Posted on by Phil Strawn

In Remembrance: Fort Worth Days


Captain Salt and the Lonely Beatnik Band

Pictured above is my late cousin’s band, Captain Salt And The Lonely Beatnik Band. They had a steady gig as the house band for the Hip Herford Coffee House in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1957. Junior Parker, my cousin, is the hip dude in the striped shirt. No one could play a stringed instrument, so everyone had a set of bongos. When a guest, such as Brother Dave Gardner, was on stage, the boys would provide a soft, cool beat, adding an aura of hipness to the poet’s reading. The band released a greatest hits album in 1958 that was a local hit within a four-block area. A young visitor from England, on vacation with his aunt, visited the coffee house, heard the band, and dug their stuff. It’s rumored he went back to England and formed his own band called the “Quarrymen,” and years later paid homage to the boys with a groundbreaking album, Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I guess you can say my cousin had “X-Ray Eyes and knew his groceries. ” Hit me, man, I’m ice cold.

born to be wild

I wasn’t satisfied with my ordinary peddle car; I craved excitement and wind in my flat-top haircut: Speed was my need. My neighbor, Mr. Mister, our local mentor, and mad scientist, helped me install a Briggs & Stratton 5 HP lawn mower motor in my Western Auto peddle car. We tested my machine on the runway at Carswell Air Force Base, and it reached a speed of 70 MPH. I was a speed demon… ready for Thunder Road, figure 8 stock car races, quarter-mile drags, cruising Berry Street, racing teenagers between traffic lights, which is what I did one Saturday night when my parents thought I was asleep and wound up in a jail cell after the fuzz arrested me and confiscated my hot rod.

Delinquent women on motorcycles

“The Shangri-La’s” motorcycle gang, Fort Worth, Texas, 1957. My late cousin, Marlene Brando, right front, on the bad-ass Harley, was the Leader Of The Pack.

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15 Replies to “In Remembrance: Fort Worth Days”

  2. I enjoyed that. Lots to comment on. The “bongo” thing I love. Brando not only rode the cycle, he could play a mean set of bongos.
    Looking back at souping up the cart you have to chuckle. 70 mph in that thing would have felt like twice that much being low to the ground. Cool thing is you’re still alive. My brother had jazzed up go cart in the little town I grew up in. He was the coolest guy in town buzzing around in it. Good take Phil.

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    1. Around the age of 11, by two cousins and me discovered Brother Dave, what a revelation. Comedy records were coming into their own with the likes of Red Fox, Rusty Warren, Alan Sherman and others. Dave’s schtick wouldn’t fly today, he’d be canceled or worse within a day. This was back before everyone found their inner sensitivity.

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