|
CounterPunch
October
5, 2002
Talking Blues
by DAVE MARSH
The people who taught me to love jazz and blues
and rock'n'roll as the perfect synthesis of the silly and the
serious taught me to love poetry. The main ones I'm thinking
of are Bob Rudnick, an unsung hero whose tale deserves a lengthy
telling I cannot give here, and John Sinclair, formerly of the
White Panther Party and the MC5. Over the past 20 years, Sinclair
has found his metier as performing poet steeped in Robert Johnson
as much as Charles Olson; over the last ten, he's created a series
of albums with various musicians, a group often dubbed the Blues
Scholars.
The R&B marvel Andre Williams ("Bacon
Fat," "Jail Bait") produced Sinclair's Fattening
Frogs for Snakes, Volume One: The Delta Sound  (Okra-Tone / Rooster Blues). Frogs is
a tour de force of vernacular poetry and as good an anecdotal
history of the blues as you could ask for. "This is
the Delta Blues," Sinclair declares at the outset, over
snare drum and slide guitar. True, but it's his own peculiar
angle on the music and musicains, in which men wander from the
Delta "because anywhere else is better than this place"
(a particularly Detroit perspective). These poems offer legends,
tall tales, a sense that this music's "crossroads of Africa
and America" defines the whole wide world. In "Cross
Road Blues," Tommy-not Robert-Johnson details the how and
why of selling one's soul to the devil. In "The Wolf Is
At Your Door," Howlin' Wolf explicates an earthier methodology
for creating blues. These men-mystic and farmer--are linked beautifully
by a passage in the "Cross Road" where Sinclair wails,
Wolf-like, on the word "Howwwwww..." (which of course
also invokes Ginsberg). "21 Days in Jail," the tribute
to Robert Jr. Lockwood, marks the spot where legend blurs so
completely with fact that it would take an archangel with a tractor
and a busload of cottonpickers to weed one from the other.
On My
Name's Not Rodriguez (Dos Manos), Luis Rodriguez &
Seven Rabbit create a more collaborative musical poetry. The
music--Latin funk-jazz with soul vocals--stems from the interaction
of Rodriguez (best known for La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA) and
Ernie Perez, best known for his work with the band Boxing Gandhis
and Rock A Mole, the L.A.-based cultural activist group. Rodriguez
possesses a rare gift for metric storytelling, and Perez adds
horn and vocal flourishes. Luis's tour de force comes on the
shaggy dog story, "Meeting the Animal in Washington Square
Park," which not only establishes that Chicanos really are
everywhere but that all wounds can be healed: "I told him
how I was now a poet, doing a reading at City College and he
didn't wince or look surprised. Seemed natural. Sure. A poet
from East L.A. That's the way it should be. Poet and boxer. Drinking
beer. Among the homeless, the tourists and acrobats. Mortal enemies."
The collaboration is most powerful, though, on "To the Police
Officer Who Reused to Sit In the  Same Room as My Son Because
He's a 'Gang Banger.'" Here, The relentless groove and swirling
organ are the echoes of life outside the bars that imprison everyone
in the piece-father, son, and the cop who's sacrificed humanity
to his own sense of "realism." Perez's singing starts
out as background vocal, but finally steps out front. Redemption
is at hand when Perez's voice breaks free as if from the son,
"I'm gonna sing / I'm gonna sing for my father...I said
he stood by me / Yeah, he stood by me / When I was crazy / But
now I understand, I understand, what it is to be a man."
Both Sinclair and Perez present a travelogue
in which the real destination involves learning one's own true
identity, rescuing it from falsification, nurturing it by ensuring
its dignity and exalting its enduring spirit. Words provide the
vehicle; the music provides the fuel. Each album crackles with
energy, Sinclair's full blown blues-rock exuberance contrasting
with the controlled tension Rodriguez and Perez make from funk.
They present kindred visions about how the world has been and
what it could be--what it actually is, beneath the bullshit.
All of our culture stands at this crossroads,
where Africa and America, starting with Mesoamerica, cross and
cross and cross again. Its life is the stories we tell each other,
the songs we share with one another. Such things make the maps
that show us the way in-and the way out.
DeskScan
(what's playing in my office)
1. Nothing to Fear, A Rough Mix by Steinski
(bootleg)
2. The
Rising, Bruce Springsteen (Sony)-Personally, I keep listening
for the way it sounds. If Springteen is a man of faith, his greatest
trust lies in six strings and a 4/4 beat.
3. Jerusalem,,
Steve Earle (E Squared)-Born to annoy.
