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“Es Gibt Kein Bier Auf
Hawaii” A car crash in broad daylight in the summer of 1964 signaled
the end of Die Twistsensation aus USA. “The Teddy” spent much of the next
two years being reassembled at Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts
and Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia, watching the Rolling Stones'
meteoric rise. “Those were hard times,” Travis says. “Mick
was doing routines I had done and could no longer do. I could sing,
but without the dancing, the wild leaps and gyrations, I thought my career
was finished.”
The press clipping (left) from The Five Beats both cheered and depressed Travis. “I was proud of them, and the article confirmed they were as good as I said, but I was also painfully aware that I was no longer in the picture.” Then the Red Cross stepped in. “They brought the sailor an old guitar, For to pass the time away, And as he lay in his hospital bed, He taught himself to play.” — TEP “End of Summer” He began composing original songs, satirizing pop tunes and soon, at the behest of the Red Cross, he was being wheeled from ward to ward, entertaining other bedridden troops, until, by the time Travis was Honorably Discharged in 1966, he had written dozens of spoofs and some 40 original songs! |
