II. Just listen. We found Colli"" in his office. ~tO(;.ky. crew-cut with IOugh blue eyn. When we told him our pions, he )Old, -'Mlot Ore you all fiJ (fa be continued in lhe nexl illlUl! of "81"'5 World" _ Reprinted by permi"ion of MThe Vil109" Voie.", New Yoric, in....t-e September 23rcl and September 30th, 1965 iuun;1 fint cppeored.) •••• • • • • THE REDISCOVERED BLUeSMAN SKIP JAMES by Peter Gurolnick. - - Why'd you quit? "I was 10 di,eppointed." "How were you di50pp0inted? You mUit hove mined it." MWouldn'1 you be dU Some lou. a little rock 'n roll, onything Of all, t~ thol'~ only by requell. Strictly I sing iusl blues aod sp;ritvol,. But l'Using anywhere. So long os there', money there. One i, .truck immediately 1n corwersotlon with Skip James by the eloborote ornoteness of his speech. Unlike Il105t bluem18n he is neither ;norticulate nor deliberately colorful. He 91Y'1!1 th. impression of the sensiti.... edlJoCoted man thot he is. Hi, edl.lcotion, it is true, has been in the limited $doooling of ,he South. He uses ....ords wilh a kind of owe and occosionolly in 0 funny malapropi$ll"l. He willg;".e tl-llcs to ~my predecessor. who mode such 0 very fine introduction. I only hoge I can live up 10 the pro;se he has gillen me. And if there ore ony errors charge them nollo his OCCOUl'1I. Charge them to Sk;p.~ He will introduce a girl occam ponying him on stage 01 "my millren and my monager's wife. Thi, is Mo. Waterman." There are'illers. H. sings in a reCIlI\! composition, "Hospital Center Blues", of a "d_l~ who thinks Myau may be a goad Marl but you'.. 0 poor mM," His languaQIII is quaint yet overall precise an:! to the paint _ He is on anomoly in this wr:ry antOI'lg bl....stnen, The bluesman hilnUllf is QI'l anomaly CIt this pail'lt _ The while city-bred entertainer haJ finally found his ploce with Dylon's entrance into the popular field and the Stones' incunians into hip. BUI the colored bluesmon is a man who has lived posl his time, Once his music'was popular. - - Did you make a living singing? • "It WO$ aU I did. I didrl'l do anything bulsinging athol'. what you mean, I didn't do real goad, 8uI I got alang. You know," Skip James auditioned far Paramounl in Jocksan, MiS$il;Sippi, ofter coming back from Memphis ond the Arkansas lew mills (Ar -- Konsa•. ThaI'S Arkonsas, bUI thai was how we called it. "). He song twa verses of his greol "Devil Got My Woman" when lhe man signed him, Then he we'll up to GraftM in 1930 10 record -- 26 sides, he says, 17 of which _re ... Ieased, in the moot stunning seui_ of ..cording in blues hislory. 'Nhat did the P~t agenl think? I'd roIher be the devil Than be that woman'l mon Couse "Olhing but Ihe devil Change my baby's mind The woman thai I love Won-. lhal I love Tool< her from my besl friend Thai joker gol lucky Slole her back ogoin, His bea"tiful pure fohelto sel egainsllhe harsh CI'OSl tuning of hi. guitor. What kind of mark"l was there? NQw he'l been redi..:overed and ploys to a pn!dominontly while middlecla:ss audience. -- What's it like --I meon it must be differenl playing to lhese kids, like me, I meon, Ihon it was? How do you Iik. playing the caffee houses? "I don't mind, As lcog as the money keeps coming in. I mean, I couldn't do il for nalhin9' But I cOl'l go oraund, entertaining." He hocIn't played for 25 yean. All thraugh the y"an of his reliremenl he heold them 1 13. 5in9·· Muddy WaTe~, Robert John~. Tommy Johnson, Howling Wolf - - "they ""ere ploy ing ,ellUlor when r wasn't. Oh sure, I liked them. I mean to so)', , liked some of the Ihi~ they do. I like to Ii,ten 10 them _times, Bul I never liked any of them "Mug. to copy them. 'MM.n I fint sow Muddy Waters, ;1 ""OS 25 yean ago, he ....os ploying 01_. Ned lime I Ute" him ·d got 0 comple....nt. Now I l.ee he's got 0 group. Big!il'"a..,:.. I mel him oval", in Bo.ton 1 1 yeo', ,_ lightnin' Hopki... 100. H" put 0 littl. of my music into the introduction of one of hi> 00<'19' ot Newport. I hodtI't seen him, oil, in yeQr1,.- lightnin' was in Millliuippi in the Xl's. Howling Wolf wos ployill9 on the slre"h. MacKinley Morgonfield was playi"i around SlQvall, on the ptonlotions with Son House. Skip liked <;Ill of them _II enough, but .-.. ever influenced "is style. All pl..".d at the iuke joinh,;n the Ie,," COIllpS, at the covnlry f'Olig, bolh whit. and colored. They played donee music. Son House hod hi. bt~ bond, with Williellrown, little 8uddy Sankfield, and Chorl.y Ross. Robert Johnson might sit in. They w.... forc.d bock upon the....lves to creole new songs nol neceuorily for a rec:ord me""'t bul for th.ir Oudienc.s. In records Son House co....