The Music of Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The music and soundtrack that accompanied the movie was made up of 7 original songs by different Texas artists and an original background effects track by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell. There is no official release of the sound track and there may never be one. Roger Bartlett, who wrote and sang the song "Fool For A Blond", and I, had been in the process for over a year tracking down the original artists to begin the process of making an "official soundtrack" to the movie. But because of circumstances beyond our control, mostly to do with the copyright owners of the movie, enthusiasm on their part for participation in the project was non-existent. Therefore, I have decided to open this new section of my web site on the music of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a "Where Are They Now?" of the artists.
It is also the hopes of Roger and I that the artists that we have not been able to track down may come across my web site and contact me. A big part of my web site is to promote everyone associated with the film and eventually in some way put some cash in their pockets from the fans of TCM, for either their autographs (which I still do) or through other promotions. So it is my hope that Roger and I may at least be able to make the original songs available on this site or other sites for TCM fans to enjoy. Keep checking back to this page or my news page for updates on this topic. I'm currently focusing my efforts on making previously unavailable songs available for TCM fans to enjoy.
Roger Bartlett &
Friends
"Fool For A Blond"
Roger's song, "Fool For A Blond", (also referred to as the "sidewalk cafe" song), is probably the most recognized and remembered song from the movie. Likely because of the infectious hook, "...spend most everyday in the sidewalk cafe..." This song's appearance in the film is when the kids in the van stop on the side of the road and pick up the Hitchhiker. Tobe Hooper said that he picked this song for that particular sequence because he imagined the Hitchhiker being a fool for Sally. Even though you may not have recognized that connection between the characters, the song delivers an upbeat lightheartedness atmosphere as the viewer of the movie watches a creepy hitchhiking stranger mutilating himself and Franklin. Which is quite a strong contrast between what you are hearing and seeing.
Roger: "The song is actually about sitting in a cafe called Les Amis in Austin watching the UT college girls walk by as me and Bill Callery drank coffee (and smoked pot). You might be interested to note that my wife (Arna) is a very pretty blonde. So I'm still a fool for a blonde. Not too deep a lyric, but one that's easy to relate to."
"I was living in Austin doing an acoustic duo with a guy named Bill Callery. (He wrote "Hands on the Wheel" on Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger album). We went up to Jim Inmon's studio, Hill on the Moon to record FFAB with a big group of people. To the best of my recollection it was me, John Inmon, Bill Callery, Bob Livingston, John Garza, Greg Valdespino, Frank Zigal and there might have been a few more people. The 70s are kinda foggy in my mind. We recorded it live in the studio, no overdubs. We did several takes and the one in the movie is the second or third take we did. The master stayed out at Hill on the Moon. Tobe Hooper dropped by out there and asked Jim if he had anything that might be good for the movie Tobe was working on and Jim played him a few cuts including FFAB. Tobe loved it and through Jim paid me $50 to use the song in the movie. I went to the world premier in Austin when it came out. It was quite an event. Limo, limo, pickup truck; limo, limo, pickup truck. That was how people arrived. No one had the slightest idea that it would be such a hit and turn into a horror classic."
And did you know that Roger is an original Coral Reefer from Jimmy Buffet's Coral Reefer band?
Today, Roger is a busy musician/producer of his own production company, Shoestring Productions.
Visit Roger's web site at http://www.rogerbartlett.com and download for FREE "Fool For A Blond" on MP3.
Timberline Rose
"Waco" & "Glad Hand"
Jim Shulman (left) and Richard
Dean (center) with bassist
Robert McEntee (right)
as Timberline Rose at the Kerrville Folk Festival, 1973.
Timberline Rose was a 2, sometimes 3 person folk/country act that played in central Texas during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Their primary members as a duo were Jim Schulman and Richard Dean, both on guitars and vocals. Occasionally, they had a bass player named Robert McKentee.
I have been in contact with Jim on several occasions. He said that both of these songs were recorded live at local venues in Austin, Texas in the early 1970's. The master tapes for these songs now reside at Hill On The Moon Productions in Austin, Texas. The original members of Timberline Rose have not been in contact with each other in several years, and I am still looking to contact Richard Dean. Rumor has it that Richard moved back to his native state of Colorado several years ago.
The only commercially available music of Timberline Rose, to my knowledge, is on the Kerrville Folk Festival CD set of the history of previous artists since the festival's inception in 1972. To my knowledge, neither one of their songs that appeared in Texas Chainsaw Massacre are available in any format.
Michael Jaramillo, former harmonica player, sound man and roadie for Timberline Rose, looked me up via e-mail and submitted these pictures and this story.
Tim------- I thought you might be interested in a little back-story about the Timberline Rose Band as I knew it in the early 1970's. My name is Michael Jaramillo and I met Richard Dean and Jim Shulman in my little town of Pueblo, Colorado around 1970 or 71.
My memory of the exact date is a little hazy because, after all, I was there. Anyway, they were an acoustic duo singer/songwriter team at the time and playing a gig at the Irish Pub in downtown Pueblo. I don't remember just how or why I met Richard but however it was we seemed to hit it off right away. He had by far the finest blues/ballad voice that I had ever had the pleasure of sitting next to. It also didn't hurt that he was married to Camille Belden, a strikingly beautiful woman and an anthropology student at DU. I was blowing a little harp at the time and was allowed to sit in with Richard and Jim during the gig at the pub. It was my first time onstage and I was petrified. It was an amazing thrill for me and the evening went well, I think. Jim and Richard had this idea of forming a big band and I was invited to be a part of it.
