Audio By Carbonatix
Speaking of late, great Lower Greenville venues …
Last weekend the boy and I picked over Paperbacks Plus, where I found a copy of David Seeley’s Too Cool to Get Married, a 1989 paperback collection of pieces written for, mostly, Texas Monthly. Included are some familiar pieces: that ’82 story about cruising Forest Lane, the May ’85 profile of my old friend and junior-high classmate Nancy “Shaggy” Moore, then the beloved host of KNON’s late-Saturday-nights Pajama Party; and the title tale that ran in May 1984, a sorta-kinda chronicle of what it was like to be young and in love in Dallas during those days. Two months later, Seeley, an early-days Observer-er, would follow that story with a sorta-kinda sequel that’s not in the book, “Take This Job and Love It,” about a Sanger-Harris secretary and her after-hours pursuits.
And time and again I kept coming across the word “Tango,” as in: Shannon Wynne’s dancing-frog-topped shut-up-and-danceteria at 1827 Greenville, where you’ll now find the Taco Cabana. Which reminded me: A few weeks ago, while trolling for a listening-pleasure week-ender, I found this recently posted short-but-sweet cassette keepsake: Gary Myrick at Tango some time in 1983. (Incidentally, that website, and the ones to which it links, may keep you busy for days.) For whatever reason I never got around to posting it, which is odd since this apparent radio broadcast (The Zoo? The Eagle?) features a pretty terrific version of “She Talks in Stereo,” which could then be heard on the great Valley Girl sound track. I didn’t find out till years later that Myrick is actually Dallas born-n-bred.
The photo above is what the place looked like outside. After the jump, go inside: You’ll find a recently posted 27-minute Joe “King” Carrasco and the Crowns feature dating back to ’84, shortly before Tango closed amidst some, ah, legal issues. That’s Joe Nick Patoski doing the intro’ing. But … wait. Who’s that we find interviewing the band at the 5:54 mark (and throughout)? Is that a young … Mike Rhyner? Why yes, yes it is. And … a young, unbespectacled Lisa Loeb! Quite the party party party weekend.
