Doug Sahm Nightmare Part 1 – A Bad Start
- The Band – Sir Douglas Quintet
- Place -Sweden & San Francisco
- Time – 1982
- Album – Midnight Sun
“You can always tell a Texan but you can’t tell him much.”
The Sir Douglas Quintet, led by Doug Sahm, originated out of San Antonio Texas.
The Quintet’s original roots of blues and soul mixed with Texas swing with a dash of doo wop, was integrated with Tex-Mex and Cajun styles and is considered to be a pioneering influence in the history of rock ‘n’ roll music.
They are best known for their 1965 hit She’s About a Mover which featured Augie Meyers’s driving Vox Continental organ beat.
My first meeting with Doug Sahm
In 1982 I was under contract to Sonet Records, Sweden as an in-house producer for the company.
It was at that time I was first introduced to Doug Sahm at their offices in Lidingö, just outside Stockholm. He looked a little like John Lennon wearing a cowboy hat.
We would often cross paths at gigs or at various Sonet Records gatherings.
Doug spoke like an unstoppable tide at a speed faster than you could listen; this was lucky for me as his conversation was mostly about himself.
His vocabulary hailed from the late sixties with phrases like “Far out man” and “He’s a groovy cat”. He took little interest in me and the feeling was mutual.
Dag Haggvist, one of the MD’s at Sonet
Asked if I would produce an album with The Sir Douglas Quintet. I heard various stories about Doug in relation to him being hard to work with.
Having already recorded some absolute monsters in my career I couldn’t see him being too difficult a challenge.
The recordings were to take place in San Francisco, somewhere I had always wanted to visit.
I would also have the support of my good friend Augie Meyers, a long time member of SDQ. So how tough could it be? Little did I know.
I was to take $50,000 in cash, which I was to use to pay the studio, musicians hotel and any other bills that I incurred.
I was aware that it was illegal to enter the USA with more than ten thousand dollars without declaring it but I wasn’t carrying drugs or anything untoward so I figured it should be fine.
Arriving in Seattle
In early December I left London for Seattle, where I would clear customs and take the internal flight to San Francisco.
Before landing I filled out the standard USA entry form, when I got to the question “Are you carrying more than $10,000?” I ticked the No box.
After landing and clearing passport control, I was standing in the line at customs when my stomach started telling my whole body that taking this amount of money into the USA was not a good idea. My mind was trying to tell my stomach to hold on.
Getting caught in customs
My turn came in the queue. The custom officer asked me the three main questions that were on the form.
“Do you have any fresh fruit?”
“No” I said,
“Have you been on a farm in the last three weeks”
“No” I replied,
Are you carrying $10,000 or more?”
“No”.
Looking straight into my eyes she asked, “Sir could you please open your briefcase?”.
As it opened she proceeded to delve inside.
Within seconds she pulled out two $10,000 packs, looking slightly aggressive she said,
“What is this?”
“Er, well, that’s $20,000″, I replied.
She pressed a button under her desk and the loudest alarm bell I have ever heard rang throughout the building.
I looked back to see everyone in the queue behind trying to see what I was carrying.
Two bulky security guards appeared from nowhere and escorted me to a small office.
$50,000 and a cell mate named Bubba
On searching my briefcase they found the rest of the cash; they continued to search every inch of my suitcase asking,
“Do you have any more cash?”
“No,” I sighed.
These guys were seriously terrifying,
“Ok what’s the money for?”
I explained that it was for a recording session in San Francisco, interrupting me one of them said,
“That’s funny, on your entry form you ticked you’re on holiday, you know you need a green card to work in our country?”
This was not going well.
The pair of them just kept flying questions at me. there was no good guy-bad guy routine like in the movies just bad guy-bad guy.
On looking at my passport it showed that I had been entering the States regularly which gave them the idea that I was a money launderer.
They then took me into a back room and proceeded to do things that I wouldn’t even have let my wife do to me. You’d think they’d have taken me out for dinner first!
The next three hours were petrifying, their interrogation was relentless. I had visions of being imprisoned for years, sharing a cell with a guy named Bubba.
Finally they accepted my story that I was just delivering the money on behalf of the record company to make sure all bills were paid correctly, so in theory I wasn’t working. I was fined five thousand dollars and let go.
I caught the next flight to Frisco
On arriving I went to pick up my rental car only to find the hire company had no knowledge of the record company reserving me a vehicle.
I was exhausted and frustrated after the day I’d had so I told them to give the best car they had. This was a beautiful, brand new, white Camaro Chevrolet with blacked out windows.
Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge with the car radio blaring out heading for the motel in Mill Valley, everything started to feel a little better, until I arrived to find my room hadn’t been booked and there was no room at the inn.
I was totally exhausted and asked if they had a broom cupboard I can stay in.
After an hour or so they found me a room.
Things finally seemed to be looking up.
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