Tex Rubinowitz (singer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Lee "Tex" Rubinowitz (* 10. October 1944 in Abilene , Texas ) is an American rockabilly - Singer-songwriter and - guitarist . His most famous song is Hot Rod Man , which he released in 1979 in the USA and a little later in Europe.

life and career

Born in Abilene, Rubinowitz moved early in 1954 with his parents and younger brother to Springfield , a suburb of the federal capital Washington . He attended Lee High School in Springfield. In 1962, the fan of Link Wray , Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins began playing guitar. After graduating from high school, he studied for a year in Hattiesburg at the University of Southern Mississippi , but then returned to Springfield and worked as a ski technician .

From 1970 he played in clubs in the area and founded the band Casa Loma Cowboys . He performed with them mainly in military bases. In 1975 they released a single, That Old Patchwork Quilt and South of the Border , on the Aladdin label. In 1976 Rubinowitz received his first long contract in a country club in Alexandria , where he performed on the weekends. The Casa Loma Cowboys separated from Rubinowitz in 1978. In the meantime he had met Billy Hancock , in whose band, the Tennessee Rockets , he played guitar and sang, also on their single release Rootie Tootie 1979. A little later, the first Tex-Rubinowitz single Bad Boy was also on the Ripsaw label , Cover version of a 1959 Marty Wilde hit, released with B-side Feelin 'Right Tonight . He was accompanied by Hancock and Bob Newscaster, Bryan Smith and Jeff Lodsun when he was recording on December 16, 1978 at Bias Studios in Virginia. The recordings for Hot Rod Man , released a little later, and its B-side Ain't It Wrong , as written by Rubinowitz for the A-side, took place on the same day with the same staff. Rubinowitz 'mother Arthurea B. Rubinowitz paid for the session, so Tex named her next to himself and Billy Hancock as the third producer of the songs. Both singles received ample airplay on the radio stations. Rubinowitz and his live band, the Bad Boys , performed in and around Washington; one of the concerts in the Wax Museum , which was closed in the 1980s, drew an audience of 1,400, 400 more than the nightclub allowed. At the 1979 New Year's Eve concert at the Takoma Theater in Washington , he surprised fans and the band with the announcement that he would end his career.

But Rubinowitz continued and toured Europe in 1981. Hot Rod Man was released in the UK by the Silent label, which was distributed by Stiff Records . A 12-inch single with all four tracks of the two Ripsaw singles was released in Canada at the time; in France a five-track mini-LP in 10-inch format was released, which also contained the song Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache - also recorded during the Ripsaw session. The album Tex Rubinowitz brought five new tracks in 1986 - in addition to again the four songs from the Ripsaw singles.

Hot Rod Man became popular with many rockabilly revivalists and often covered . In 1985 the song was used in the soundtrack of the film Roadhouse 66 (German title: Highway 66 ) with Willem Dafoe .

Rubinowitz ended his career in the music business for good in 1987 and began a middle-class life. In 2012 he lived in Springfield.

Trivia

The German cartoonist and writer Dirk Wesenberg , who lives in Austria, named himself after Tex Rubinowitz.

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Sheree Homer: Catch That Rockabilly Fever , McFarland 2009, ISBN 0-7864-5811-9 , Seven: Rockabilly Revivalists , pp. 200ff., Online search at GoogleBooks
  2. ↑ Buzz McClain: The Kindest Cut , Washington City Paper from August 17, 2001
  3. ↑ Buzz McClain: The Kindest Cut , Washington City Paper of 17 August 2001. The live band - consisting of guitarist Eddie Angel (later Los Straitjackets called) and Jimmie Silman III Ratso , bassist Johnny Castle and drummer Scotty Flowers - then made continued under the Switchblade name after Joe Dougherty replaced Flowers.
  4. ↑ Craig Morrison: Go Cat Go !: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers , University of Illinois Press, 1996, ISBN 0-252-06538-7 ; Entry: Billy Hancock , p. 240f., Online version at Google.Books
  5. ↑ Highway 66 - Soundtrack in the IMDb
  6. ↑ profile as it meetup group
  7. ↑ https://kurier.at/kultur/tex-rubinowitz-es-macht-spass-die-leser-zu-irritieren/118.294.376
personal data
SURNAME Rubinowitz, Tex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rubinowitz, Arthur Lee (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rockabilly musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Abilene , Texas