While the Carpenters are the most famous musical group to come from my hometown of Downey, California, I have to admit they aren't my favorite. Through the years I've come to appreciate Karen's melancholy vocals and admire Richard's arranging chops but, none the less, to me the greatest band to have risen up from Downey's old orange groves and new tract homes of the early 1960's were The Rumblers. And their signature song was the tough instrumental, "Boss!"

Often classified as a "surf" band, The Rumblers were actually a hard rocking, sharp dressing, R+B combo who were described by their original bassist, Wayne Matteson, as "a black band with white skin." The Rumblers recorded "Boss!" in the backroom of a Downey record store called Wenzel's Music and it was first released in 1962 on the Downey Records label (A small label run by the record shop owner Bill Wenzel with his son Jack, who had their biggest success with the surf classic "Pipeline" by the Chantays as well as cutting other great surf, R+B, blues, rockabilly sides through the late fifties and sixties). "Boss!" was a fairly big regional hit in California (it even charted to some extent nationally) and is now considered one of the essential early surf rock records. Despite recording some fantastic R+B, surf and proto-garage-punk instrumental follow ups, The Rumblers never had another hit and disbanded in 1965.

Bill Wenzel's other son, Tom (along with Tom's lovely wife Maxine), kept the record store going as an "oldies" store long after the glory days of the Downey Records label. When my brother Phil and I were kids we considered it a Mecca of sorts. It was the place where we could find old, rare blues, country, rockabilly and do-wop 45s, 78s and LPs. After I grew up and moved out of town, I'd still drive back to Wenzel's to see what "new old records" they had in stock. One day at Wenzel's, after The Blasters started getting well known, I was lucky enough to meet one of the original Rumblers, guitarist Johnny Kirkland, who just happened to have stopped by that day.

Well, to say that I gushed over him like a kid meeting Santa Claus would be an understatement. He just smiled as this wild young guy with a pompadour raved on and on about The Rumblers and how raw and powerful their records were. He was extremely kind and patient with me (as is another Rumbler I still cross paths with, saxophonist/philosopher Rex De Long). Sadly, Johnny Kirkland passed away a few years after that and Wenzel's Music finally closed it's doors in 2002.

My version of "Boss!" was recorded a couple years ago as a bonus track for my West of the West tribute to California songwriters CD. While I crank up my electric guitars, my fellow Downey guy and Rumblers connoisseur, Blaster Bill Bateman pounds out the big "Boss!" beat on the drums along with long time Guilty Man and long board surfer, Gregory Boaz, who does his always expert job on the throbbing electric bass. The superb engineer Craig Parker Adams recorded us at his Winslow Court Studio in Los Angeles. I had a ball finally recording a song that meant a lot to me growing up and I hope you get a kick out of it. If you do, I then suggest you look for some of the Rumblers tracks that are available on a variety of surf and instrumental rock and roll reissue CDs. Even better, go looking for some of those old Downey Records 45s. You might even like them more than The Carpenters.

- Dave Alvin, Sept 23, 2008