Film Takes Audiences Back to ‘When Dallas Rocked’
Kirby Warnock will screen his documentary at The Texas Theatre
A new documentary prompts a welcome time warp for baby boomers and an eye-opening revelation for millennials and Gen Zers who think nothing cool ever happened in Dallas.
Written, produced, and edited by former Buddy magazine editor Kirby Warnock, When Dallas Rocked is an affectionate tribute to oft-neglected Dallas music history, one just as vibrant as Austin’s, if not more so.
“I am certain there are boomers living in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow who went to concerts in Dallas back in the ’70s and would love to hear about this,” he said.
Warnock, who was a member of the Rotary Club of the Park Cities for nearly 20 years, served as the PTA president for Hillcrest High School where his children graduated.
“We had a huge music scene here, and I felt compelled to tell that story while some people were still alive,” Warnock said, explaining the inspiration for the film. “Back in the ’70s, Dallas was a bigger music town than Austin was, not only because of all the national music acts that came here and hung out, but we had tons of national record launches here.”
Other area luminaries featured in the film include Stoney Burns (real name Brent Stein), Willis Alan Ramsey, and Angus Wynne.
“One of the things about the music scene back then was you had to be there in person to experience it. It was a collective experience,” Warnock noted. “I’m trying to get that to happen again at the Texas Theatre. Pull out your old T-shirts, everybody had T-shirts back then. Hopefully, we’ll see some retro T-shirts.”
Warnock highlights the importance of the emergence of radio station KZEW 98FM in 1973 with John Rody, Ira Lipson, and Jon Dillon.
“When the Zoo came on the air, it was like nothing any of us had heard before,” Warnock recalled. “We just left it on all the time, and they told us where the neat things were happening — a concert coming up or an in-store at Peaches Records. That was pretty much the soundtrack of our lives.”
Warnock chucked at another favorite filmmaking moment.
“I liked Jimmie Vaugn talking about his first gig at the Hob Nob when he’s 13 years old, and they had to plug into the jukebox for a PA system,” Warnock said. “People today have no idea what it was like to perform live back then.”
Since little video or movie film was taken back in the day, much of the history is preserved in the oral tradition and via a plethora of photographs and audio recordings.
“Kids today probably have no idea how cool their grandparents were in the ’70s,” Warnock said. “And because our target demographic is like me, 73 years old, we’re screening at 4 p.m. so it will still be daylight when we all drive home.”
