Robert Christgau's Review of Eddie Hinton's "Very Extremely Dangerous":

Eddie Hinton
Very Extremely Dangerous [Capricorn, 1978] B-
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Very Extremely Dangerous [Capricorn, 1978]
Hinton's Otis Redding tribute goes far beyond anything ever attempted by Frankie Miller or Toots Hibbert--it's almost like one of those Elvis re-creations. The Muscle Shoals boys put out on backup, Hinton's songs are pretty good, and the man has the phrasing and the guttural inflections down pat. So what's missing is instructive: first, the richness of timbre that made Otis sound soft even at his raspiest, and second, good will so enormous that it overflowed naturally into a humor that hurt no one. B-

REMEMBERING EDDIE HINTON & THE SPOOKS
BY JOHN CURRY
reprinted with permission from OLD TUSCALOOSA COUNTY MAGAZINE # 31 [1997]
I was asked to write about my memories of Eddie Hinton and a band I had, known as "The Spooks". These thoughts take me back in time when things were a lot simpler, when life was full of sweet youth and Rock n' Roll.

The Spooks existed around 1961 or ' 62, the exact date has faded from my memory. Glen "Spook" Jones, the band's namesake, and I were college students at the University of Alabama. Spook got his nickname by being born on Halloween. We had a simple little group that played a few old John Lee Hooker tunes, the Ventures, Buddy Holly and others.

Our first gig was at an old abandoned sharecroppers house on the Aaron Christian farm. We put the word out that there would be a party there every Saturday night and "The Spooks" would be playing. Huge crowds soon developed and we received our pay by passing the hat.
People who chose not to put money in the hat were usually refused tractor help if their cars got stuck in the mud or in a ditch, so participation was pretty good. A.D. Christian was in charge of the hat and the tractor, so things went pretty smoothly.

Early band members were myself on drums, Spook Jones on lead guitar, Revis Guy on rhythm guitar and Ray Thomas on bass. Ray sang a few Elvis songs as our only vocalist. For a brief time, Dale Layton played rhythm guitar, but his duties on the Alabama Track Team prevented his staying with us. Dale is the brother of famous Alabama sportscaster Doug Layton.

The Spooks went through several evolutionary changes as most bands do. David Reynolds joined the band early on as bass guitarist and added greatly to our talent and sound. But we really needed a vocalist, and this is where Eddie Hinton entered the scene. Somebody had told us he was pretty good, and he lived on University Boulevard. Spook and I figured that the best way to find him was he'd take one side of the street and I'd take the other. So we did.

We started down around the University Club and knocked on doors asking if Eddie Hinton lived there. We got a lot of "no's" until we got down to near where Hamner Realty is located today. At a house there Spook hollered from across the street, "Got 'im!" So I went over there and we introduced ourselves to Eddie.

He was about seventeen at the time. He said,"Well, y'all are crazy. I don't sing. I just hang around bands and maybe one time or another I jumped up on stage and tried to sing- but I don't sing. Y'all don't need me!"

We had just gotten a new bass guitar player, Ray Thomas, and he was learning how to play on the job, and we said, "Hey, we've got one guy learning how to play bass on the job. We might's well have someone learn how to sing on the job."

Somehow or other we persuaded him. We invited him to come and do a couple songs with us at some gigs. He was pretty shy at first. He'd actually turn his back on the audience, kind of cupping his hand over the microphone which covered his face, and sing. He literally learned how to perform on the job. At the time he didn't play as instrument.

We got some good breaks playing for fraternity parties and started to make some big money. Somewhere in that process, Eddie began to pick up a guitar and played rhythm. After a while Spook married and moved to Huntsville, although he continued to play with the group.

The biggest break of our career was when we got the Homecoming Dance at the University of Alabama. We were the only band hired to play and we were set up outside the Stufent Union building near the Soup Store. We were ready to play. The pep rally was over and we had probably seven thousand people standing out there in front of us. And there was no Spook!
We kept waiting for him to show up from Huntsville. The crowd started stomping and clapping with impatience. I ran in the Soup Store and called Spook's home to ask his wife when he left to come to Tuscaloosa. Spook answered the phone in Huntsville. I said, "My gawd! What're you doin' there?"

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "We're all set up out here and ready to go...and no lead guitar player! What happened?"

