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I was playing at places like The Ebony Lounge, Le Jac, and The Tiffany Lounge. The
dudes that had a big part of my life were Spot Barnett, Jewell Simmons (Spot’s guitar

player), Jimmy Johnson, Jimmy Casas and dudes like that - band leaders that showed
me what a passing chord was”.

Sahm recorded a number of 45rpm singles on local record labels, from as early as age

11, with the release of his first title, ‘A Real American Joe’.

Around 1953 he met and befriended Augie Meyers, who was the same age, and

proficient on piano and guitar. He played in a band called The Goldens. In 1964 The
Goldens and The Markays
did a support slot for The
Dave Clark 5. Local

producer Huey P. Meaux
saw which way the wind
was blowing, and decided

to try to find a band who
could compete with the
British “invasion” on their
own terms (ie the plan was

to set up a band that
looked and sounded like a
British band, and who

would actually pretend to be a British band!). Sahm had been on at him for some years
to record his band, so Meaux told him to write a song with a Cajun 2-step beat (which
he thought was the key to the British bands music), form a new group, and grow their
hair like the Brits! The band comprised members of the Goldens and the Markays,

and Meaux called them The Sir Douglas Quintet, which he thought sounded suitably
British. The song, called ‘She’s About A Mover’, was released in early 1965, and became
an international hit. The band even toured the UK in 1966, beginning a love affair

between this country and Doug Sahm, who was enraptured by the friendly, polite
British audiences. The band played on the same bill as both the Beatles and The Beach
Boys, and Bob Dylan proclaimed himself a fan, starting a lifelong friendship with Sahm.

Their second single, ‘The Rains Came’ also made the Top 40, as did ‘Mendocino’, in
1969. In 1971 Rolling Stone magazine named Sahm ‘Chicano of the Year!” The
following year the Quintet split.

After a series of drug busts in 1966, Sahm and the band had moved to San Francisco
for about 5 years, where he recorded several albums on labels such as Smash and
Phillips (both subsidiaries of Mercury) and immersed himself in the hippie culture.

In 1973, Atlantic Records bought out the Mercury contract, at the behest of producer
Jerry Wexler, and the result was a first solo album by Sahm, featuring Bob Dylan, Dr.

John, David ‘Fathead’ Newman and Flaco Jimenez (”Doug Sahm and Band”). The