My job was to be full-time Roadie and Soundman and part-time harp player. I had never done anything like this and was only too happy to join in. They were assembling a talented group of musicians and I believe that most were from the Austin area. The Timberline Rose Band consisted of Bill Farmer on keyboards, a superb musician who idolized Leon Russell and came from a university-based jazz band where he also played vibes. He had a set of vibes with him in Colorado but adamantly refused to play them ever. He had put them and the jazz aside. Our lead guitar player was Johnny Richardson who was a jouneyman guitar slinger from Austin. Our drummer was Michael Christian. I seem to recall that they had a hard time finding a bass player and settled on Bob Arthur who was recently of Mother Earth with Tracy Nelson and Boz Skaggs.
We formed in the Denver area and found some young hotshot stockbrokers who were convinced that they could promote an acoustic/rock band so they bagan to funnel some money our way. We rented several homes in Wakheenee Park in Evergreen, Colorado, and commenced practicing at one of the houses that had a garage. Jim and richard were writing prolificaly at the time and the juices were flowing. We played several gigs in the area, in Denver, Winter Park, Crested Butte and as far south as Austin. I remember hanging with B.W. Stephenson at the Armadillo World Headquarters and hearing him sing "My Maria". Fried catfish and barbequed brisket, huevos rancheros for breakfast. Austin at it's finest There were frequent visits by Michael Murphy and I can remember him and Richard jamming on his new song "Wildfire" that he had yet to record. Michael also had just written an album for Kenny Rodgers and the First Edition called "the Ballad of Callico". We had a lot of grand adventures and I recall that we were in negotiations to sign with Capricorn Records that may have been Leon's label at the time.
The personalities in the band were a bit volatile at times and when the success everyone wanted didn't appear we began to fall apart. We returned to the acoustic duo concept with me supporting occasionaly on harp. We rented a house on a mountaintop just outside of the town of Bailey, Colorado and after a few months and with our tails between our legs, we went our separate ways. I never went back to music but found a career as a woodworker instead. I met a wonderful girl in Winter Park during one of our gigs at Adolph's, a great ski bar at the foot of the mountain, since burned down. The young lady's name was Mary Lou and she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. We are married and after 36 years are still together. Sadly, Richard and Camille divorced but Richard remarried a lovely woman named Samantha and they live in the Denver area. BTW, Richard is a native Texan, but his heart is in the mountains of Colorado.
The photos are of the poster that we used to promote our band prior to appearances. It was taken by Jim's girlfriend, Sallye Richardson, who I believe worked on TCM. The photo was taken atop Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park well above 13,000ft. wow! I had given my copy to my little brother decades ago and my Mom found it and gave it back to me. My wife surprised me and had it framed and gave it to me as a birthday gift this past November. My 60th. I lost touch with richard only a few years ago--lost address book. He was working with computers as a job but still writing and playing. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into Tiimberline Rose. I was looking at the poster this morning and was inspired to google up the band. That's how I found you. BTW, I'm one of the few people who have never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'll have to change that!
Best wishes and Happy New Year,
Michael
Arkey Blue
"Daddy's Sick Again" & "Misty Hours of Daylight"
Arkey Blue is somewhat of a legend in Texas. He has been around singing his original country music since the late 1960's. He currently owns his own honky-tonk beer joint in Bandera, Texas called the Silver Dollar Saloon. You can still see Arkey playing his music at his venue to this day.
"Misty Hours of Daylight" is available for purchase from his web site at http://home.flash.net/~sundanc1/arkeys.htm on the CD entitled, "The Best of Arkey Blue". "Daddy's Sick Again" is not available on CD, and has only been made available on vinyl when it was first released. As with other artists who participated in the soundtrack of TCM, I'm pursuing to make both of his songs available on my site or other means.
FACTOID: Did you know that Arkey makes an appearance in the movie, "Race With The Devil" with Paul Partain singing "Misty Hours of Daylight"?
Los Cyclones
"Feria De Los Flores" (Parade of Flowers) & "Poco A Poco
No" (Not Little By Little)
Unfortunately, I have close to "zero" information about this group. Again, it is my hope that either a band member or family relation may contact me on this topic.
Other Soundtrack
Besides the songs that appeared in the film, perhaps the most memorable sound effects in the movie were made by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell. They were created by various instruments ranging from cymbals to African instruments. For a more detailed outline of the instruments used, you can refer to the documentary by Exploited Films called "Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Shocking Truth".
Wayne and Tobe created the creepy backing tracks by using the unconventional instruments and sound effects. And as such, the screeching you hear during Sally's encounter with the Grandparents and also at the very end of the credits is made with a pitch fork coasting along the edge of a table. For more information on this, go HERE. And as stated on that page, the film editing was done in Tobe Hooper's living room, as well as the sound editing.
It has been stated to me from both Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel that neither one of them has any recollection of what happened to the original vinyl copies of the music used for TCM. Kim Henkel possesses the optical track which contains the master soundtrack to the film. Unfortunately, this track and any other significant copies of the film do not contain any audio track separation of the songs, the background music/effects and dialogue. The original film has only a single mono track with the master audio. There is no separation of songs, effects, dialogue, etc. The remastering that was supervised by Tobe for the DVD release of TCM was based souly on the original mono track originally recorded.