Read Online Raisin' Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter (Kindle Edition) by Mary Lou Sullivan - Free Book Online
Authors: Mary Lou Sullivan
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three or four hours after school putting posters all over town, at where we were playing the next time, different soda shops and places where the kids would see them,” said Drugan. “The more people we’d draw, the more money we’d make. In those days, they had a thing called the kitty. You’d put a box out and people would come up and request songs and put a dollar in the kitty. You’d also get money at the door—they’d charge maybe fifty cents. What you made depended on how many people came through the door rather than getting a set amount.”
Early in their career, Johnny and the Jammers played social clubs and semiformal dances as the Johnny Winter Orchestra. They played a homecoming dance at the St. Anthony’s High School auditorium, and a graduation dance at St. Ann’s High School. Their first gig, a social event at the Beaumont Country Club, featured Johnny on guitar, Edgar on tenor guitar, Chamberlain on sax, and Drugan on “silent guitar.”
“That was my first job with Johnny,” said Drugan. “Johnny was in junior high. He didn’t have a bass player and there was no keyboard at that time. We wore white sports coats, black bow ties, and sunglasses. There was a group called the Shades at that time and they wore sunglasses. I wasn’t quite good enough to play, so I played silent guitar. I was hooked up to an amp but didn’t have any volume. He said, ‘Just stand up there and look good.’ He paid me for it too; he said, ‘I’ll give you five dollars for that job because you weren’t hooked up.’ They turned the volume up as I got better.”
“I had him play silent guitar just for fun because I liked him,” says Johnny. “He learned to play bass later on and really played in my band.”
After the country-club gig, and Drugan’s switch to bass, the band started playing more school functions, as well as teen dances called canteens, including several dances at the Park District Canteen.
“We played a lot of school functions—after the basketball games, sock hops, stuff like that,” says Johnny. “They always liked us pretty good. Kids usually brought liquor into dances. The band drank too and we got away with it. We drank everything—vodka, Jack Daniels. I started smokin’ cigarettes when I was fifteen too. I had different girlfriends—it was probably easier being in a band. I didn’t date a lot in high school—it was more fucking than dating.”
Johnny’s introduction to the pleasures of the flesh began in the red light district of Beaumont, which like many Texas boomtowns, still had a thriving prostitution and gambling district in the late 1950s. Unfortunately for Johnny, it didn’t last long. In 1960, the Texas House General Investigation Committee uncovered evidence of open prostitution in Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur. In 1961, the James Committee, a five-man panel headed by Dallas representative Tom James, held three days of televised hearings exposing prostitution, gambling, bookmaking, narcotics trafficking, liquor sales to minors, and extensive payoffs to city officials. During those hearings, Beaumont County Sheriff Charlie Meyer admitted to accepting more than $85,000 in “campaign contributions” in five years and lost his job as a result of the investigation.
Johnny remembers Meyer and Beaumont’s red light district from his visits there in 1959 and 1960.
“There was a lot of prostitution and gambling in Beaumont—in the clubs, right in the open,” he says. “Gambling, anything you wanted, cards and roulette. Ole Pa was too old to go with me but he paid for me to go to the whorehouse. They were on Crockett Street—the buildings were fairly run down. They didn’t care how old you were. The men were all different ages. The women wore dresses and were fairly seedy. They were sitting around in front—you just picked your choice, paid five bucks, and went to a room upstairs.
“I knew Sheriff Charlie Meyer—the sheriff that let everything go on—he was a
Early in their career, Johnny and the Jammers played social clubs and semiformal dances as the Johnny Winter Orchestra. They played a homecoming dance at the St. Anthony’s High School auditorium, and a graduation dance at St. Ann’s High School. Their first gig, a social event at the Beaumont Country Club, featured Johnny on guitar, Edgar on tenor guitar, Chamberlain on sax, and Drugan on “silent guitar.”
“That was my first job with Johnny,” said Drugan. “Johnny was in junior high. He didn’t have a bass player and there was no keyboard at that time. We wore white sports coats, black bow ties, and sunglasses. There was a group called the Shades at that time and they wore sunglasses. I wasn’t quite good enough to play, so I played silent guitar. I was hooked up to an amp but didn’t have any volume. He said, ‘Just stand up there and look good.’ He paid me for it too; he said, ‘I’ll give you five dollars for that job because you weren’t hooked up.’ They turned the volume up as I got better.”
“I had him play silent guitar just for fun because I liked him,” says Johnny. “He learned to play bass later on and really played in my band.”
After the country-club gig, and Drugan’s switch to bass, the band started playing more school functions, as well as teen dances called canteens, including several dances at the Park District Canteen.
“We played a lot of school functions—after the basketball games, sock hops, stuff like that,” says Johnny. “They always liked us pretty good. Kids usually brought liquor into dances. The band drank too and we got away with it. We drank everything—vodka, Jack Daniels. I started smokin’ cigarettes when I was fifteen too. I had different girlfriends—it was probably easier being in a band. I didn’t date a lot in high school—it was more fucking than dating.”
Johnny’s introduction to the pleasures of the flesh began in the red light district of Beaumont, which like many Texas boomtowns, still had a thriving prostitution and gambling district in the late 1950s. Unfortunately for Johnny, it didn’t last long. In 1960, the Texas House General Investigation Committee uncovered evidence of open prostitution in Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur. In 1961, the James Committee, a five-man panel headed by Dallas representative Tom James, held three days of televised hearings exposing prostitution, gambling, bookmaking, narcotics trafficking, liquor sales to minors, and extensive payoffs to city officials. During those hearings, Beaumont County Sheriff Charlie Meyer admitted to accepting more than $85,000 in “campaign contributions” in five years and lost his job as a result of the investigation.
Johnny remembers Meyer and Beaumont’s red light district from his visits there in 1959 and 1960.
“There was a lot of prostitution and gambling in Beaumont—in the clubs, right in the open,” he says. “Gambling, anything you wanted, cards and roulette. Ole Pa was too old to go with me but he paid for me to go to the whorehouse. They were on Crockett Street—the buildings were fairly run down. They didn’t care how old you were. The men were all different ages. The women wore dresses and were fairly seedy. They were sitting around in front—you just picked your choice, paid five bucks, and went to a room upstairs.
“I knew Sheriff Charlie Meyer—the sheriff that let everything go on—he was a
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