Category Archives: Byron

The Clue of Midland, TX

The Clue Byron 45 Bad TimesThe Clue of Midland, Texas cut one of the classic garage numbers “Bad Times”, featuring swinging drumming, screams and a sputtering lead vocal, pumping organ and a good guitar break. Despite the single’s fame in recent years, I found very little info about the Clue until Steve Thomas commented below. Members were:

Steve Thomas – lead singer and bass
Larry Grubb – vocals and lead guitar
John Kasson – keyboards
Billy Morris – drums

Steve Thomas wrote “Bad Times”, and Steve Thomas and Larry Grubb wrote the flip side, “She’s the Reason”, an eerie ballad that borrows some of the melody from the Beatles “I’ll Be Back”. Recorded and released circa 1967 on Byron BR 101. I can’t think of any other releases on the Byron label.

Byron Barber (“Bo”) was drummer for the Sensations who cut “Sweet Little Rock and Roller” / “Big Boss Man” in 1965 as the Sensations Sound on Kingco Records. In 1966 Barber produced the Clue 45 for his own Byron label, engineered by Ken Hall.

The Sensations members included Bill Thomas on bass and Dennis Grubb on guitar and vocals. According to Steve Thomas, Bill Thomas was not related, but Larry Grubb was the younger brother of Dennis Grubb of the Sensations.

Anyone have a photo of the band?

Info on the Sensations and Bo Barber from LoneStarStomp.

The Clue Byron 45 She's the Reason