I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Visions of America: Three Centuries of Prints from the National Gallery of Art is at the Dallas, Texas Museum of Art through September 3rd.
In Dallas to September 3rdBRITAIN’S SONG CHARTS are undergoing a make-over, where (beginning this month) bands will be limited to three songs in the top 100 at any given time, in order to avoid the Ed Sheeran effect— where recently 16 of the top 20 songs on the Official Singles Chart were from his then-new album release.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Flame the Arson Cat— a South Carolina kitteh who helps a fire department’s staff decompress after an arduous call (and stay alert during down time) … and who now has a large following on social media.
Flame the Arson CatTHE AUSTRALIAN OPEN tennis singles semi-finals for both men and women saw only thirty-something competitors… and at Wimbledon, most of the semi-finalists were at least in their late 20’s (and Roger Federer just won, a month short of age 36) — with reasons given such as: tennis is now more strength-based (disadvantaging lanky teens) and the cost of having to hire both dieticians and physiotherapists are placing newcomers to pro tennis at a disadvantage.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Mocha the Hero Cat— an Idaho kitteh who came to the rescue of housemate Bailey the Dog …. by distracting a neighbor’s dog who had been mauling Bailey.
Mocha the Hero CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
MY VOTE for Who Won the Week? …. is an ex-con (in Connecticut) who decided to sacrifice going to a job interview so he could help out an injured man who was trapped beneath an overturned vehicle. Even though Aaron Tucker lost his opportunity to interview for a job as a busboy, he has since received job offers for jobs in construction and in a rubber factory.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? — 17th Century German theologian Johann Vogt and Academy Award winner Robert De Niro.
Johann Vogt (circa 1626) Robert De Niro (born 1943)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… a few weeks ago I wrote of the landmark film soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? …. and one song on that soundtrack was Chris Thomas King’s rendition of the old tune Hard Time Killing Floor Blues— which gave another periodic remembrance of an old blues master. Nehemiah ‘Skip’ James was someone who influenced the legendary Robert Johnson, yet a string of bad luck and health problems (plus an idiosyncratic style) prevented him from becoming a legend. Yet he did live long enough to see his career revived and benefit from the 1960’s folk/blues revival.
Skip James was born in 1902 in Bentonia, Mississippi — getting his nickname from dancing extensively as a child and being referred to as “Skippy”. His guitar stylings have been referred to (with some dispute) as part of the Bentonia School— featuring open tunings and the use of minor keys (uncommon in blues at that time). He was inspired to play by a local player named Henry Stuckey, and began playing locally while working (in his teens) in construction and levee building.
He eventually developed a style of using an open-”D” tuning and could sing in a falsetto that many listeners found made the hair stand-up on the back of their heads. Rather than be restrained by playing the “devil’s music”, he often sang as if he was the devil himself. All of this led to an audition in the state capital of Jackson for a talent scout for Paramount Records, Henry Speir— who was able to get him a recording session at Paramount in Grafton, Wisconsin in 1931.
He recorded two dozen tracks (about eighteen of which survive) including the aforementioned Hard Time Killing Floor Blues, as well as Devil Got My Woman in addition to 22-20 Blues — and while these 78 rpm records did not sell well nationwide, they did sell a bit in the Blues Belt of the South. And a somewhat younger Robert Johnson adapted the last two tunes in tribute, re-working and re-naming them later on in that decade as 32-20 Blues and Hellhound on My Trail.
Robert Johnson died young (in 1938) and achieved immortality. Skip James, though, had the misfortune of trying to sell records as the Depression began to expand in 1932, and he left the music business for over three decades, becoming a minister (oddly enough, due to the Devil references), only playing odd gigs.
Fast-forward twenty years to 1952, when a fifteen year-old named Dick Spottswood was buying old acoustic blues records in Washington, D.C. — and found a 78 by Skip James, which he fell in love with. Over time, he began to amass an indexed and annotated collection at his Takoma Park, Maryland home (he obtained an MA in library science from the Catholic University in Washington) and attracted other young blues enthusiasts to visit and see his collection. Some were determined to find out whether these old recording artists were still performing. (Dick Spottswood is age 80 now, and has had a radio program the past few decades).
One of those acolytes (Tom Hoskins) made it a point to find Mississippi John Hurt, who had a more melodic style of music than Skip James. And he found him in the early 60’s, leading to others locating old musicians (such as Sleepy John Estes) and then Bukka White was located simply by one of the Spottswood followers mailing a postcard to White’s hometown post office. Yet …. Skip James remained lost.
Then, a delegation of young men set-out to find him (in that Freedom Summer of 1964) — led by a future blues guitar performer named John Fahey, as well as a twenty year-old Henry Vestine (later a lead guitarist and founding member of the blues-rock band Canned Heat).
After several dead-ends, they asked a young man at a Mississippi gas station, who related seeing an older man at a barber shop … who turned out to be Skip James, now in a hospital in the town of Tunica. The group found that he no longer even owned a guitar, then paid for James’s hospital bills and back rent at home, and convinced him that a career was waiting for him if he would emigrate north.
He appeared at the Newport Folk Festival of 1964 (along with a also recently re-discovered Son House plus Sleepy John Estes) and Skip James was a hit at the festival, playing for a nearly all-white audience.
And while for the next few years he made a living — recording several albums (that received critical acclaim) and touring — he never became as a big a legend as some of his peers. His foreboding style (and unwillingness to tell stories at his shows) made him popular among blues purists, yet he never achieved the wider success that a more genial Mississippi John Hurt had (whom James thought was a second-rate talent). And Skip James had recurring medical problems, one of which was an odious tumor on his penis ... that eventually required amputation.
Skip James died in Philadelphia in October, 1969 at the age of 67 — with more of his recordings (including those landmark 1931 recordings, as well as a compilation album of his 1960’s albums) having been available after his death than during his lifetime. Yet his legacy is solid, with his being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1992. His songs have been covered (or adapted) by Derek Trucks, Beck, John Martyn, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams and many others.
In 2004, there was a PBS mini-series on the blues (overseen by Martin Scorsese) consisting of several independent films (not a sequential, Ken Burns-style project). One of those films was directed by the German-born director Wim Wenders — and The Soul of a Man focused on three performers: Blind Willie Johnson, J.B. Lenoir … and Skip James. Thus, thirty-five years after his death, the music of Skip James was introduced to a new generation … and they will not be the last one.
Skip James as a young man and at a 1960’s folk festivalHaving been too young to see them (their having broken-up when I was only age 12), I was present at the first (and last) of seven reunion concerts that the band Cream performed in 2005. Many of the headlines announcing the shows began with the words I’m So Glad — as this was a song Cream had covered on their 1966 debut album. And lo-and-behold, it was their opening reunion show song.
It was very apropos, as I’m So Glad was one of the songs Skip James had originally recorded at that 1931 Wisconsin recording session (which he later re-recorded in the 1960’s). Cream’s version (pop-rock) was different enough that — had they wanted to — could have passed-off the song as their own song (as some of their peers did at the time). But Cream (especially Eric Clapton) insisted on having Skip James listed as composer, and the royalties from the tune accrued to him — just in time to pay his medical bills late in the decade.
In fact, Skip James made more in royalties from others covering his tunes than in his overall career — and Jack Bruce of Cream received a letter from Skip’s widow after his death, thanking the band for their rendition. Below is a re-make Skip made of his decades-old tune … and if you listen to Cream’s 1966 studio recording, you’ll see how different it was.
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