JOE TEX b. AUG 8 1933

what i remember about the 7-midnight shift on wbsr in p'cola was that papa don schroeder(a greasy thieving pig fuck if there ever was one)played lots of black r&b. sure, he covered the wbsr top 100, which included anything by the beatles, but his main interest seemed to be black performers. i remember when i was maybe 10years old & i'd had bobo take me to a live wbsr broadcast from chick's bbq, near where palafox & pace blvd converge. that was the first time i'd ever heard james brown. papa don did some kind of skit which led into him playing "try me," a great soul ballad by the godfather of soul.

papa don played solomon burke & sam cooke & james & bobby purify & mighty sam mcclain & archie bell & the drells & joe tex & many more. joe tex would put out a serious soul ballad & then put out something silly like "skinny legs & all." i loved that song. in it, after joe has been testifying to how good a woman w/skinny legs could be & how his bandmates needed to take care of the woman w/the skinny legs, someone in the band says, "hey joe, why don't YOU take the woman w/the skinny legs" & the band breaks up laughing as joe responds, "ME? i don't want no woman w/skinny legs!!!"

at the time, there was a great controversy about the direction of pop music in america. the old bands like the association & the four seasons were being swept away by the british invasion bands. black r&b had only just started making appearances on white radio(even though their songs had been covered by white acts). the change that sam cooke sang about(posthumously)was just about to start happening.