In the rural pantheon where the rock ’n’ roll gods and goddesses assemble, there’s a special tract of land for San Diego’s Beat Farmers. Forty-two years after their first harvest, and the loss of fearless frontman Country Dick Montana, the Beat Farmers are still rock and rototilling and will be appearing at Moe’s Alley on Dec. 11.
Original guitarist Jerry Raney has had a jaw-dropping life, with stories upon stories to tell—beginning with his friendship with school chum Lester Bangs, perhaps the last great rebel music journalist. “When I first moved to El Cajon, which is a suburb of San Diego, I met Lester right before we started eighth grade. We went to El Cajon Junior High, and El Cajon High School together. He was quite a nut. I mean, obviously he had a higher IQ than the rest of us, but he was also just a weirdo,” the septuagenarian says from his home in San Diego.
Growing up as a “welfare kid,” originally in El Centro, California, Raney was raised by a single mom in the barren desert. Luckily, in 1958 a small radio station, KAMP, began broadcasting Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard—and a young Raney would wander into the station, hang out with the DJs and watch the cars drive by through the studio picture window. Like something out of American Graffiti. And back at home, his mom fell in love with Elvis.
But it was in 1964 that things took a turn. “I went to see A Hard Day’s Night and I just walked out of there thinking that the music was super cool. When the Beatles first came out, I don’t know if people that weren’t there could realize how different it sounded than all the other music. So they were really different, and I can’t lie about it. I thought the idea of girls chasing you down the street because you’re carrying a guitar was pretty cool,” Raney says.
At one point in ’69 Raney was hired to help Norman Greenbaum, who had huge success with his song “Spirit in the Sky,” work on more songs. Raney traveled up to Northern California to offer musical support to the nascent superstar. “Yeah, it was nuts. I was watching this, you know, song turn into a big hit, you know, And he just, people were calling him a rock ’n’ roll star and I was going, man, this guy, all he wants to do is stay out on his little ranch farm, and smoke pot and milk the goat. It was befuddling and I eventually packed up and left back to San Diego,” Raney laughs.
Lester Bangs, who would become a countercultural hero, wasn’t Raney’s main influence but he did introduce the young Beat Farmer to a seminal album. “He did influence me to a point. I would have probably never listened to the Trout Mask Replica album by Captain Beefheart. You know, if it wasn’t for him, I’d probably never heard ‘Diddy Wha Diddy.’”
You could draw a line between Beefheart and the Beat Farmers, especially when the raucous Country Dick led the band—but how did they persist over the last bunch of decades?
“It’s just kind of something that’s happening,” Raney explains. “We don’t even look for gigs or anything like that. Joey Harris has his band here in San Diego called Joey Harris and the Mentals. And they’re a great three-piece band. And then, you know, Beat Farmers Buddy Blue and Rolle Love and me had started, you know, the Flying Putos.”
The Flying Putos were essentially the Beat Farmers, and fan and friend Mojo Nixon used his sway on the Sirius Radio Outlaw Country Station to get the band booked on some Outlaw Country Cruises on the Norwegian Cruise Line. “So, you know, basically people make offers, and we take them up on it sometimes. It’s not like we do big tours or anything like that. We just zip up to Northern California for four days or something like we’re going to do in December at Moe’s Alley,” Raney explains.
The Beat Farmers perform at 8pm on Dec. 11 at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25 adv/$30 door. moesalley.com
