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C’mon, regardless of what you think of the music, you’ve got to admit the band name and the cover art (courtesy of William Mahood) were pretty hysterical. Besides, if it featured Freddy Fender, it had to have something going for it.

I can’t tell you much about this outfit. They apparently started out as a New Orleans bar band and recorded at least one single as Satan & Satan’s Roses (‘I'm a Devil’ b/w ‘We Recommend’ Sable catalog number # 404), before mutating into Satin & the Desciples (sic). The goofy cover shows them to have been a quintet, while the liner notes provide a Lake Charles, Louisiana address for Goldband Records, providing some additional support for the notion they were Louisiana-based. There are no production, or performance credits, though Bates, Childs and Denson were credited as writing the material.

1969’s “Underground” is one of those album’s most folks will find thoroughly appalling. Lyrically, musically, thematically, and sonically it’s hard to argue the point. To be honest, a bunch of 5^th graders could have probably come up with something at least as good. That said, there’s going to be a select group of folks who think the album is so bad as to actually have merit. Call it a character flaw, but I guess I lean towards the latter category. Overlooking the obvious characteristics, this is one strange effort. About half of the collection recalled Sam the Sham and Pharohs-styled garage rock (had they been forced to play with one arm behind their backs). With his sing/song vocals on tracks like the crazed ‘Devil Time‘ and ‘Satan On Universe’ the anonymous lead singer sounded like Sam Samudio, or Root Boy Slim after soaking in warm Budweiser for a week. Exemplified by material like ‘Satan’s First Theme’, ‘Ensane’ (sic) and the seemingly endless ‘Book of Alpha’ (and you thought high school science class dragged on), the predominant satanic theme was about as ominous and threatening as a teletubby. Maybe it was just me, but backing vocals that included the phrase ‘he’s the booger man’ didn’t really serve to frighten the listener. The other half of the album was given over to strange folk and country material. ‘Why the Seas’ Are Salty’ and ‘Black Sheep’ (the latter including an accordion solo) were hysterically inept – imagine your drunk uncle deciding to sing the next time he showed at the local pub.

I’ve never seen of heard it, but there’s also a non-LP single: ‘Mummies Curse’ b/w ‘Cat’s Meow’ (Goldband catalog number G 1188).

I find this album quite funny and so close to home.t. I see here in the band members list you have a R.O. Bates - ??? well he happens to be the lead singer of the band and my great uncle. Also you may laugh and joke about the music but you would be amazed at the stories. I will admit that the music makes me laugh also but they would put on a pretty good show with fire breathing done by R.O. Bates or Satan which ever you want to call him.

Hello, I conversed with Freddy Fender before he passed away RIP about Satan and Diciples. Freddy told me that all but one of the Satan and Diciples were dead except the leader, that he did not know. They were all Mexican and were hired as a backup band by the mysterious and presumably non-Mexican Roy O. Bates and even Freddy did not know much about him, who he really was, what his agenda was, if he was alive or dead; I've done some research and found his name on a couple of obscure lists of 45's but no info. The Satan and Diciples lp has been reissued on CD and the people who put the disc out claim that Freddy Fender "masterminded" the whole thing but that is not true. Roy O. Bates did. They put on a show and Roy breathed fire and stuff. It was his thing and they were the house band in a bar in New Orleans before being ditched for a Jim Dandy Mangrum fronted band. Freddy told me all of this and more. Unfortunately my computer at the time died and I lost the names but they were all Hispanic names except for Roy.

Hey there, i didn't see your name on the site, but mine is Tim Harris. I saw the album Satan and Disciples on the site and thought i would write just to let you know Roy O Bates was my music partner for 2 years before he passed away last year here in Jackson, MS.

This man was amazing! Ray (not Roy) had an extremely high IQ and had one jam packed history to his life. We had thought about writing a book about his many experiences, but instead spent the time on creating a music video project entitled The Road To Armageddon. I think i know just about every 'chapter' of Ray's life from the times we shared together. Satan was his stage name. He toured with Black Oak Arkansas, Iron Butterfly, Jethro Tull, even warmed up Hendrix once back in the day. Ray's (Satan's) act was absolutely phenomenal. My uncle (Ken Jones) saw him perform 2 times i believe. Ray turned to Jesus Christ a few years before we got together and is the reason we decided to do the end times project. I could go on and on. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know.