The Mcartnees

Coral, Marilyn, and Fulmore Hinkley, along with Dad, Harlan had a long history of local talent shows around Big Spring Texas and of course, neighbouring Lubbock.

Coral takes up the story:

“We were known in all over Howard County and always played the Rattlesnake Round Up and the Commanche Trail Park Amphitheatre with a band we called “The Mazdaznan”. Dad took a keen but amateur interest in syncretistic religions at the time, so “The Mazdaznan” was a kind of homage to that and to naturism, which was Dad’s real obsession. (Only Fulmore ever kept up the naturism after Dad went to Huntsville. He is on the internet a lot since the auto crash, with what he calls, "virtual naturism".)

Anyway, We were not getting many shows in ‘64 because everyone wanted to be like The Beatles and no one was into syncretistic religion so Dad had the idea of changing the name to “The Mcartnees” after Paul in The Beatles. Dad used to write a lot and sent a storyline to Screen Gems about a band called “The McCartnees” who did madcap stuff to a musical soundtrack, but nothing ever came of it.

The worst part was learning the guitars left handed. Marilyn was ok because she played the Theremin, but Fulmore and I, well I guess it took us the best part of a week to get the hang of playing Hoffner Violin guitars upside down. Dad said, “You can’t have a band called The Mcartnees and then play regular bass guitars”. Farnon, that’s the brother who played drums hated it and left to go to Frisco. (It meant we were without a drummer for a while so Dad told us just to shuffle and grind rythmically.) Farne was with a band called The Thirteenth Floor Elevators but hated that too and settled for a night job escorting Mexicans I believe and helping them to settle in Texas.

Our big break with The Mcartnees was when the single went out on the local radio. The early morning DJ at K-JOY played “Wrong Way Bass” over and over. We got a call from Ahmet Ertegun. It then got exciting and we flew out of McMahon-Wrinkle into a life we could have only dreamed of.

Coral has kindly allowed me to reprint some of the lyrics to Their hit, WRONG WAY BASS:

You can shout from the hilltops

You can make a long face

But you jest can’t get nowheres

With that darn wrong way bass

You can play a harmonica

Or a cheap tin Kazoo

But that darn wrong way bass

Gets the better of you…

CHORUS

Wrong Way Bass

Wrong Way Bass

I'm a slappin' it

An' a pluckin' it

All over the place

(Editor's note: The music to Wrong Way Bass bears an uncanny resemblance to the Mary Ford and Les Paul version of Mockingbird Hill)