Bad to the Bone
This is really a spin-off of another topic, 35 Southbound. In my haste, I titled the original image and post, Bad to the Bone, Southbound, 35. Image was from Interstate 35, runs through OKC to Dallas, then Austin, and finally, divides downtown San Antonio.
The lyric, I caught it on some Texas Radio, local lad, Pat Green crooning about “35 southbound.”
How does Pat Green, marginal Texas singer/songwriter count as a “Bad to the bone?”
With roots that go deep, from Sir Douglas (Doug Sahm) to Joe King (Carassco), to the “Bandera music mafia,” Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Charlie Robinson, aforementioned Pat Green, Bruce Robison, maybe even part of the Dixie Chicks, all of that…
Red Dirt sidebar: originally, Pat Green was considered one of the “Red Dirt Rockers” grouping, a sub-genre of Texas music that includes the Tulsa sound, so to speak. Musical sub-genre named for the ubiquitous red dirt, tinged with ochre dust, that delineates the land defined as, “The Panhandle.” Another singer/songwriter is supposedly part of the Red Dirt Music, Brandon Jenkins, I got introduced to his canon, via a surf music at the other end of 35.
It’s a highway that binds this all together. Joe Ely claimed Lord of the Highway.
Texas Radio, odd there’s not much of it left these days.
“Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” the Doors? I do miss decent radio. Seemed like it was the only way I got exposed to new music that I liked.
The original image, the inspiration thus far? Backside of trailer, rolling south on Interstate 35, trailer had lettering, “Bad to the Bone.” I can’t figure, shaky cell phone image, if it was BBQ, a band, or racing. Maybe something else, dogs, perhaps?
Looks like a horse trailer, and I’d guess, there was a horse in it, from the appearance. Hard to tell with just a phone image. Still, rolling down the highway, there it was, “Bad to the Bone.”