Letters

The Ballad of Bevo

After reading the letter from Franklin “Gus” Harris Jr. ’66 in the fall issue of Spirit, I wanted to share an additional story surrounding the events of Bevo’s capture.

In November 1963, a few Texas A&M students and myself were listening to a local AM radio station in a small rent house on Poplar Street when we heard a broadcast that alleged the Aggies had stolen Bevo from The University of Texas. Naturally, we became intrigued.

Inspired by the events, I quickly wrote a three-chord song in about 15 minutes. I only knew three cords: C, G7 and Dammit F. Dammit F was the hardest of the chords to play, and I usually ended up not quite playing it or almost playing it, whichever came first. The entire Poplar Street assembly was so enraptured by this song that we decided to record it.

The next day, Jesse “Clark” Coleman ’61 and I went to the student center and borrowed one of those reel-to-reel tape recorders from the Singing Cadets. Returning to Poplar House, we recorded “The Ballad of Bevo” in about 30 minutes under the name “The Louis and Clark Expedition.” I was strumming those three chords on my antique GWB Kalamazoo guitar, while Clark loped a Vega 5 string banjo and made a few cow bellowing noises as I called for Bevo.

After finishing, we went to Loupot’s Bookstore to give Old Army Lou (Judson Loupot Sr. ’32) the tape. We knew that he had helped the cadets sneak off with the longhorn mascot, and he was immediately interested in the song, fronting the funds to have it produced as a single-sided 45 in a recording studio in Houston.

We took the tape down to the local radio station, and the rest is history. The record took off, staying at the No. 1 spot in Bryan-College Station for almost four weeks. They were playing it nonstop for the first week and by the third week, still about every hour. Every Aggie in the surrounding counties was laughing about the “Ballad of Bevo,” and many were buying it. After the madness was over, Loupot and others had sold about 1,000 records.

Clark and I enjoyed a portion of the profits—some “lunch money” for two college students, you might say. The song catapulted us to local immediate fame followed quickly by extinction.

The Ballad of Bevo Lyrics