Night clubs. Cool night clubs. And it was
half UT students, and half people

from the neighborhood. And the bands over
there were unbelievable. You know.

In the 80s and 90s, we tried to bring
these people back to life and record them

and we did. Great T.D. Bell guitar, Erbie Bowser,
a tremendous piano player, the Grey Ghost.

Did anybody ever hear the Grey Ghost?
One person. Well, you don't count!

None of you youngsters ever heard
of Grey Ghost?

Well, he was an old barrelhouse guy in the
30s and 40s, he was just gone and a guy

who just died, Tary Owens, found him,
brought it back to life, got it recorded,

got him on the Chicago Blues Festival,
he was this old barrelhouse piano player

from Austin, just unbelievable
and he was in his 90s and was still

out here playing, making a comeback,
and he acted like a young man!

You know? He was so happy because he had
been lost in the 60s and 70s, he just

lived in his house and no one who he was,
he was a musical genius right here in Austin

named the Grey Ghost. So, each city has
you know, I gotta tell you, and I stick

by this, most of the time, this is true,
the best musicians in this country,

no one knows who they are, be it country,
or louisiana or blues or whatever have you

The very best musicians, no one knows who
they are. That's just how it is.

So each city has such a rich culture
of music, but if you don't know what it is

or you can't never hear it, you don't find
out, then it just kind of goes away.

Let's play some more of that
Atlanta stuff. This has got about

5 minutes. I'll continue talking about--

>> Alan Freed's son went to
The University of Texas.

>> Really? That's cool
I didn't know that.

I have some tapes on him somewhere.
He and his sister were talking about--

(video) >> (inaudible)

...all over the country.

I've seen it go on for 48 years.

Each come a ways and then the
next solo came along...

all kinds of things.

>> (inaudible) and myself started
a little record company in (inaudible)

>> ...Atlantic Records had heard..
>> (inaudible)

>> They got with us and they said,
look you're not selling

any gainful amount of records.

>> He's talking about Atlantic
Records contact.

>> For us to make records for them
but they themself--

of course the biggest success we had
was searching in (inaudible).

>> The Coastals, another big radio hit.

>> (inaudible) to my concert...
(inaudible)

I'd be (inaudible) to write this kind
of stuff and it's true about what you

write about, but and so how
do they do it

and it was correct, right on time.

>> We feel good about the
(inaudible) of the black existence,

in fact we told ourselves that we
were mistaken but that's what we

want them to believe who aspires
to be (inaudible) and to be able to

make the music that we lack and the
poetry that comes from (inaudible)

>> We had black girlfriends.

We used to constantly be in
(inaudible)

>> Talking about the early 50s.
>> And we were treated very courteously.

Sometimes people were abused you know.

We might've been the only white faces
in the joint that night,

but no one was ever rude or aggressive...

♪ (music) ♪

>> Duwop was the music that was
started because there was no issues,

so the background settings had
to do all the work,

and that's why the biggest segment is
(mimics tuba)

(inaudible)

I used to walk up to let's say
19th street to 129th street

with the (inaudible)

We would actually have a complication
of the group and whoever was a member.

And all you had to do was stand
there and start singing,

and gather the crowd.

Then the owners would come around.

And you actually just have like
a little groove in you and the group

that's actually in that neighborhood.

It was just like one of those
fighting things without gloves.

♪ (music) ♪

(inaudible)

And they--
>> This is Ben E. King.

>> (inaudible)

And they asked me at the
end of that session,

they said (inaudible)

So I showed them the clip
on the camera I had.

They said, it's not bad.
>> Not bad.

>> So they called all the
musicians back in...

>> Drifters turned it down.

>> (inaudible)

♪ (Stand By Me playing) ♪

♪ When the night has come ♪

♪ and the land is dark ♪

Stand By Me, I know you've heard this.

♪ the moon is the only light we see ♪

It's in a lot of movies.

He was in the Drifters then he had
a falling out (inaudible)

He brought this song, but the
manager turned it down

so he did it by himself.
Still making money on it to this day.

Big hit.

And darling, darling stand by me

That's Charlotte back there

That girl's pretty good there if you
watch her. She is.

She can do the jerk.
Look at that. (laughter)

>> Stand By Me (inaudible)...

>> That's good. We're going
to go back to him.

We're going to a whole thing on
the (inaudible) and the Drifters,

that's next and then Ben E. King.
(claps)