"I thought it was next week," replied Spook.

This screwup is what brought Eddie Hinton into the spotlight. All we could do was go out and take our best opportunity that we'd ever had and make do. Eddie at that time was playing just enough to be dangerous on his guitar and somehow we faked our way through that concert. While the performance didn't help us, it didn't kill us, either. But it was the first time Eddie Hinton really stepped out to the front.

Spook left the band and we picked up a fellow named Larry Chiz. He was a red-headed, freckle-faced boy, Jewish by faith, from Shaw, Mississippi, which is in the depths of the Delta. Larry always used to say that if blacks had soul, he had twice as much because he had to be a red-headed, freckle-faced Jewish boy from Shaw, Mississippi, and really knew what the Blues were. Even though he will never be a "name", Larry may have been one of the greatest lead guitar players to come out of the era of the ' 60s. He was doing licks that were unheard of from white musicians.

Looking back, I think that was the best band we ever had. Eddie had continually grown in his musicianship and his singing abilities. We were very much in demand and we often had more jobs than we could easily do. Down deep each of us dreamed of becoming a famous rock band. We were tight. Dave Reynolds on bass, Larry Chiz was lead guitar, and Eddie played second guitar. I played drums.

Eddie learned how to play a harmonica and his guitar playing was good enough to beat anyone out of a lead guitar job except for Chiz. He took the lead on many of the breaks and he and Chiz would go back and forth. It was really some great work, and Eddie's singing had evolved.

In the Spring of ' 65 an opportunity developed for the band that changed us and Eddie forever. There was a club down on Panama City Beach called the Old Dutch Inn. It was the college hangout. All the hot local bands and a lot of regional and national bands wound up being featured there from time-to-time. We were rehearsing one day when Eddie showed up, all excited. He said,"Aw, man, this is it! They want us to be the house band for the summer. They're going to pay us one hundred dollars each per week and give us free food and lodging! This is our break, guys! We're fixin' to bust out of here!"

Well, Chiz had just graduated and was also married and had a son. He had to do a tour in the army and was to report to Ft. Jackson as a second Lieutenant in August, having been in the ROTC. Viet Nam was also heating up. As for me, I had graduated in ' 63, gotten married, became a father, and we had just opened Curry furniture store that spring. We couldn't take the job no matter what.

Eddie was real disappointed and he said, "Well you just can't do this to me. I'm going to go down there and figure out something. I'll be back in the Fall." Fall was our "season". We played fraternity parties and clubs and we had booked a great number of jobs already for the coming season.

Well, Eddie went down to Panama City Beach and put together a band and took the job at The Old Dutch Inn. He called the group the Five Minutes. He never came back to the Spooks. Our band went through it biggest transition. David Reynolds moved to lead guitar, Mike Spiller was added as singer-keyboard player and Gene Haynes played bass. Later we added Jimmy Butts as vocalist and horn player Fred DeLoach.

I'm not too clear on the chronology of Eddie's career from this point, but I know that for awhile he worked at Boutwell Studios in Birmingham as a recording engineer and studio musician. It was under his tutelage that we did our only recording session. He let us come in after midnight and we worked until the sun came up.

He moved up to Muscle Shoals and was part of the great Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He appeared on albums by Wilson Pickett, Boz Scaggs, Aretha Franklin and many others. Elvis even requested his blazing mastery on the guitar. He penned one of Percy Sledge's biggest hits, "Cover Me."

In my opinion, Eddie was probably the greatest musical mind that so many people never heard of. He had unusual soul. Eddie Hinton's career was a constant roller coaster of good times and bad times, and bad timing. In 1977 he recorded "Very Extremely Dangerous", a brilliant album, for Capricorn Records. The record label folded when it lost a lawsuit filed against them by Gregg Allman. All the records in warehouses waiting for distribution were confiscated by the court. A number of albums had already been distributed overseas and it became Number One in Scandinavia. I've been told that "Very Extremely Dangerous" is going to be re-release by Polygram records in the near future.

