Back in 1964 and 65 the Torques got a lot of their songs from their heroes up in Durango, the Exotics. One of them was a song they'd never heard anywhere else called "My Linda" and its main charm was that it had a catchy three-chord riff running through it. E-D-A. We played the song at a few dances in 64 and early 65 and Wally Price, a fellow student from the class of 65, used to come up to the band and plead with us to let him sing the song because he knew a much better version with different words. Did we ever let him do it? I don't remember but we really should have because later in 1965 a song called "Gloria" came out by Them (and Shadows of Night), and it became the most popular dance song of the year. If we had only let Wally sing, we could have scooped the rest of the bands in the area by almost a year!
In my high school yearbook Wally wrote a few paragraphs telling me how cool I am then ended with probably the most sincere words found in the book: "NOW can I sing Gloria???" That summer of 65 I have a vague memory of Wally coming up and singing "Gloria" at the etc Club on Animas St. close to El Cantaro. He did a great job. As I remember, the club only lasted a couple of weeks before the city fathers shut it down for corrupting the youth of Farmington. Too late!
