Sir Douglas Quintet

Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Coming out of San Antonio, Texas, despite their British sounding name, they are perhaps best known for their 1965 hit single "She's About A Mover". This song features a Tex-Mex sound with a pulsating organ riff provided by Augie Meyers and soulful vocals from lead singer and guitarist Doug Sahm. The band soon joined the late-'60s explorations of expanded rock-music potentials.



In addition to "She's About a Mover," the band is known for its songs "Mendocino," "Dynamite Woman" and "Can You Dig My Vibrations?"



The Sir Douglas Quintet is considered a pioneering influence in the history of rock and roll for incorporating Tex-Mex and Cajun styles into rock music.



Early influences on the band's emerging Texas style included ethnic and pop music from the 1950s and 1960s, such as doo-wop, electric blues, soul music, and British Invasion. Perhaps even more off-beat for a rock band than their fondness for doo-wop-type songs (more the feel, the beat, and the chord progressions, rather than the nonsense syllables) was that the band also played in styles like Western swing and polka (a Country & Western form and rhythmic style, from the Texas Hill Country, rather than a straight European style). In the middle sixties, the band relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and absorbed features of the San Francisco Sound, including the loud and lush electric-bass tone and freer percussion and guitar stylings. Band members also explored musical elements specific to modern jazz at that time. For studio recordings, they sometimes added an extra musician or two, often to flesh out the brass dimension of a track's sound. Good examples of the jazzy and psychedelic forms of their music can be found on the disk Sir Douglas Quintet + 2.



In live performances, blues, often with swing or shuffle beats, was usually a substantial component of the set. Besides doing their own original material, the Quintet revived several classics such as Jimmie Rodgers' In the Jailhouse Now and Freddy Fender's Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.



In 2005 they were among the new class of musicians chosen for the nominating ballot to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



Albums

1968 - Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues (Smash)

1969 - Mendocino (Smash)

1970 - 1+1+1=4 (Philips)

1970 - Together After Five (Smash)

1971 - The Return of Doug Saldaa (Philips)

1972 - Future Tense (as simply "The Quintet")

1973 - Rough Edges (Mercury)

1977 - Live Love (Texas)

1980 - Motive

1983 - Border Wave (Chrysalis)

1983 - Live Texas Tornado (Takoma)

1983 - Midnight Sun

1994 - Day Dreaming at Midnight (Elektra/Nonesuch)

2006 - Live from Austin, Texas (New West)



Compilations

1966 - The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet (Tribe)

1980 - The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet (Takoma)

1988 - Sir Doug's Recording Trip: The Mercury Years (Edsel)

1988 - Spotlight (Sonet)

1990 - The Best of Doug Sahm & the Sir Douglas Quintet 1968-1975 (PolyGram)

2000 - The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet (Sundazed/Beat Rocket)

2004 - Prime of Sir Douglas Quintet: The Best of the Tribe Recordings (Westside)

2005 - The Complete Mercury Masters (Hip-O Select)