Back When the Beano Was Boss

Hey there Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew just dropped the needle on a real Texas blues-rock gem for you, "Back When the Beano Was Boss" by Buddy Whittington from his 2011 album Six String Svengali. This opener sets a tone that feels like a warm handshake from the past, nodding hard to those wild 1960s days when British bands took American blues and handed it back with a fresh punch. The title comes straight from the legendary John Mayall Blues Breakers album with Eric Clapton, the one everyone calls the Beano because young Clapton is sitting there on the cover reading a Beano comic book. Buddy wrote the tune to capture that moment when a lot of American kids finally got hipped to the blues through those English blokes and birds who treated it like a gift.

In a 2011 chat with Get Ready to Rock, Buddy explained he wanted to tell the story of how the British blues invasion opened the door for the original guys. He pointed out that plenty of kids around him in Texas had no idea Freddie King was from East Texas, even though Buddy himself had caught Freddie live. The song weaves in those memories with lines about Voice of America beaming in John Lee Hooker and Guitar Slim, while Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf grooved on the far left end of the AM dial. It is pure storytelling with a wink, the kind of wordplay that reviewers compared to a waterfall of Zappa-style humor without losing the grit.

Buddy recorded it as a tight power trio with drummer and producer Mike Gage and bassist Wayne Six down at Hurricane Sound in Texas. They aimed for that raw live feel, laying down the bare bones as a unit before Buddy dropped the solos. He has said most of his songs come from life experiences and the place he grew up, preferring a solid tune over something that is just a vehicle for guitar fireworks. On this track he used his mongrel 1963 Fender Stratocaster and a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom for the solos, plus a 1967 ES-335 he jokingly calls the Cigar Box Full of Cement for its dry middy tone. The result is a short, catchy piece that grows on you with every spin, mixing Southern rock swagger with blues authenticity.

Buddy Whittington came into the world on December 28, 1956, in Fort Worth, Texas, and the electric guitar hooked him early. He has described that childhood wonder of plucking a string here and hearing the sound come out over there. No one else in the family played, but music filled the house from the TV on Saturday evenings with shows like Cowtown Jamboree and Big D Jamboree, plus AM radio stations that covered everything from country to R&B. Western swing from Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys was a constant, yet the biggest push came from his big sister's record collection. That stack held British Invasion bands, Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, and yes, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, the very Beano album that later inspired this song.

By age 14 Buddy was already working the Dallas-Fort Worth club circuit along Jacksboro Highway. At L.D. Bell High School he played in a band called Short Change that opened for Point Blank, the local heroes he would later join for a spell, replacing guitarist Kim Davis. Through the early 1980s he formed and fronted The Sidemen, gigging steadily and absorbing the vibrant local scene with players like Bugs Henderson and Johnny Nitzinger. Then in 1991 The Sidemen opened for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at a Dallas show. Mayall asked for Buddy's contact info, stayed loosely in touch, and two years later when Coco Montoya left the band, the call came. Buddy spent the next 15 years as a Bluesbreaker, longer than any other guitarist, singing occasionally, writing songs, and touring the world until the lineup was kicked out of the nest in 2008.

Mayall has called him probably the greatest Bluesbreaker of them all, a compliment Buddy has said made him cringe a bit even while feeling proud. After that long run he stepped into solo work with a self-titled debut in 2007, then Six String Svengali in 2011, both cut with the same core of Mike Gage and Wayne Six. On the album he kept writing from the Texas ground he knows best, from guitar-shop tales on "Deadwood and Wire" to local flavor on "Texas Trios." His official site still carries the full story and the track list for Six String Svengali, right where the Beano tune leads it off.

These days Buddy keeps it mostly local around Hurst and the DFW area, still delivering that Texas blues-rock with a smile and a sharp sense of humor. Fans keep up with the gigs and the stories over on the Buddy Whittington Band Facebook page and in the active Buddy Whittington/Fans and Friends group, where folks share clips and memories of nights on stage. You can dig deeper into the man's world at his official site and catch more of the Zoo Crew spinning deep cuts like this one for the Zoo Freaks over at THE ZOO. It is the kind of record that reminds you why album rock still hits hard when the storytelling and the tone line up just right.

Check out Buddy's official website at buddywhittington.com, follow the band on Facebook, and join the fans and friends group at Buddy Whittington/Fans and Friends for the latest on shows and stories. The Zoo Crew will keep the records spinning for all you Zoo Freaks, so stick around and let the blues do the talking.