John D. Wyker, who penned the hit "Motorcycle Mama" (and someone ought to write a book about what he's done for the music scene!), helped Eddie to get back on his feet. He produced Eddie's "Letters From Mississippi," which opened eyes all over the world. At one time, John had a well-known band in Tuscaloosa called The Rubber Band.
(Ed. Note: John Wyker has a limited number of the very rare, original vinyl recordings of this album and is offering our readers the opportunity to own one. See the ad for more information. John Wyker says "At one point in Tuscaloosa, during the ' 60s and ' 70s, there were no less than a hundred guys who could blow Eric Clapton away. Today, 1997, Tuscaloosa is musically, the most important city in the South." John Wyker hopes to be able to do for others what he did for Eddie when Eddie was alive, and is interested in finding new artists to work with. You can call this magazine for informaition on how to get ahold of John.)

There is so much. I could write a book about Eddie Hinton. He died July 28, 1995, at his mother's home in Birmingham. Jerry Wexler, retired Vice-President of Atlantic Records and who was pivotal in the creation of the Muscle Shoals sound wrote to Eddie's mother, saying, "When I first came to Muscle Shoals it didn't take very long before I became aware of Eddie's singular talents- as a composer, lyricist, and gifted guitarist- and was touched by his original, offbeat, and engaging personality. Each year I had the feeling that Eddie was about to break out and achieve his full potential, and he would become the world-class Alabama musician. When the great artists came to Muscle Shoals, they would invariably hone in on Eddie- Aretha, Cher, Lulu. Bob Dylan would end up on the back porch of the Jackson Highway studio with Eddie, pickin' guitars and communing quietly in the Alabama evening.
"To this day I still play his records with great enjoyment. He remains unique- a white boy who truly sang and played in the spirit of the great black soul artists he venerated. With Eddie, it wasn't imitation; it was totally created, with a fire and fury that was as real as Otis Redding's and Wilson Pickett's."
When Otis died, after his funeral, his widow asked Eddie to teach Otis Junior how to sing like his daddy.

I always felt that Eddie wanted to come back to his old band members with success in his hands, and say, "Hey, I made it guys." Eddie Hinton was that extension of us. He was that part of us that only a musician that's trying to make it will ever understand- that deepest part of our ego that wanted to be a successful musician in the world.

As long as he was alive doing what he was doing, we could say, "That's Eddie. We started him off and we're still behind him."

Full success eluded Eddie Hinton for reasons we'll never fully understand. But he was the best, and he was Tuscaloosa's own.

I will always miss him.

HARD LUCK GUY:
A tribute CD to Eddie Hinton remembers the talents of a down-home Alabama boy
by Mark Hughes Cobb, Staff Writer for the Tuscaloosa News, A N.Y. Times Regional Newspaper

If you've got a TV or radio, you probably hear him every day. A few decades back, his old roommate Duane Allman wanted him to sing with this new group, but had to settle for little brother Gregg instead. Members of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame landed there, in part, singing his songs, or with him sitting in on guitar, or producing their records.

But most of all, friends and fellow musicians remember Eddie Hinton as a singer, a blue-eyed soul man with the edgy howl of a Joe Cocker, the deep South funk of an Otis Redding and the teary sentiment of a down-home Alabama boy.

Many of the same musicians who gathered at his funeral service in Tuscaloosa Memorial Park three years ago have come together over his music again, to honor a Tuscaloosa boy whose heart gave out before his song was done.

With the urging of Hinton's mother, Deanie Perkins of Birmingham, and hit-making producer and fellow musician Johnny Sandlin, they've pulled together some previously unreleased cuts for a new CD. Many of these were from an album Hinton was working on at the time of his death from a heart attack in midsummer 1995.

Called "Hard Luck Guy," the CD is out on the Capricorn Records label. Many of the legendary vets of Muscle Shoals studios filled in the rhythm sections, horns, and backing vocals: Roger Hawkins, David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldman, Paul Hornsby, Dan Penn, Donny Fritts and Sandlin, among others.

"One of the ideas, when I talked to Deanie, was trying to get people who'd worked with Eddie, who were friends with him," Sandlin said from his Duck Tape Studios in Decatur. "And just about everybody here, with one exception, is a personal friend."

Included are cuts from that unreleased final album, with some other tapes dating back as far as 1977, when Hinton crafted a solo album called "Very Extremely Dangerous," a forward-sounding disc that suffered when Capricorn went bust the very week it was released.

