El Paso: Before leaving, I did the town—my way!
I shopped for Western wear, pretty unsuccessfully. Good lord, the current fashions in boots and hats re just awful! I did find a good silver belly felt hat in the Bob Wills/Texas Playboys style, so I can fit in with the band this weekend. Still, I was shocked: El Paso used to be this wonderful place where you could go find factory seconds at ridiculously cheap prices, as El Paso is a hub of manufacturing for companies like Lucchese and Tony Lama. But I guess I’ve watched too many episodes of Paladin, I don’t know what the heck people are buying these days, but it sure wasn’t my kind! I’m happy with the hat I found, though.
I stopped by the Plaza Hotel downtown, where Elizabeth Taylor stayed while filming the movie Giant in 1955 (and where people used to watch battles of the Mexican Revolution, just over the border, from the rooftop).
I went by Concordia Cemetery, where Old West character/outlaw John Wesley Hardin is buried. (The rest of the cemetery is super cool, as well, in a real Old West kind of way.)
I went by both Bobby Fuller Drive (named after one of my favorite music heroes, the guy who had the hit recording of “I Fought the Law,” and about a million other great records), and also the place where Bobby Fuller, his brother Randy Fuller, and the Fuller family used to live back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at 9509 Album Drive. This is the house where Bobby had his first recording studio, where the first version of “I Fought the Law” was recorded. The Fuller family modified the house back in the day to have a recording studio window in between the engineering booth and the live room, and a large echo chamber poured in concrete in the backyard. The house just sold in May of this year, and I was sad to see that it had received the Chip and Joanna Gaines bland remodel. No evidence it was once a home to some of America’s (and Texas’s) best rock ’n’ roll.
There’s so many other weird and cool parts of El Paso. It’s funky, it’s kind of dangerous, it’s right on the border of Mexico. It’s just a really interesting place. I’m happy to be here again, even if just for a few hours. On to Fort Worth!
See more photos and a video at Deke’s original Facebook post!
