it.   It’s just different and different is a good tool to

get ya in the door; as long as ya don’t stay that different, or people will think ya  just a novelty.”

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A second album was record, containing more seri­ous, more Association-like songs, but the label passed on

issuing the package.   The Hombres lasted until the end of 1969, when B. B. and Jerry Lee went into audio

engineering; Gary joined the sheriff’s department, and Johnny returned to the clubs.   B. B. joined Stan

Kessler at Sounds of Memphis; later with Rick Hall’s 1, 2, 3, Independent Recorders in California.   There,

B. B. worked sessions for Mac Davis and “discovered” Juice Newton.   Currently, B. B. is part-owner of

Audio East in Memphis, a 24-track facility. Jerry Lee recording in Muscle Shoals worked sessions for

Clarence Carter and Bob Seger.   At the Criteria Studios, he worked with the Bee Gees; later becoming the

main A & R man at Malacco Records.   In the early ’80s, Gary became a Bap­tist minister.   In 1976, Johnny

Will Hunter died of a self­ inflicted head wound.

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Larry Raspberry, of the GENTRYS, encouraged the Hombres to reform in 1991 for Jerry Lee Lewis’s birth­

day party.