The Best Texas Songs of All Time: #100-80

By DC9 At Night Wed., Jul. 25 2012 at 7:00 AM

85. Woodeye, "The Fray"
Few outside Fort Worth heard this cow-punk quartet, which contributed a guitarist and drummer to Hayes Carll's band. Frontman Carey Wolff's songs have been known to reduce strong men to public tears, rendering the seamy side of romance with a novelist's eye for resonant detail. - Ken Shimamoto

84. Meat Loaf, "I Would Do Anything For Love"
There were three very important cassette tapes in my collection when I was a kid: Vanilla Ice, "Ice Ice Baby"; Garth Brooks, In Pieces; and Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II. When my parents were out, I used to jam the tape in the player, wheel the volume to crackling levels and absolutely lose it. We're talking leg-kicking with untied tennis shoes, fist-to-sky rock dancing. - Nick Rallo

83. The Telefones, "Rocket Rocket"
Brothers Jerry and Chris Dirkx were the leaders of The Telefones, and "Rocket Rocket" came off the Dallas group's 1980 debut, Vibration Change. Another important track from that album was "The Ballad of Jerry Godzilla," but "Rocket Rocket" was the song that always kept me coming back to the album and the band. - Darryl Smyers

82. The Hugh Beaumont Experience, "Eric's on Thorazine"
Way back in 1980 in Fort Worth, Brad Stiles and some other disaffected teens (including future Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey) were making an awful punk rock racket under the banner of the Hugh Beaumont Experience. Supposedly written about Dead Kennedys frontman Eric Reed Boucher (aka Jello Biafra), "Eric's on Thorazine" was just one of the many wonderful gems found on Virgin Killers, a belated full-length released in 1993. - Darryl Smyers

Kashmere Stage Band

81. Kashmere Stage Band, "Do You Dig It, Man"
Conrad O. Johnson's band of students from Houston's Kashmere High School had several iterations, but his soulful arrangements never strayed from the Otis Redding sound that inspired him, and continues to inspire hip-hop producers and DJs. For more on their tale and Johnson's inspiring story, see Kashmere's reunion documentary, Texas Thunder Soul, narrated by another Texas son, Jamie Foxx. - Deb Doing Dallas

80. Butthole Surfers, "Sweat Loaf"
Only The Butthole Surfers could rip off Black Sabbath and somehow make it sound better. - Audra Schroeder

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secretdna

This video changed my life!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQJg4wGe1Jo

rufuslevin

DRUNK, DRUGGED OUT, KICKING BUTTS AND VIOLENCE, SHARING DOOBIES, WASTING AWAY IN MARGARITAVILLE....NONE OF THIS IS TEXAS...THIS IS OVERGROWN ADOLESCENT LISTENING AND FANTASY WORSHIP OF THE BRAIN DEAD DREARY ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT.

MBM--

Surely they're saving all the Pantera for the Top 20, right?? Not that I wanted to see Pantera in the 80-100 range....

TurdFerguson

Don't forget "What Um, Do You Like This Gig?" by Greg Williams.

kergo1spaceship

I can tell you the #1 should be "Pepper" by the Butthole Surfers.......and not far behind should b e the B. Holes "Who Was in My Room Last Night?". Mix in a little Waylon, Willie, SRV....just spare us the shitty Pat Green, and ZZ Top after the first few albums-PLEASE!

audra.schroeder1 moderator

@kergo1spaceship We might just have to do a separate top 100 Butthole Surfers songs list. Isn't "Pepper" their "overrated" song, though?

Dallas Observer

We added a Spotify playlist, for your listening pleasure.

cherry_simon

I thought there would surely be some of the awesome songs that are actually ABOUT Texas, mostly by either old school/class country folks - or Texas Country/Americana/Whatever You Wanna Call It artists. Hopefully we'll be seeing those in the smaller digits. :)

First examples I think of: "What I Like about Texas" by Gary P. Nunn, "My Texas" by Josh Abbott Band (w/ Pat Green), "Texas Afternoon" by Eleven Hundred Springs.

kergo1spaceship

@cherry_simon

it's the best Texas songs of all time....not best crappy frat rock, ala PG.

halldecker

Listen more carefully, don't believe every lyric you find on the internet is accurate.

The correct lyric is: Hank Williams pain songs, Newbury's train songs, and Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain ...

a tribute to Mickey Newbury of Houston.

Why? Google cortelia clark .

audra.schroeder1 moderator

1 Like

@halldecker Thanks for reading. Indeed, that is Waylon's lyric, but I was actually quoting Willie's guest verse on the song, where he mentions Jerry Jeff instead of Newbury.