"Any time a record tanks, it makes you feel like you're kicked in the stomach," Sandlin said.

Hinton took that hit- and others- hard. He drank heavily. For a while he was sick and homeless, but in the last years of his life, he'd soothed some wounds, moving in with his mother and rejuvenating his music.

Although he continued to work sessions, Hinton didn't release another solo record until 1986, the torrid "Letters From Mississippi," which originally came out in Europe only.

He joined Rounder's Bullseye Blues label for "Cry and Moan" (1991) and "Very Blue Highway" (1993), but Hinton was best known as a sideman and songwriter.

He wrote or co-wrote songs recorded by Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Percy Sledge, Bobby Womack, Tony Joe White, Lulu, Gregg Allman and others including hits "You're All Around Me" (Sledge), "Choo Choo Train" (The Box Tops) and "Breakfast In Bed," which became a hit for both Springfield and later UB40 and Chrissie Hynde.

With the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section from 1967-1971, Hinton graced records by Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Solomon Burke, The Dells, Johnny Taylor, Elvis Presley, Boz Scaggs, Redding, Sledge, The Box Tops and many others.

It's Hinton's slinky guitar bouncing through The Staples Singers' "I'll Take You There"- now even on Chevy commercials, and "Take a Letter, Maria."

"When great artists came to Muscle Shoals, there would invariably hone in on Eddie," said Muscle Shoals producer Jerry Wexler in a letter to Perkins, reprinted in part in a posthumous tribute in Rolling Stone.

"Bob Dylan would end up on the back porch of the Jackson Highway studio with Eddie, picking their guitars and communing quietley in the Alabama evening."

"Each year I had the feeling Eddie was about to break out... that [he'd] become a world-class Alabama musician.


That's probably less than a third of Cobb's article but the rest will have to wait for another day...
reg

Hometown boys make good music
January 31, 2003, by Mark Hughes Cobb of The Tuscaloosa News, a N.Y. Times Regional Newspape
John Townsend sprang from what seemed a depthless well of rock musicians from Tuscaloosa in the '60s, guys who did or are doing it at the pinnacle.Townsend is best known as the singer of "Smoke From a Distant Fire." He went to school with, played with or knew from the beach circuit (Panama City Beach used to hire authentically good bands in those days, not the cheesy cover garbage and faux metal you hear now) guys like Chuck Leavell, Bill Connell, Charlie Hayward, Mike Duke and Eddie Hinton.
Graduates of the Misfitz and the Rubber Band went on to make a lot of the sounds you're listening to on oldies radio. Many are still working, of course, but they're finding it hard to get Southern soul music heard.
Leavell went on to play keyboards with the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, among many others. Drummer Connell did a stint with the Allman Joys, the precursor to the Allman Brothers. Charlie Hayward fiddled around with Charlie Daniels. Mike Duke played with Wet Willie and still performs with Delbert McClinton.Guitarist, singer and songwriter Hinton played Muscle Shoals sessions with everybody from Otis Redding to Aretha Franklin to Wilson Pickett, saw his songs recorded by Percy Sledge, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Womack and Franklin, and cut some pretty outstanding raw R&B himself before his sad death in 1995.
"Tuscaloosa has always had a musical history that went mostly unrecognized," said Townsend, who will play gigs at Hale's Tavern Saturday and Wilhagan's Wednesday.
From small things, mama, big things one day come, as Bruce wrote. Townsend remembers the year he and Hinton both got injured on the football field."We became towel jockeys for the team, just to get the credit," he said. "We used to sit around the locker room; Eddie'd bring his old firewood acoustic guitar, you'd hear him singing 'I'm a King Bee, buzzing around your hive,' the Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo stuff."
Townsend himself was "discovered" in a car, driving back with a bunch of friends from Columbus, Miss. ("where you could buy beer as long as you were tall enough to see over the counter.")His buddy Jimmy Wilson had started guitar lessons and wanted to start a band. As boys with beer will do, they sang raucously as they rolled along."Wilson said, 'You know, you've got a pretty good voice.' He'd been looking for a singer and told me, 'I can't find anybody else, so you're it,' " Townsend said, laughing.
Of course the story goes back further, to Townsend admiring his dad's sweet tenor, studying the old man in church, "watching his glottis move up and down his throat."
From Dad, Townsend moved on to Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and other soul greats.That band scored $50 for its first gig, a junior high prom."Wow," Townsend recalls thinking, "If we'd practice, we could make $100!"
Sadly, more than 30 years later, local bands are lucky if, even after years of practicing , to make $100.Chalk it to the reluctance of bars to book original music, which stems from the audience's laziness. Covers of songs you always knew, because goodness knows you never heard them for a first time are the only way to make money.I wonder how many of the folks who later listened with pride to Townsend's "Smoke," or to Leavell's sterling work, actually showed up to hear them play while they were still hometown boys?

