Permian Band, Odessa

PERMIAN BAND - "Fight Song" & "Hawaii Five-O"( from Mojo Spirit ep)

School has begun again and it is this year that Odessa's beloved Permian High celebrates its 50th year, a year that sees the oldest Westex child enter in to the school's famed halls as one small part of the tradition of MOJO.

This particular 7" release came about in the late 1960s I would guess, possibly the year after the team's first state championship in 1965. The Permian band leads a spirited PHS crowd through the School Fight song and then whips back around for a take on "Hawaii Five-O". Has any school band NOT beat this horse to death?

I had heard of Permian and the MOJO spoken of with a hushed reverence during my own high school years in down in Central Texas in the 80s/90s. Their fans were loud, devoted, and strong in number. They would follow their Panthers, black and white cowbells in hand, to the ends of God's oil-blessed earth. Having grown up in Clovis, New Mexico as a devoted fan of the AAAA powerhouse Wildcats I could understand. Clovis bled purple and white. But the mystique of Permian seemed to be above and beyond anything that little ol' Clovis could muster.

My freshman year of college in Abilene I saw that Permian was bringing its MOJO and fans to town and a phone call later we were on our way to Shotwell Stadium. The stories were right... lots of black and white, lots of cowbells, and lots of fans. More fans had made the 190 mile trip from Odessa than had made the cross-town trip. My date for the evening was a gal who had attended a private Christian high school up Tulsa way that couldn't even muster up enough kids for a team. She had never even been to a high school football game. Needless-to-say she was a bit overwhelmed by the spectacle of the whole thing. Though she dropped out of school during our sophmore year to become a stripper I'm not quite sure that can be blamed on the mighty MOJO.

18 years later I've got a sophmore at Permian, but I ain't all MOJO'd up. I've been to but one single game in all my Odessa years, and that was because they were matched up against my ol' alma mater of Copperas Cove, themselves a powerhouse in recent years.

I do have a "P" hat though, sooooo.... "Fight, Panther Team, Fight" I suppose