Papa Jack's Ballad

2010/08/30 12:36 Filed in: Gypsy Culture
Every so often something happens to re-ignite my pursuit Gypsy MC history. Earlier this year I got a phone call from Greyback who told me about a chance encounter he’d had with a truck driver at a Beaumont What-a-Burger. I followed up on the lead and in the course of my conversations with the former member, Jon “Andy” Anderson, I feel I now know when Papa Jack first started the club in Corpus Christi. Andy’s account agrees with the timeline that Jack’s brother, Hap, provided but conflicts with official Gypsy histories written as early at 1976. The start-up date Andy claims was March 1968. I’m now convinced this is the date the Gypsy Motorcycle Club was established in Texas. This was the first of two epiphanies that I’ve had so far this year.

The second came at the Cannonball Rally when Black Rocker Dugger introduced me to J.D. Puente. He provided collaborative information to our start date and helped put another piece of the Gypsy puzzle together. J.D.’s a guitar picker and a song writer and has known the Gypsy MC for a long time. He has never been a member. J.D. was sixteen when he met the Gypsys and had a band that played at a bar called the Oil Patch. The bar was a local biker hangout, it probably became one because it was located on the second floor above the McKinzie’s Harley-Davidson. J.D. and his band got to know the Gypsys and they, in turn, got to know him. It wasn’t long before J.D. was playing at North Beach Clubhouse parties.

J.D. told me he was initially apprehensive about playing at the clubhouse but quickly became comfortable being around the club. He says that the Gypsy MC (especially Papa Jack) taught him how to party. J.D. and his band played for the club for about a year before J.D. went into the military. J.D. knew and entertained the Gypsys from late 1968 though 1969.

Papa Jack must have really liked J.D. and the music that his band played at the clubhouse. Jack asked J.D. to write a song about the Gypsys and include it in each set the band played. During the Cannonball Rally, J.D. played the song, Papa Jack’s Ballad several times. I made a recording of his performances that was subsequently turned into a YouTube video. You can enjoy the video by clicking on the following link: Papa Jack’s Ballad.

My favorite part of the song is J.D.’s reference to “Oyster Mountain”. I’ve been hearing stories about Papa Jack using the huge pile of oyster shells as his hill climbing exhibition and J.D. captures the legend perfectly. The lyrics go something like this:

Oyster shells are piled sky high
Papa Jack begins his climb
On the top sits Pop alone
A Gypsy king upon his throne

On his Gypsy motor-sickle
Chopped down Harley motor-sickle