MUSIC REVIEW:
Album capture's Hinton's Essence
By Ben Windham,Editorial Editor of the Tuscaloosa News,May 07, 2004, N.Y. Times Regional Newspapers.

Eddie Hinton, “Playin’ Around” (Zane Records)

Eddie Hinton’s gravelly rasp, as rough as an Alabama back road, comes on like that first drink of moonshine — powerful, burning, too strong for casual tastes.That fact, along with a terrible streak of luck, left Hinton holding a very bad hand of cards. His gifts as a songwriter, his long experience as a session man and performer and his seemingly bottomless reservoir of soul should have made him a household name. Instead, he died in relative obscurity at age 51.
Hinton was born in Florida but moved to Tuscaloosa with his mother after his parents divorced. He went to the University of Alabama for three years before he dropped out to become a full-time musician. He played with a popular Southern band named “The Minutes” and later joined the session players at Fame studios in Muscle Shoals.There, he backed up soul icons like Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex and Percy Sledge, along with artists as diverse as jazzman Herbie Mann and pop singer Boz Scaggs. He also wrote hits like “ChooChoo Train” for The Box Tops and “Breakfast in Bed” for Dusty Springfield.
In addition, Hinton made some well-thought-of solo recordings. The first, “Very Extremely Dangerous,” came out in 1978; just as it was beginning to make some noise nationally, the record label, Capricorn, folded.It was down hill from there. Hinton, never one to do anything halfway, was nearly consumed by personal demons and living on the streets of Decatur when his old Tuscaloosa buddy Johnny Wyker, who had had a national hit, “Motorcycle Mama,” as one-half of the duo Sailcat, took him under his wing.
Hinton responded with the magnificent “Letters from Mississippi” album in 1982, which Wyker produced. It won new fans and got him some much-needed work but it never got the hearing it deserved, partially because it was out of step with the hair bands and synthesizers that dominated early ‘80s rock.
Hinton recorded two more albums that were released in his lifetime.
He was living in Birmingham with his mother and working on another album project when he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1995.For the past 15 years, Zane Records, based in England, has been reissuing his work. Label boss Peter Thompson says the new release, “Playin’ Around” marks the 60th anniversary of Hinton’s birth.It’s something to celebrate, for sure. The album may be composed of demos, live tracks and covers but it often comes closer to the essence of this blue-eyed soul man than any of his other recordings.
Dwayne Allman wanted Hinton to be the lead singer for the Allman Brothers Band. Compare the album’s version of “Down in Texas,” which Hinton co-wrote, to the version cut by Allman’s earlier band, The Hour Glass, and it’s easy to see why. Backed by Muscle Shoals’ house group, The Swampers, Hinton cuts the Allman version to shreds. A thick, juicy slab of Alabama soul, it’s one of the best cuts on “Playin’ Around.”On another track, Hinton recasts Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Money Business” as a Tony Joe White-styled soul song, complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica. It doesn‘t really come off but it’s an interesting experiment. Equally fascinating and much more successful is his cover of The Beatles’ “You Can’t Do That.” If they had ever had the inspiration to cut it at Muscle Shoals, with horns, it might sound a little bit like this gem.But Hinton’s cover of his idol Otis Redding’s “Mr. Pitiful,” recorded live in Italy in 1991 with The Memphis All Star Band, is the bee’s knees. It not only rocks the house, it sets it ablaze. After Redding died in an airplane crash, his widow asked Hinton to teach her children to sing. Listening to this soulful tribute, one can only assume that if he took her up on the request, he taught them very well indeed.Of the many originals, “Help Me to Make It,” cut with a band called The Rockin’ Horses, is beautiful rhythm and blues, the kind of song that might have been a hit for someone like Solomon Burke. Hinton evokes the spirit of Joe Tex on “Satisfaction Guaranteed,” right down to the spoken introduction. And the title tune, beautifully sung, is classic down-home Southern soul.But the best original song is the quirky “Something Heavy,” a sparse demo featuring lyrics with an undeniable appeal:
“I need something heavy
“To keep me moving in the right direction…
“It could be a case of beer
“Seventeen women trying to hold me near”
Or, as Hinton sings later, even a thick steak, well done.The bridge might serve as Hinton’s epitaph:
“I stay hungry all the time
There’s something that keeps tugging on my mind
I try to live in moderation
But that only gives me aggravation …”

