She's About a Mover

In 1965, I heard a record on the Detroit radio stations that called out to me like "Louie Louie" itself. It had a funky ole beat, a screamingly cheesy organ riff, and a bulldozer vocal that gave me the impression that I was listening to a group with permanent hard-ons (by which I don't necessarily mean just erections). Then I saw them, on Shindig or Hullabaloo, and it was like going from black & white to color TV -- so powerful! I always remember it as being in color, but it couldn't have been, because we didn't have color TV yet. It was supposed to be an English band, but I was pretty sure there weren't any large Mexican organ players anywhere in the UK. What mattered more was that the lead singer had hair so long he made Brian Jones seem crewcut. In the way only the greatest records can, every time you hear it, "She's About a Mover" still sounds like the best rock & roll ever made, still sounds fresh, still sounds like a mountain you've gotta climb just to get wherever the people who made it live. Going over old Bob Dylan interviews, I realize he always cited Sir Douglas Quintet as the best of the new rock & roll groups. He was right. So was my 15-year-old self. But mainly, so were Doug and Augie. I bow to no one in my love for Buddy Holly, ? & the Mysterians, and Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs. But this is the greatest of 'em all.