September 11, 2006

Jimmie Zed Robinson (or Jim Robinson, or J. Zed Robinson, or J. Z. Robinson or Zeb Robinson) was probably the first internationally renowned musician to hail from Littlefield. His story begins in Littlefield and travels all over the world, thanks to his music as well as his "work". He sang, wrote songs for people such as Johnny Horton (who, by the way, was his cousin) and Waylon Jennings, and worked as an electrical crafts supervisor for Pullman Kellogg, erecting power plants all over the world.

Jimmie Zed started his musical career at KVOW (now KZZN) in Littlefield. In those days, recorded music was played on the radio, but live music was used for such things as commercials and live talk shows. Jimmie Zed was a disk jockey and had a little band that played with him. (Emil Macha can confirm this, as he also worked at the station at the time. In fact, Waylon Jennings got his start in Jimmie Zed’s band, according to Mrs. Smith.) I’ve been told all my life that the day I was born, Jimmie Zed and his band played a song dedicated to my mother and me, called "Baby-Doll".

He joined the Navy in 1942 at the age of 17 (he got his grandmother to sign a waiver to allow this. She thought she was signing a waiver for him to continue boxing, something he’d been doing for quite some time,) Following is an excerpt from an article Jimmie Zed wrote about his time in the Navy.

"It all started back in 1942, just after the invasion of North Africa. We took a little place called Port Lyautey and that’s where it happened. We lived in tents which would house five men in comfort. One night we were all sitting in our tent and one of the boys broke out a guitar and we started to sing. Then one of the other boys found another guitar, then a fiddle, and a bass fiddle, and also an accordion. Then last of all, here was I and an old washboard. That also completed the combo.

"The soldiers and sailors seemed to go for it in a big way so the Welfare officer wanted us to put on a series of shows for the men of our own base. Everything went over so good that our commanding officer sent us to Casablanca to play over the American Expeditionary Station. We got request upon request, even the French and Arabs seemed to like it, because we even got requests from them.

"When President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had their conference at Casablanca, we played for them. Churchill said that was his first time to hear American HILLY BILLY music and he liked it very much.

"Early in 1945 Humphrey Bogart and Company came to Oran where we were at the time. We played the music for his show and he liked us so much that he got permission from our commanding officer for us accompany him on his tour. We left North Africa and went to Sicily, from there to Italy, Persia, India, and back to southern France. We left Bogart in Marsallies and went on our own again. We went to the A.E.S in Italy and stayed there about three weeks. We put on shows for various troops then we went back to Port Lyautey for our orders back to the states."

Jimmie Zed was known for his personality, as well. He loved to have fun and laugh, and in school was very often the instigator of practical jokes.

For example, in about 1942 (according to local historian Bettye Kate Smith, who grew up with Jimmie Zed and his sisters), Jimmy Zed played football for the Littlefield Wildcats. But he always managed to associate himself with the band, because the band got to go to contests and such when no one else could. In the early 1940’s, during World War II, gas was rationed, and very few people had gas to go anywhere. The school, realizing the importance of band in the lives of war-time students, always made sure they got to go to contest.

On one particular trip, returning from contest in Amarillo, Jimmy Zed had finagled his way into the band as a drummer and as the band manager. As band manager, it was his responsibility to be sure all the instruments were loaded and tied down properly on top of the bus, so no one ever questioned Jimmy Zed’s "messing" with the bus.

As the old bus was coming down a very steep incline near Canyon known as "T-Anchor Hill" because of the insignia that was there at the time, an unusual thing happened. Strange, loud thumps and crashes were heard under the hood. Lyle Brandon, who was the bus driver, threw on the brakes and pulled the bus over as fast as he could. He jumped out, and had all the band members get off the bus. Mr. Brandon lifted the hood on one side (in those days, the hood lifted from each side). He was immediately engulfed by foam. From the smell, Mr. Brandon knew just what it was. Someone – no one confessed – had bought some beer while in Amarillo (one of the few places you could purchase such things). They could only figure out one way to get it back to Littlefield. The top of the bus was out of the question, because of all the instruments already stashed up there. So they put the beer bottles in "strategic" places under the hood of the bus, placing them so they wouldn’t jiggle loose.

In those days, beer only came in glass bottles. As the engine heated up, the bottles began to pop and foam. As the story goes, no one ever admitted to the deed, and no one ever admitted to knowing who the culprit was. No action was ever taken by the school board. Just for the record, though, Jimmie Zed later confessed that he and a co-conspirator thought it was a good idea at the time.

Much more can be told about Jimmie Zed Robinson. He was a talented and funny man who was loved by many. But those are stories for another time – or reasons to come to the museum.