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| A Mysterian. Oh, hell yeah. |
The Hit
If you’ve ever wondered how far back “69” goes as a dirty word, I can confirm 1966 at a minimum. ? and The Mysterians toyed with calling their hit “69 Tears” but, even at 15, lead guitarist Bobby Balderrama knew wouldn’t touch a name like that. Fortunately, the same guy who came up with it (Robert Martinez, OG Mysterian and drummer) had the bright, marketable idea of flipping the numbers in the same conversation, thus “96 Tears.”
If you’ve listened to enough oldies radio, you know this one; if you’re a fan of garage, or even punk, you know it: if nothing else, you know that keyboard riff because it’s probably been in 20 commercials by now. It barely has lyrics – “Too Many Teardrops,” which repeats like a broken man’s mantra, was its working title – so it’s mostly that loping (almost Motown?) rhythm staggering between a couple different musical passages and with that famous keyboard snippet tying it together. Add Question Mark’s (tonally) pitch-perfect delivery and you’ve got a hit.
The Rest of the Story
“Question Mark was an eccentric figure, publicly stating that his soul had originated from Mars and that he once walked on Earth with the dinosaurs.”
It’s hard to choose what’s more out there about ? and the Mysterians: Question Mark’s personality, or the fact that every Mysetrian who ever played in the band was the son of Mexican migrant workers (the auto factories, mostly), and in Bay City and/or Saginaw, Michigan. Those reading closely might have caught another notable detail – e.g., Balderrama was young when he started in the band. Frankie Rodriguez, the guy playing that famous keyboard hook, joined at the insanely young age of 13. They weren’t much older when they hit it big and toured…
Back to the beginning, the band started nameless and as a three-piece – one without a keyboardist. Robert Martinez, Larry Borjas (guitar), and wee Bobby Balderrama was the original line-up and they started covering surf music (e.g., The Ventures, Duane Eddy). As a bunch of Mexican-American kids in an area where they didn't come in bunches, they struggled to find venues that would let them play. As the band bumbled for a sound and an identity, they lifted "Mysterians" from a 1957 Japanese sci-fi movie. The first big step toward breaking out came when Question Mark, the band’s singer/talisman, came on board; Rudy Martinez (aka, Question Mark, aka, Robert’s younger brother) already had a reputation as a dancer, but it turned out he could sing – and with a surfeit of style. The rest of the band thought he sounded enough like Mick Jagger (huh) that they threw over the surf rock and started playing closer to the The Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