MUSCLE SHOALS MUSIC LEGEND EDDIE HINTON, 50, DIES
Saturday, July 29, 1995
by Robert D. Palmer, staff writer for the Florence TimesDaily, N.Y. Times Regional Newspapers

Muscle Shoals- Legendary Muscle Shoals musician and songwriter Eddie Hinton died Friday in Birmingham at his mother's home, according to friends and longtime associates. He was 50.
Hinton's mother and stepfather returned from an outing Friday afternoon to find the bathroom door of their home locked and water running in the bathtub, family friends said. They could not get a response from Hinton, then looked through a window and saw him lying on the floor.
Paramedics were unable to revive him, and an autopsy has been requested, according to family friends.
Hinton developed a reputation as a crack session guitarist in Muscle Shoals studios during the late 1960s, playing as well as rooming with the late Duane Allman, and soon developed as equally sterling reputation as a songwriter and orchestral arranger.
But professional setbacks and apparant emotional troubles pushed him toward marathon drinking bouts that left him in a state of near homelessness until recent years when he managed- with a little help from his friends- to revive his career.
"I talked to him just a week ago. He sounded good, so strong," said Donnie Fritts of Florence, a longtime friend and songwriting partner. "Eddie and I wrote a lot of songs together in the early days."
One of those songs- "Breakfast In Bed" - has been a international hit for several artists, including Dusty Springfield and UB40. Other songs Hinton co-wrote include "Choo-Choo Train" for the Box Tops, and "You're All Around Me" for Percy Sledge.
Later, when he began recording his own songs, he became a cult figure among musicians and fans of soul music. His voice bore a striking resemblance to that of the late Otis Redding and, according to Muscle Shoals music chronicler Dick Cooper, was hired by Redding's widow to teach the soul legend's children to sing.
"He always kept a positive attitude, and that was reflected in his music," said John D. Wyker, another veteran of the Muscle Shoals music industry who produced several of Hinton's records. "I was amazed because he was such a loner. He lived in virtually self-imposed exile, yet he created such romantic and uplifting music."
Hinton's first album, "Very Extremely Dangerous", released in the late 1970s, has become a cult classic, especially among musicians. It was recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios.
"That album is played on a lot of buses by touring bands," said Jimmy Johnson, guitarist for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Johnson worked with Hinton when they were part of the house band at Rick Hall's FAME Recording Studios, and later at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.
Hinton began producing records in Muscle Shoals in the last 1960s, and invested a tremendous amount of work in a record by himself and Jim Coleman, Cooper said. Hinton wrote orchestral scores for several of the songs and flew to England, where he directed the London Symphany Orchestra, he said.
But Atlantic Records would not release the record. Cooper said the rejection was devastating to Hinton, who left Muscle Shoals to become a session musician at Capricorn Records in Macon, GA.
"That was the first trauma," Cooper said. The next "trauma" occurred when "Very Extremely Dangerous" was release, he said. The record received glowing reviews from the national music press, but the Capricorn label went bankrupt that same week, he said.
"That record went straight from the pressing plants to the cutout bins," killing sales and hopes of a tour, Cooper said. "He returned here in 1982 and worked with Jimmy Johnson briefly for a record deal. They recorded six songs, but they couldn't get a record deal. That was trauma number three."
"After that, his life went pretty much down hill, not that it wasn't already," he said.
Hinton divorced his wife and began drinking more heavily, finally dropping out of sight of all who knew him.
Then, in the summer of 1985, Wyker was driving past the bus station in his hometown of Decatur, where he was working in his family's hardware store, when he spotted Hinton sitting on a bench. Everything Hinton owned was in plastic trash bag and a suitcase without a handle, he said.
Hinton was on his way to Nashville, but he ran out of money in Decatur, Cooper said. Wyker took Hinton to the family hardware store and put him up in an upstairs apartment.
Wyker teamed with Cooper to get Hinton's song published. They were using demo tapes of Hinton to pitch the songs, but people were more interested in the tapes than the publishing, Cooper said.
"That's when we realized we should be selling Eddie, not the publishing," he said.
Enough songs were gathered for an album, which was first published in Sweden, and soon Hinton records were in demand.
But managing Hinton as a performing artist was difficult at best, Cooper said. He said Hinton had a taste for Sterling beer and pure grain alcohol that often left him incoherent, and to complicate matters further, his behavior had become erratic and unpredictable.
But in the last two years, Hinton had gotten control of many of the demons that chased him, according to many of his friends. He was finishing another album and was enthusiastic about working with Fritts and his longtime friends.
Hinton was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and grew up in Tuscaloosa, where he attended the University of Alabama.
A graveside service is planned for Sunday afternoon at Memorial Park in Tuscaloosa, Cooper said. [I showed up for this service and nobody was there. They changed the date to Monday]

