I realize this is not in the general scope of SS music but I was in a writing mood and thought I'd share
Sometime in the early 80???s a co-worker and fellow record digger called me about some ???weird??? acetates he had found at a Flea Market in a little town Southeast of Dallas called Kleberg. The artist name typed on the label was Jack Starr and he described the music as like something he had never heard before. The song titles were otherworldly like ???Bald Headed Woman, Long Haired Man??? and ???My Love For You Is Petrified???. We got together and listened to the three discs with a total of six songs shortly thereafter. They had been recorded in the early to mid-60???s and could only be described as Psychobilly???and they were GREAT!
My brother and I became obsessed with these recordings and decided to try to find Mr. Starr but our only clue was the word Munsey written in very light pencil on one of the labels. We proceeded to call everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth phonebook named Munsey and before too long we were speaking to a very sweet woman named Gertrude. She told us Jack was her son and he was indeed a musician. We left our number and asked her to have Jack call us.
Now I???m certain when Jack got this message he thought it was a prank call. He called us and was in disbelief that we were calling about these old recordings. He agreed to meet with us but only at the local Denny???s, a public place, in case we were a couple of friggin??? nutjobs. And I can???t say I blame him. We met on a Sunday afternoon and convinced Jack we were legit, and basically harmless. He was a very soft spoken down to earth dude and after a couple of hours he asked us to come over to his house later in the week where he promised he would blow our mind.
When we arrived at his home in far East Dallas we met his Mom and was invited into the kitchen. There Jack had a tape recorder and a box of photos. What we were about to experience we could have never even dreamed of. Jack proceeded to tell us his life story. He had always played music and had released quite a few self produced 45???s under names like Sebastian Starr and The Gary Desmond Strike Force. He had many tapes of unreleased songs and he played us them all.. Jack was obviously influenced by Rockabilly and Garage Rock, but what he created was uniquely Jack Starr. It wasn???t long before we realized we were sitting with a musical savant.
But music wasn???t Jack???s only love. he had spent a good part of his youth making films and had become an expert make-up artist. Not your average make-up artist, Jack did Monster and Horror make-up and had worked on some local B-Movies in that capacity. He showed us still photos of gruesome figures he had created and told us about some of the films he had made himself. Unfortunately those films had been lost over the years and while Jack had an idea where they may have wound up, we never did get to see them.
As we were sitting there looking at photos and listening to the tapes (including a radio ad Jack had made for one of his films) my brother John and I had the same exact idea. We must contact our friends Billy Miller and Miriam Linna of Norton Records in NYC and tell them about Jack. We called them from Jack???s kitchen table, played some of the tapes over the phone and had them hooked immediately. The result was that Billy & Miriam flew into Dallas to meet Jack and not only inked a record deal with him but booked Jack to play a show in NYC. It all happened so fast that I think Jack???s head was spinning. While Billy and Miriam were in town locals Randy & Donna Reeves put together a house party and invited a bunch of local legends including Ronnie ???The Blonde Bomber??? Dawson and guitar slinger Bobby Rambo. This was a party for the ages and Jack???s coming out party. I???ll post a video below from that party and towards the end you can see Jack, in full monster make-up. It???s a shame that the whole party was not documented on film but I think you???ll get the idea from the Youtube clip. At one point you can even see local psych legend Mike Pemberton on guitar.
I spoke to Jack many times before he flew to New York for his performance and he was very nervous. He asked if I could go up there with him but I couldn???t. Fortunately my brother was in NY at the time and did attend the concert which I think calmed Jack???s nerves a little bit. After all, he had not performed in almost 20 years and never before a large audience in the Big Apple. My brother tells it that Jack was showing signs of stage fright right up until the point when they introduced him on stage. But at that moment he was transformed not unlike one of his monster creations, took the stage and KILLED IT!!!
Our friend Jack passed away some years ago and more recently we lost our gracious house party host Donna Rose Reeves. RIP. If you are so inclined there are some amazing home made music videos of Jack up on Youtube that combine his manic music and his love of everything Horror. Hope you check them out.
