From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Sep 1, 2002  2:41 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Roy Head
 
ROY HEAD

Born 1 September 1941, Three Rivers, Texas

Singer, guitarist.
Roy Head is remembered as a one-shot artist, but in fact, he was one of
the most versatile stylists of the sixties, capable of hard R&B/rock tunes,
mournful, soul-tinged country and straight R&B and blues covers
Born to a mother who was a full-blooded Indian and a father from Chicago,
Roy moved to Crystal City near the Mexican border when he was small.
All his friends there were black and that's when he started listening to R&B.
Roy formed his first band, the Traits, after the family moved to San Marcos,
trying for the butt-shaking energy of early rock 'n' roll. The Traits were
discovered by Ricky Ware at KTSA in San Antonio, who recorded them
performing a song called "Cathy Lou". Ware took the demo to T-N-T Records
and Roy and the Traits recorded six singles for T-N-T, most of which are on a
fabulously rare album released in 1958. There were more singles on little
labels like Renner and Suave that did little or no business.
The big break for Roy and the Traits came in 1965 with "Treat Her Right".
According to Roy, the song was originally a double-entendre blues called
"Talking 'bout a Cow" ("If you don't treat her right/You'll get no milk and
cream
tonight.") The verses didn't rhyme and didn't scan, but the song was a big hit
at dances, played to a "Mashed Potato" riff. Gene Kurtz, the bass player of
the Traits, cleaned up the lyrics and inserted a horn riff at the end that he
had
adapted from a TV commercial. Huey Meaux placed the master with Don
Robey's Backbeat label and the result was a # 2 hit, both pop and R&B.
Success brought its problems though, conflicts with the other members of
the Traits, lawsuits even. Roy put together a trio, but he couldn't recapture
the success that had come and gone so quickly. He signed with Mercury in
1967, but by then he was drinking heavily. Like Ronnie Self, Roy's behavior
was often self-destructive. However, by 1974 he had switched to country
music and charted 24 country hits between 1974 and 1985 (only 5 of these
reaching the Top 40), most of them on ABC-Dot, later Elektra.
Since then Roy has recorded for more labels than he can remember.

CD: Treat Her Right (Varese Sarabande VSD 5618). Backbeat recordings.
The Bear Family LP "Treat Her Right" (BFX 15307) is now deleted.
Further reading: Colin Escott, Tattooed on their tongues. New York :
Schirmer, 1996, page 2-11. (This bio is largely based on that chapter.)