4. Adult
World, Wayne Kramer (MuscleTone)-Red Rodney would be
proud
5. When
Lightnin' Struck the Pine, Cedell Davis (Fast Horse Recordings)-
Maybe the deepest musical statement of the Mississippi hill country
blues aesthetic, too.
6. King
Anthology of Risque Blues (King)
7. Plenty
Good Lovin', Sam Moore (2KSounds/EMI)
8. Down
in the Alley, Alvin Youngblood-Hart (Memphis International)
9. Sleepless,
Peter Wolf (Artemis)
10. The Very Best of Freddy King, Vol.
1-3 (Collectables)-Shitty packages but the best collection of
the great R&B/bluesman's King label sides. For me, Freddy's
the most fun of all the Kings, the most like a rock'n'roller.
11. My Name's Not Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez
& Seven Rabbit (Dos Manos)
12. Fattening
Frogs for Snakes, John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars
(Okra-Tone/Rooster Blues)
13. Freedom,
The Golden Gate Quartet and Josh White (Bridge Records)-"A
Concert in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the 13th Amendment
to the Constitution," at the Library of Congress in 1940,
with tremendous harmony by the Gates, and hilariously profound
comments on the blues and "social" songs from poet
Sterling A. Brown.
14. It's
All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, Pam Tillis (Epic/Lucky
Dog)-That means she gets to sing "Detroit City" and
"I Ain't Never," as well as another 11 songs by her
daddy.
15. Time
Bomb High School, Reigning Sound (In the Red)
16. Midnight
and Lonesome, Buddy Miller (Hightone)
17. 1000
Kisses, Patty Griffin (ATO)
18. Introducing
G.G., Grant Green Jr. (Jazzateria)
19. Tanya,
Tanya Tucker (Capitol advance)
20. Squash,
Todd Thibaud (Tone Cool)
Dave Marsh coedits
Rock and Rap Confidential.
Marsh is the author of The
Heart of Rock and Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles.
He can be reached at: marsh6@optonline.net
Yesterday's
Features
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Linda S. Heard
Might Sharon
Nuke Iraq?
Joanne Mariner
When
the Judge Says:
"I Botched It"
Peter P. Mahoney
A Vietnam
Vet Makes the
Case Against War on Iraq
Mark Engler
From the
Quarantine
Agaisnt Greed
Uri Avnery
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
Jennifer Berkshire
Converging Against Capitalism
October 1,
2002
Benjamin Shepard
On the
Road Again:
IMF/World Bank Protest
Reveal a Revived
Movement for Global Justice
Dr. Susan
Block
Cockfight
at the
Baghdad Corral
Krystal Kyer
Growing Union Opposition
to War
Ron Jacobs
Born Without a Spine
Scott Loughrey
Mysteries
of 9/11
Jeremy Brecher
Collective
Security is Working
Brenda Norrell
Troy
Black Feather on
the American Flag
Sam Bahour
Wake Up
and Smell
the Occupation
Richard Harth
Contrary
to Reason:
Adieu, Hitchens, Adieu
Carol Norris
Rumsfeld
the Surrealist:
Things Related and Not
Ben Tripp
Lists Upon
Lists
September
30, 2002
Rep. Barbara
Lee
Alternatives
to War
Kurt Nimmo
Iraq: The
Vision
of the Velociraptors
Zeynep Toufe
"We
Own the World, We Ignore the Children"
Dave Marsh
The Troubador's
Highway
Tariq Ali
Taking
It to London's Streets
Neve Gordon
Bush's
War of Self-Adulation
September
25 / 29, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Dogs of War,
the Bears of Wall Street
Ben Tripp
Hunting with George
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Haywire: Boeing's New Navy Fighter Fails Bomb Tests
Joanne Mariner
Naming Genocide
James T. Philips
Riding to Maine
Anis Shivani
Life of a Bum
David Vest
Too True North
Jacob Levich
Case of the Missing Terrorist
William MacDougall
British Immigration Tests
Edward Hammond
Pentagon Develops Illegal Chemical Weapons Capability
Molly Secours
Bush's "I" Words:
Intervention & Impeachment
Edward Lazarus
Civil Liberties After 9/11
Lee Sustar
Employers Attack
Anthony Gancarski
Ledeen's Mad World
Krystal Kyer
Bush the Magician
David Wiggins
West Point Grad:
Bush Threatens World Peace
September
24, 2002
Chet Batsmack,
American
The American
Century
Paul de Rooij
Smear Mongers
George Szamuely
International
Kangaroo Courts
Jack Wheeler
Janet Reno: America's Saddam?
Linda S. Heard
Portrait
of Uncle Sam
Gary Leupp
Random
Thoughts on Anti-Americanism
Wayne Madsen
Germany
Leads the Way
William Hughes
George
Will: War Pimp
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|