“They did a hell of a lot of drugs back in the 60’s / 70’s.” That’s what I remember my dude Big Stacks saying when we were talking about the rock band America‘s AM Gold hit “Tin Man” over on my play sister Venereum’s favorite message board Soulstrut.com. Well, if America was on that good, I think Juarez was on something a little bit worse than good. Man, I don’t know WHAT the hell Juarez was on.
Juarez was an obscure rock band who put out a self titled LP on Decca back in 1970 (and it’s pretty cheap if you want that vinyl– MP3s are even cheaper, but the choice is yours like a Dres and Mr. Lawnge song). There may be some info about them somewhere online but I couldn’t find any (I googled them and searched vigorously for about 20 seconds… nada), so you’ll have to find that info on your own. But I had this album sitting on my shelves since the mid 90’s and I always liked this one song, “St. Mary’s Railroad”. Partially because there was a little breakdown I thought might make for decent MPC fodder but mainly because it’s just a sick song. Sick as in ill, dope, fresh, totally awesome but also sick as in this sh*t is kinda weird. So when I started grabbing records and throwing them on the platter while making my Soulman “The Truth Is Forever” rock record mix back in 2009 I came across the Juarez album and said “oh, HELL yeah” and set it aside to save it for the closer.
Somebody waaay deeper ( and waaay more shroomed out) than me could probably tell you exactly what Juarez is talking about on this song- I really don’t know, and don’t care to psychoanalyze it that intently to decipher the madness. But I love lines like “put your husband on the shelf / give your wife to someone else / and ask them if they really know the difference” and “we would love to see you naked / while your angels laugh behind their crucifix”. And the chorus- “I am not what reason tells you / I am different / you’re a fool and I will laugh at you forever”… man, i want that written on my tombstone. Like I said, I don’t know what it’s all about but I know genius material when I hear it.
That “Truth Is Forever” mix was very well received, albeit a little controversial because I knowingly went off of my well beaten break mix path and played some outside-that-box-y’all-wanna-put-me-in stuff. A number of songs garnered more than a few “Soulman, what’s that song you played…?” questions- “St. Mary’s Railroad” definitely was among the most asked about tunes. So if you didn’t know before, now you know.
THAT REAL SCHITT 
It took me 3 years to track down the vinyl and scored two sealed copies when I did. It sounded like something off a holy grail Psych Lp and ended up being the total opposite.
I don’t even remember what the rest of the album sounded like… pretty sure it was nothing like this song.
3 years??? Where do you live Antarctica? That’s like a $5 lp Lol
No, it took me that long to sleuth it out without using the internet. It is a fairly common cheap record even where I live, but I had not heard the song until I downloaded Phill’s mix.