To:
MIGHTYFIELDofVISION@yahoogroups.com

Date:
Mon, 9 Aug 2004 22:04:26 -0700 (PDT)
Subject:
Re: [MFV] A Famous Part of Bama's Student Ghetto On 12th Ave. 'Bout To Bite The Dust

Well lets see...left wing shithead elitists...bitch from hell banned from Egan's...shaking your machete at the owner. Can't think of a better way to get some pussy. AHHH the good old days.....robert register wrote:


capn:
Underwood and I worked at the Union together from ' 70 to ' 72. He painted the banners and I put them up. He's still in the sign business down in Destin. Pretty sure he came up for the Memorial Day party at Dogwood. I make it a point to miss those little get togethers. I don't get my kicks being shunned by our little community of left wing shithead elitists who tend to gather there.
Hogdoo has retired from the oil patch and is living in Reston Place across the river. He married Trish after L.C. died of lung cancer. He can generally be found at Egan's on the Strip during Happy Hour[you won't find me at that bar either cause I got banned for no reason by a bitch from Hell(really,she's from Demopolis-same difference) and later shook my machete at the owner as we both drove down University Boulevard]. The number at the bar is 205-758-9413.
I'm thinking about taking the digital camera over the 12th and taking some shots of the old place. Can you imagine all the devilment that's gone on in that place?!!!! Forty years of horny guys doing anything in the world in order to get high with some pussy.
best,
Robert Ka$h Register

capn:
I am salvaging Mrs. Bobo's house right now. She is no longer with us but 8 Chi O's were living there when the lease ran out on the 31st. I found all sorts of plunder. In addition to 24 solid wood interior doors, I found the archives of their organization, The Cock Club. motto: We LOVE the cock!
mo' later. I will look for "EAT" tomorrow.
best,
roberto

Subject:
Re: [MFV] A Famous Part of Bama's Student Ghetto On 12th Ave. 'Bout To Bite The Dust

Roberto-

I lived in the teeny tiny lil apartment sheds (white wood) back in there- Mrs. Bobo was the landlady.

My girlfriend at the time was Sherry McFarland- used t' work behind the bar at the Chukker when Callahan ran it- an' she gave me a neon sign fer mah birthday one year that read "EAT" (chuckle, chuckle). Bout a 4'x3' unit...

Had to 'vacuate that atmo' one nite inna real rush- left that sign in mah yard- d'you think you could find it fer me?

You're a pal...

