Herb Steiner...

Kenny Davis · From: Great State of Oklahoma

Herb - We did Nyquil Blues about 2:00 a.m. this morning at the Okla. International Bluegrass Festival - The ol' campground jam session...Where do we mail the check???

By the way, it's been a long time since I've heard your song...In the song, is the line "Give me a roll of duct tape and a case of Nyquil please" there? Someone asked the guy singing it about the duct tape, and he said it wasn't a good time & place to talk about it!

Fred Shannon · From: Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 12:44 AM.]

Herb Steiner · From: Spicewood TX 78669

Well, mail the check to Herb Steiner, PMB 184, 6705 Hwy 290 West, suite 502, Austin TX 78735. I charge a $2.00 "explanation fee" for the duct tape story.

The story of the song is this: In 1975 I had left Michael Murphey's band due to MMM's move to Colorado (replaced by the excellent John Macy, incidentally), and had joined Alvin Crow's Pleasant Valley Boys. Recently rejoining the band was harmonica player Roger Crabtree who had just left Waylon Jenning's band. Waylon's band was famous for using certain "stimulants" and to "come down" from the speed rush, they'd drink Nyquil.

I never dug the stuff... either stuff..., but the band was amused with it in a recreational way. Apparently, Nyquil can really knock you out when you drink a larger than normal dose, as I found out one night when Roger fell out of his 2nd level bunk on the bus and landed right in front of my bunk... after dropping about 3 feet... and didn't wake up!

I thought, "hmmm... there's a song in this."

The next day, somewheres in Oklahoma, I picked up the Nyquil box and started gleaning phrases off the packaging: "for the restful sleep your body needs," "take only as directed," "do not exceed recommended dosage," "keep out of reach of children," "analgesic decongestant with an anti-histamine," that sort of stuff.

The band also was into duct tape to fix about anything from holes in boots to broken whatevers, and the bus was full of duct tape all over the place. I despised duct tape, since its the wrong way to fix about anything that you use it for, except to patch ducts. My disdain for duct tape was one of the band's jokes, which is another story too long to go into here. Anyway, it seemed natural to add duct tape to the song's first verse about scoring the Nyquil at the 7-11.

Incidentally, the original lyrics were not "7-11" but in fact were "Toot 'N Totem," which was a chain of Amarillo convenience stores.

Anyway, we recorded the song on our first album and when Polydor picked up the album and released it in 1977, "Nyquil" was the first single and was "Country Pick Of the Week" in Cash Box magazine. This aroused the attention of Vicks, whose legal dept. contacted Polydor about "dilution of trademark" in using the name and phraseology from the box without their permission. They were particularly upset with the term "Nyquil junkie"... wow, touchy touchy!

The president of Polydor USA, a New Yorker who who hated Oklahoman Alvin and his manager, had no problem killing the record.

After that, the song fell into "bar band legend" status until about 5 years ago when it was released on a Rhino records western swing compilation CD. Alvin had cut the song three times over the years and the Rhino version was the final one, with Scott Walls on steel guitar. It's also been recorded by Mike Hearne and the South By Southwest Band (not affiliated with the SXSW Festival), as well as a band in Nebraska somewhere. On the most recent album by The Cornell Hurd Band, "Song of South Austin," there's the latest recording of it with yours truly once again on steel guitar. At least, those are the versions that my publisher is aware of... there could be others that we don't know about.

This is a long post, I know, but I have so many stories that folks have told me about the song and their own histories with it that telling them all would rival a Jody Carver post. So I'll just let it lay for another day.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Fred Shannon · From: Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 12:44 AM.]

Paul Graupp · From: Macon Ga USA

Fred Shannon · From: Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 12:45 AM.]

Chuck S. Lettes · From: Denver, Colorado

Hello Herb,
I love the story behind the music! In the l970s I played in a touring band, Sour Mash, and we covered your tune. I even remember singing it on the bus on occasion ("for the restful sleep my body needs..."). We also dubbed duct tape as "the musician's best friend." The tape held together my old MSA case for a few years. Hope all is well for you, Herb.
Chuck

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Didn't realise that Roger Crabtree had been a Waylor as well, although he is credited on some of Waylons 1970s recordings.

Cool story Herbster, always wondered about that song and the inspiration behind it.

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