The Krayolas - Happy Go Lucky (2022)

"Rock & Soul in Technicolor"

This gem of a CD arrived in my mailbox this week and I haven't listened to much else so I figured I'd go ahead and throw together a post about the thing. It's a restored, reassembled, remastered, rejiggered, repackaged, reissue of the 1982 debut album from the San Antonio garage band known as "The Tex-Mex Beatles." As band leader Hector Saldana explains:

"Happy Go Lucky" is the 21st century edition of The Krayolas' 1982 debut album. It features new mixes for everything, new color photos, a new title, extra songs, liner notes, a bonus track. It is not a straight-up reissue. Think of it like the differences between the American and British album of the early Beatles with different track listings. "Happy Go Lucky" is closer to the original planning, rehearsals and vision. It includes 8 of the 10 songs from the original 1982 album.

I never thought it would ever see the light of day or be preserved and properly mixed. The multitrack tapes didn't exist as far as we knew. They surfaced in Houston after Savage Young Krayolas came out. I do think that the music holds up because it was made with a lot of love and fun in our hearts -- and it definitely lives up to its new title, "Happy Go Lucky."

Trouser Press wrote that the 1982 debut LP was...

an impressive start for this Mexican-American pop group from San Antonio, Texas; their music has a joyous, unpretentious quality that makes every cut a treat. Basing their sound on the ’60s — there are traces of Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Box Tops, Monkees and, of course, the Beatles — the Krayolas stood apart from others sharing the basic pop impulse by using brass on seven of the album’s ten tracks. The horns never get in the way, but instead add a soulful edge to the sweet innocent voices. A consistently pleasing album.

And if only they'd heard these new mixes. I have a vinyl copy of the aforementioned 1982 debut album so I was already in love with these tracks, but lemme tell ya: the new mixes sound fantastic, especially the vocals and the West Side Horns. Great tunes with lots of hooks and energy. They call it "bubblegum soul" but I'd call it lively power pop as run through both '60s and '80s British Invasions via the Texas rock tradition of Sam the Sham, the Sir Douglas Quintet, and other San Antonio garage band legends.

And dig these crazy duds:

Photo shoot February 13, 1982. From left: Barry Smith, David Saldana, Hector Saldana, John Harris. After the photo session, the band played a Valentine party gig and sang the songs from their newly recorded debut album onstage for the first time.
Photo credit: Bill Daras. Copyright 2022 Box Records Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

So just weeks after recording this album on January 4-6, 1982, the band could be found playing live in Houston:

The Krayolas singing “Happy Go Lucky” for the first time onstage at a Houston gig on February 13, 1982. The previously unpublished photo shows Barry Smith on combo organ (left), drummer David Saldana singing lead out front, John Harris on drums and guitarist Hector Saldana.
Photo credit: Bill Daras. Copyright 2022 Box Records Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

I was only 15 years old at the time, had no way to travel the 80 miles from my house to the historic venue, and had no date for Valentine's Day, but I feel confident in saying I would have loved the show. Saldana recalls the "party got pretty wild and was raided by Houston police." Good times, indeed.

Flyer for the 2nd annual St. Valentine’s Massacre-ade Ball and Birthday Blowout at the Magnolia Room in downtown Houston on February 13, 1982.
Photo credit: Courtesy Bill Summersett. Copyright 2022 Box Records Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

I encourage you to get over to thekrayolas.bandcamp.com, check out some tunes, and spend some money. You won't be disappointed.

Tracks: This new release has 12 tracks compared to the original album's 10. My top picks are Happy Go Lucky (which includes a tasty sax solo from Louie Bustos), the energetic rocker All Of The Time, the beautiful chord progressions and Brian Wilson-esque harmonies of Don't Give Up Hope, and the unabashedly hook-laden pop of You're Not My Girl.

The 1982 album remakes of Aw Tonight and Cry Cry, Laugh Laugh are not included on this release and were left on the cutting room floor. Cry Cry, Laugh Laugh is one of my favorite Krayolas tunes, so I'm a little disappointed in its absence, but I've got other recordings of that track. In the place of those two cuts are two songs written for the 1982 album: a mid-tempo love tune, Love Is Gonna Getcha, and the decidedly New Wave-ish penultimate track, Dorothy. Track 6, Al Coda No. 1, is a fantastically fun mash-up of other tunes created as a tribute to the horn arrangements of trumpeter Charlie McBurney, the leader of the original West Side Horns.

Track 12, We the People, is a folk-pop bonus track inspired by Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and closes the album on an uplifting message that's still relevant today.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: More on my introduction to The Krayolas and their music can be found in this previous post. In 1982, my knowledge of local garage bands was very limited to select Houston bands such as The Judy's and The Dishes; I missed out on this good stuff back then but I'm glad it finally found me.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Savage Young Krayolas (2020)
Best Riffs Only (2007)