Story Behind The Song

My mother is 90 years old and on her birthday I was asking her questions about dim events in my own childhood. I remembered traveling at night through that area in the fifties during a particularly bad dust storm. We had stopped at a gravel covered truck stop she said was in eastern Arizona to wait it out. Remember, this was before the interstates, so to pass the time we had the radio on searching for something to listen to. I recalled being in the back with my two brothers and my sister looking between the front seats and seeing the glow of the AM radio dial, like a 'Mystic Eye', and being in wonder at what was coming out of that speaker. That memory has never left me and is the basis of this song, 'Renegade Radio-XERF'.

Song Description

If you traveled the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona area in the fifties and early sixties about your only driving companion at night was the AM radio in your car. At that time there were only two stations that you could receive reliably out in the desert. One was 50,000 watt KOMA, a clear channel AM station out of Oklahoma City and the other was the legendary XERF, broadcasting from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, down highway 90 across from the border town of Del Rio, Texas. At times XERF was able to broadcast at 250,000 watts and was one of the famous or infamous 'Border Blaster' stations of that era. Much has been written about this station, from being the fabled starting place for Wolfman Jack, to the extremely eclectic programming, to the corruption, fighting and ultimate nationalization by the Mexican Ferderales trying to stop the criminal activity around the station and so much more, Songs such as 'Heard It On The X' by ZZ Top and others immortalized the legend, some stories true, some maybe a little exaggerated....., or not, who really knows? (Google XERF)

Lyrics

Renegade Radio-XERF

Written by: David Thompson

Verse 1

It's 3 in the mornin', I'm barely awake
Headed south out of San Anton'
Out in the desert the wind is blowin'
On highway 90 to Mexico

Verse 2

There's a AM radio in my ol' Lincoln
With a glowin' dial like a mystic eye
If I get lucky it'll be there waitin'
XERF comin' outa the sky

Pre Chorus;

Those years out on the highway before the interstates
Tourist reptile houses, fortune tellers temptin' fate
Burma Shave signs and little bungalow motels
And a radio station right across the border, Ciudad Acuna, Mexico

Chorus;

It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
Renegade Radio

Verse 3

With a history just made for movies
Truth or legend, what's your guess
Wolfman Jack and Federales
ZZ Top and all the rest

Pre Chorus
Chorus
Instrumental

Bridge
The radio was fadin' as it started gettin' light
But, I'll always carry with me the memory of that night
If you drive all night in Texas, Son, I'm here to tell ya'
'Bout an outlaw station right across the border
A Renegade Radio that cast a spell...

Outro;

It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
It was Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio, remember it well
Renegade Radio
Renegade Radio.....
Yeah...

CP 2008 David Thompson