Capnd
----- Original Message -----
From: robert register
To: robertoreg@hotmail.com
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 1:52 PM
Subject: [MFV] A Famous Part of Bama's Student Ghetto On 12th Ave. 'Bout To Bite The Dust
Lot uv ya'll probably have many pleasant memories of times spent at 513, 517 and 521 12th Avenue directly behind the Strip in Tuscaloosa [behind Morrison's on University Boulevard for those of you who haven't been back in the past 25 years].
All five structures at that location on the east side of 12th will be completely demolished in the next few days.Yesterday, Phillip gave me the key to the two story brick house at 517 so I began plundering this morning. Am leaving as soon as I finish this to continue my assault on all things valuable.
Sad to say the 2 two story white wooden apartment buildings in the backyard of 517 will also bite the dust in the coming days. I have vivid memories from ' 69 in all six[A,B,C,D,E, and F] of those groovy little hippie pads. I hope to get the key to B and make an attempt to recapture my youth in the coming week.
Let me know if any uv ya'll wanna document the destruction. Phillip has promised me FULL ACCESS!
BEST,
REG
CHECK OUT CUBA, ALABAMA
http://robertoreg.blogspot.com

Subject:
Re: Michael Moore Is Fidel's Kind of Man!
To:
robertoreg2003@yahoo.com

From capn skyp:
the whole thing about not having normal relations with cuba is so much bullshit, no matter what your attitude is about castro,communists, torture, whatever; the cuban people and the American people need to intermingle freely and openly sharing food and music and laughter and murder and all the other good things of life ( or bad, my bad)
Becuz I wanna go to cuba.

From Rrouge:
The only thing preventing Cuban & American intermingling IS Castro ...and shitheads like Moore dividing American opinion.
Pss: I wanna go too!

Lot uv ya'll probably have many pleasant memories of times spent at 513, 517 and 521 12th Avenue directly behind the Strip in Tuscaloosa [behind Morrison's on University Boulevard for those of you who haven't been back in the past 25 years].
All five structures at that location on the east side of 12th will be completely demolished in the next few days.Yesterday, Phillip gave me the key to the two story brick house at 517 so I began plundering this morning. Am leaving as soon as I finish this to continue my assault on all things valuable.
Sad to say the 2 two story white wooden apartment buildings in the backyard of 517 will also bite the dust in the coming days. I have vivid memories from ' 69 in all six[A,B,C,D,E, and F] of those groovy little hippie pads. I hope to get the key to B and make an attempt to recapture my youth in the coming week.
Let me know if any uv ya'll wanna document the destruction. Phillip has promised me FULL ACCESS!
BEST,
REG
CHECK OUT CUBA, ALABAMA
http://robertoreg.blogspot.com

Hey Robertoreg:
What's this got to do with the Chukker?

-Well bogustrumper,
According to my very own personal testimony of my experiences in The Chukker (fall of '68 to fall of '03), breaking news from Cuba has always been of interest to many of my associates who are members of the Chukker Nation (one problem with my personal testimony: I am the only one still alive who witnessed some of those crazy nights in the Chukker)
Two things came immediately to mind when I read your question.The first was Bill, Ludo's bartender, who I believe was born in Cuba.I am certain that he was raised in Miami and his parents were Cuban exiles. We always talked about Cuba.
The second was Joe Scott. When Joe wasn't chasing away cops walking the beat by dancing with Philpott, he was speaking Spanish. In fact, Joe often refused to speak English to me because he and I had both taught at the Colegio Americano de Guayaquil and he wanted me to practice my Spanish.
Other things came to mind: Donnie's admonition that "The Chukker is an Island of Tolerance surrounded by a sea of intolerance." It's easy to imagine a Bay of Pigs veteran drinking beer next to a wild eyed anarchist in a Viva, Che! t-shirt at the bar of the Chukker.I recall tales of expeditions planned to capture everything from Batista's buried treasure to the biggest Tarpon in the tidal flats of the south shore.
and a nudder thang....
When the Chukker opened in July of '56, Havana wuz the #1 foreign port for the Port of Mobile and................
Beginning in '82, you could order a Cuba Libre in the Chukker and Bruce Hopper probably sold Cuban sandwiches when he opened the deli in '87 and Castro and Che always showed up at the Halloween parties and Ry Cooder was always hot on the juke box and the Chukker Nation has always been cool with the Secret Police. Don't you remember: The only time anyone played "For What It's Worth" on the juke box was when a narc walked into the bar and the Chukker was real hip to censorship[i.e. "Babylon Motel"] and since May of '70 we have all known the total unity which can occur when everybody has that revolutionary spirit and , besides all that, The Chukker was different from Jumpin' Johnny's or The Silver Dollar or Lee's Tomb or Down the Hatch.
At the Chukker there was always someone there who was interested in the latest out of Cuba.
best,
robertoreg