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/fkpgi2ePuOM?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/-9KsMeRW3YE?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/PX5wvDSCfDo?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
Sometime in the early 80???s a co-worker and fellow record digger called me about some ???weird??? acetates he had found at a Flea Market in a little town Southeast of Dallas called Kleberg. The artist name typed on the label was Jack Starr and he described the music as like something he had never heard before. The song titles were otherworldly like ???Bald Headed Woman, Long Haired Man??? and ???My Love For You Is Petrified???. We got together and listened to the three discs with a total of six songs shortly thereafter. They had been recorded in the early to mid-60???s and could only be described as Psychobilly???and they were GREAT!
My brother and I became obsessed with these recordings and decided to try to find Mr. Starr but our only clue was the word Munsey written in very light pencil on one of the labels. We proceeded to call everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth phonebook named Munsey and before too long we were speaking to a very sweet woman named Gertrude. She told us Jack was her son and he was indeed a musician. We left our number and asked her to have Jack call us.
Now I???m certain when Jack got this message he thought it was a prank call. He called us and was in disbelief that we were calling about these old recordings. He agreed to meet with us but only at the local Denny???s, a public place, in case we were a couple of friggin??? nutjobs. And I can???t say I blame him. We met on a Sunday afternoon and convinced Jack we were legit, and basically harmless. He was a very soft spoken down to earth dude and after a couple of hours he asked us to come over to his house later in the week where he promised he would blow our mind.
When we arrived at his home in far East Dallas we met his Mom and was invited into the kitchen. There Jack had a tape recorder and a box of photos. What we were about to experience we could have never even dreamed of. Jack proceeded to tell us his life story. He had always played music and had released quite a few self produced 45???s under names like Sebastian Starr and The Gary Desmond Strike Force. He had many tapes of unreleased songs and he played us them all.. Jack was obviously influenced by Rockabilly and Garage Rock, but what he created was uniquely Jack Starr. It wasn???t long before we realized we were sitting with a musical savant.
But music wasn???t Jack???s only love. he had spent a good part of his youth making films and had become an expert make-up artist. Not your average make-up artist, Jack did Monster and Horror make-up and had worked on some local B-Movies in that capacity. He showed us still photos of gruesome figures he had created and told us about some of the films he had made himself. Unfortunately those films had been lost over the years and while Jack had an idea where they may have wound up, we never did get to see them.
As we were sitting there looking at photos and listening to the tapes (including a radio ad Jack had made for one of his films) my brother John and I had the same exact idea. We must contact our friends Billy Miller and Miriam Linna of Norton Records in NYC and tell them about Jack. We called them from Jack???s kitchen table, played some of the tapes over the phone and had them hooked immediately. The result was that Billy & Miriam flew into Dallas to meet Jack and not only inked a record deal with him but booked Jack to play a show in NYC. It all happened so fast that I think Jack???s head was spinning. While Billy and Miriam were in town locals Randy & Donna Reeves put together a house party and invited a bunch of local legends including Ronnie ???The Blonde Bomber??? Dawson and guitar slinger Bobby Rambo. This was a party for the ages and Jack???s coming out party. I???ll post a video below from that party and towards the end you can see Jack, in full monster make-up. It???s a shame that the whole party was not documented on film but I think you???ll get the idea from the Youtube clip. At one point you can even see local psych legend Mike Pemberton on guitar.
I spoke to Jack many times before he flew to New York for his performance and he was very nervous. He asked if I could go up there with him but I couldn???t. Fortunately my brother was in NY at the time and did attend the concert which I think calmed Jack???s nerves a little bit. After all, he had not performed in almost 20 years and never before a large audience in the Big Apple. My brother tells it that Jack was showing signs of stage fright right up until the point when they introduced him on stage. But at that moment he was transformed not unlike one of his monster creations, took the stage and KILLED IT!!!
Our friend Jack passed away some years ago and more recently we lost our gracious house party host Donna Rose Reeves. RIP. If you are so inclined there are some amazing home made music videos of Jack up on Youtube that combine his manic music and his love of everything Horror. Hope you check them out.
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/fkpgi2ePuOM?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/-9KsMeRW3YE?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
[media]//www.youtube.com/embed/PX5wvDSCfDo?feature=player_detailpage[/media]
