Classic Clips: The Lost Gonzo Band with Jerry Jeff Walker and Gary P. Nunn “London Homesick Blues” – live from Texas Roadhouse, 1991

London Homesick Blues appears on Jerry Jeff Walker’s iconic 1973 live album, ¡Viva Terlingua! (1973). Recorded in Luckenbach, Texas, with The Lost Gonzo Band, the song was written and sung by band member Gary P. Nunn. It is famously known as being the theme song for the TV show Austin City Limits from 1977 to 2004. Nunn played piano in the famed Lost Gonzo Band of troubadour Jerry Jeff Walker. In this video clip, Nunn is offered centre stage by Walker to sing his signature song. The peculiarity is that the song became as indelibly associated with Walker as was Mr Bojangles.

The Lost Gonzo Band included Nunn with original members Bob Livingston, John Inmon, Kelly Dunn, Tomas Ramirez and Donny Dolan. They served as a quasi-backing band for not only Walker but also Michael Murphy and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Nunn had come back from a tour of England with Murphy and wrote the song one day “sitting under a tree” while recalling his time in London, jammed into a flat with four other guys. The kicker was the chorus, which became a boisterous sing-along when played in a roadhouse.

“I wanna go home with the armadillo. Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene / The friendliest people and the prettiest women you’ve ever seen”

This turned out to be hot stuff as if your brain had just chugged a bottle of Tabasco sauce. In this video from 1991, as soon as the first chorus came around, the room was hopping, and it sounded like a stampede of buffalo. Usually, the band would keep on playing it until the people in the audience got hoarse, and it faded out like sleepy lagoon wallpaper in a cheap motel. Or, if feeling perky, like the one time I saw the band perform at Gruene Hall in Texas, they would keep on singing it into the night and, for those drunk enough, out on the streets after the show.