Boozhoo (Ojibway hello),
I listen to a lot of dead people (i.e.Jim Morrison, Eddie Cochran, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson).These guys featured are: John Koerner (an old 'drink til we tipped over' bud), Dave Ray (died of cancer Thanksgiving Day 2002), and Tony Glover (blues harp player who worked as a DJ for KRQS shortly after they hit the airwaves in 1969...he'd play songs all night and before he went off the air he was known to utter “OK”). As South Minneapolis white boys, they found a collection of old “negro” blues (before “black” was coined popular). Most of these 78s were of Leadbelly. This was back in the 50s and the music world ain't been the same since.
According to their history, some of the people they influenced were Bob Dylan, The Beatles...
But who gives a fuck about all that shit. All I know is I found them playing in bars- Triangle, the Viking, the 400. It was 1968, and I had just come home from Vietnam. I lived in an area called the West Bank in South Minneapolis, near the University of Minnesota, where I was trying to go to school. I rode a 68 XLCH SPORTSTER, made by Harley-Davidson.
The West Bank is on the Mississippi across the river from the U. It had a lot of old rental houses with day-glo painted doors. This is the area that I wanted...wine, women and song. The Veterans Administration were paying me to go to school. They took attendance. But I lived in a party house where a lot of drinkin' and smokin' was goin' on. It left me little time for school. I think I made it two quarters, then I met Christopher's ma! Then I joined “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”- fuck it all. We needed to raise funs, I mean FUNDS. The March on DC to stop the war, “Winter Soldier” and then defending ourselves against Nixon and his Henchmen. Goddamn it was phun...getting charged in the district, “The United States of America vs. Ray Earley”!! PHUCKIN' RIGHT ON!!! Oh, John Koerner sang and played free to raise funds to send us to D.C. John is now in his 70s and still plays the bars!!I'm so phuckin happy Obama got elected!!I gotta go to a funeral today.
Naygwonabe (RUFFLED FEATHERS)
No comments:
Post a Comment