1963 Houston Post Article (courtesy of Freeman Mendell)

Houston Post, 16 November 1963 (credit: Don Hardy)

Houston Post, 16 November 1963 (credit: Don Hardy)

The Mandolin

The mandolin on the mantle (left), and with Val Dane and the Spinners.

From an interview with Frank Davis,
published in KPFT Radio Guide (June 1975)

"Old Man"

CLICK HERE to hear the Frank Davis recording of "Old Man," which appears on the 1980 Hally Wood LP, Songs to Live By. [Digital transfer by John McCracken.]

Daddy Banjo Genesis

Photo source: Freeman Mendell

"Daddy Banjo. Made using a snare drum from the drum set of one of our mutual cousins, Billy Branson. He was 19 or so I think. The first time I saw the Banjo, he played it. I asked him where that came from. He said it was the snare drum from Billy's drum set. His mother and my mother and her sister Eva had always been close since childhood. Eva was always helping out someone. I am sure she gave Billy's entire drumset to Frank. Those women talked on the phone almost every day. Billy was 9 years older than Frank. Billy went to the Marines early. So the drumset was gathering dust."

[Freeman Mendell, Facebook, Friends of Frank Davis.]

Pink Lamé

Photo source: ?

Air-Raid Siren Loudspeaker

Val Dane and The Spinners

From an interview with Frank Davis,
published in KPFT Radio Guide (June 1975):

Then this friend of mine got me
to learn how to play the electric guitar
because he wanted to become a star.
He was gonna become a star. There was no
two ways about it. Name of Bill Kuenstler,
and he had a made-up name: Val Dane.

Anyway, about a week later, he told me
we had a gig y'know. And I said! "Oh, gaw
damn, man. What the shit am I supposed
to do?" So I learned: Ka-tonk ka-tonk ka-tonk.

I figured I could play any song by just
knowing that. So when the weekend came
when the gig was, we rented these red
tuxedoes, sparkly and all, get on the back
of this float with Miss Houston up above
and go down to the Fat Stock show Parade.
And that was the gig. The debut. Right in
the parade ...

My eyes were just full of stars. 
I didn't know nothing. We had this
singer, guy was so incredible. The singer
had, I guess about four or five months
before, just been bitten in the forearm by a
six-foot rattlesnake. He was one of those
guys who catches snakes. Name of Grainger
Hunt, a son of a big judge in town. He's got
a scorpion named after him, a real science
nut.

He just barely lived from the snake bite.
Everyone was surprised that he lived at all.
But at any rate, his hand had no feeling at
all because it was starting to shrivel. So he
just taped this guitar pick to his hand. And
here we go. Got these red tuxedoes oh,
she's up on the top and we rolled on out to
the parade.

We did "Honky-Tonk," "Roll Over
Beethoven" and one other song: "Johnny
B. Goode." So up and down Main Street
we went. See, we didn't have to do but one
song because by the time we'd get by the
crowd on the street they wouldn't know we
could only do one song.

It was just perfect. All the time people
would be running behind the float trying to
grab the back of the drummer's seat. They
wanted to get on the back of the float.
We'd be playing rockin' music and they'd
want to dance on the back of the float.
They'd be yanking the drummer right off
the back of the float.

So, oh, the most hilarious thing was here
we are on the float, the generators are
humming, we're playing "Roll Over Bee-
thoven," and it starts to rain. I feel these
drops hitting me all over the back and I've
got this rented tux. Oh no, it's gonna
happen to me. I'm gonna be electrocuted
and I'm gonna have a bill to pay on top of
that.

So it was a beautiful, sunshiny day, I
couldn't figure out what the shit's hap-
pening. So I look up in front and here's
Granger: "Roll Over Beethoven," y'know,
and he has lost his pick and is grinding the
ends of his fingers off and he doesn't even
know it. He has no feeling there. Just
splattering blood everywhere, this rain of
blood all over and he's just singing, his
eyes arc closed and he's giving it this and
he has this nubby. bloody thing on the end
of his hand, just gushing blood all over
everything.

So I hit him on the back and said.
“Goddam. Grainger, look at your hand."

He says. "Unnnhh." pulls his shirttail
down - you know, it was cuffed -- pulls his
hand into his cuff, and ties it up . . .