Quarter-Circle 7

A while back I developed a rule that was supposed to discourage me from buying records that I hadn't intended on buying before getting to the record store, in an effort to save money & to not end up w/ any stinkers (which had happened one too many times).

Luckily, I am not known for my self-control and I ended up buying this record by the late 60's group Los Robbins, from Honduras. Even more than the rule, the fact that this record is a 10" made it even weirder that I was walking up to the cash register with it (I have very few 10" records because they don't fit w/ the 12" records and I never think to listen to them because they're at the very end of the shelf)... but I did give it a quick listen, and it had elements of rocksteady, flamenco, garage rock, and weird Joe Meek sounding synthesizers... and what the hell, I've been going batty for all this South American Pop & R'n'R lately & I figured I love to hear what Honduras' most famous band was all about. Los Robbins were the first band to put out a 45 in their country, and most of their recordings were done in El Salvador.

I guess it helps that I've always been curious about Honduras because my Mother's family lived there for a few years after my Uncle Daniel was born. My grandfather Wesley Simmons II was a scientist working in the banana fields... testing stuff. I've always tried to figure out exactly what he did there but he's the hardest person to get answers out of so it's always been a mystery. Even my Mom & Uncles thought he was a secret agent for most of their lives, when in fact he was worked at a cancer research center in Maryland and often was traveling around the world. Anyways, my grandparents split up in Honduras and that's why my grandmother caught a boat and decided to move to Fort Worth with no money & three kids. To make a long story short, I'm so glad I forgot about that stupid rule and bought this record... because it's golden.