«<1 lemon J.fferson's ftSe. That My GlOv. 1$ Kepi Clean· with his great ·County Fonn Bhln·. Skip J~ covered the bom=l~ Il.O'le ·4.. Blues· with his much greater ·22-20", which Robert Johnson later odopted to his own ends, - - Over the yean did you wrile ony JOngs>for youowlf? " 'Sickbed' WO$ the firsl in a loog time, When they Found me, I WO$ loying in Ihe hospllOI, sick,ond they asked me could I wrile a .ong about II. I said, well, I dan't know, But when they come bock 2 doys loter I hod II, I wos kind of proud. Lotcr I wrOle onother hospllo\ song, Seem. like every time I go inlO hospitoll get a .oog and then I iusl go bock inlo hospital ogoin. Ncw;o for I'm in AI heallh, bul I dan'llhink I'll wrile no mare hospilal songs. I don'l even like 10 sing Ihol kind of tong," --A... you wriling ol;",r songs? "Oh, sure, I got some I'v. jusl about wori I ". power. Son House talks of 2 different kinds of blues: when your womon quih you, and when the man misll'eQt. you. flu on iIIU!ilrotion of the latter he .oog "Gcwemment Fica 8lues,· now retilled ·le...... C""'" 8Iues.· "r hod 0 job on the levee / Hod a ~rooking womon lived in Hewe.· But iI, too, rawl..... ,helf into o ....omon blue.. Despite the doims of bl",,", en tftusiosh it is difficult to find the so-colled serious cOlllenl of the blues. Barbecue Bob !'tal 0 pre-Dep..es1ion song coiled "Bod Time Blue." which rival. J_'. There ore a great mony s~ which dealt peripherolly with Dep....sion 0< Roosevelt Or Joe louis. 8vt it is eos)' to turn even these into women ~g5. Thre'. not much difference now with Chuck Berry's tol-s of girls and eol'$. Only the girh ore youngE" O<1d the gome< I"•••erlo",. Skip Jame. expand< th" blues. "I write oul of my e> lNhen he _nt to record he wrtlre 0 long coiled "Illinois 8Iues~. If you go dawn in Ilongor Ie11 my bays • v.1lot 0 time I'm having' Up in lllinoi$ In Illinois In tIIinois. I been to Tex"", And I been to ArkOnlOl But I never hod good times Till I got 10 Illinois In Illinois In Illinois. Wisconsin bec:ome Illinois. But he sent 0 messoge home to his friends. -- Y • - Weren't you 0 shorec ~ I WClS 0 u,orecropper ot one lime. 1 WO$ 0 foremon on 0 form. Then I went into hospilol. I ...os getting sOlired oilihe time. I s"1>Drvised Ihe work. I used to drive Ihe tractors, tQ.Q. I could do lust obout anything. Skipper got olong." Hil only recordings were mode in the beginning of the Dep.....ion. After Ihot he quit singing bl....,.. "There were lots of c:omponies eoger to lign me. But 1 wO$n'l going 10 sing for nothinSt." He orgonlzed his own gCIlplll ~ ond followed his fOlher the Rev. Eddie lomes to TexO$. With the Oollos TexO$ Jubil.. Singen he to\Wad KCIn$OS, TexOl, Oklohomo, ond ArkCln$as. He still sings some of his fother's songs ond did 0 beoutiful hymn coiled -Seo Wolking hiUS· with Mn. Woterrnon. He sold wi", some pride thot it wOS his fother's, but ",ot he hod re-orronged it. In 1932 he was ordoined 0 minister in the 80ptist church ofter hoving ottended seminol)'. In '46 he was ordoined 0 Methodist in Meridian, 15. to pleow his mother. In 1949 in Hattiesburg he retumed to the Boptist fold. "I'll hove to get bock to it some time." •- Do you thi"k you'll go bock to being" preache,? HI don', see how I <;on. I hod to giWl il up." -- Why 'NOS thot? "On (3<;<;0 .....1 of my music. I couldn't do both. My music took me too much of the -- When wos thot? Do you meon in '32 Or recently? "I hod to give it up to monoge my gospel singel"$." ~ - But you were ordained in '46. He open. every perfonn "But principally, I'm" blues mon." He <::ould sing (I great mony spiriluol. end will if coiled upon. He sang w ilh John H"rt ot the Unicom, both Jimmy Rogers and gospe I. But he sticks to blues. . ' -- You're probobly better at onswering questions than I am at Ol;king them. "Well, I suppose you wont to know about my background. I wos born in Bentonia, Mississippi. Seems like I hod a natUr<>1 tolent for music. We used to have a well- - you know? - - and everytime I'd go to the well, for water, I'd beat a tune on the pail. My mother sow that I was musicolly inclioed. I wQl;n't no more than 8 or 9 then. Just a kid. So I went to Yazoo City Hi~ School. There I met Miss Alma Williams. I never will forget her. She gove me lessons - - one lesson, that wos piano, not guiror. She taught me the rudiments, what you call the fundamentals, nothing fancy. After that I was on my own." He got 0 guitar. He went to Wheeler, Arkansas to work in a sOW mill. There he learned boogIe w09gie from wotch;ng Will Crabtree, who entertained both colored and white. Soon Skip piayed during the breaks and was good enough to entertain aiane. He played in North Nicholas outside of / I 16. He speaks ..ith obvious affection of his f,ieods and bluownen from whom he Iea.....d guitor and songi. ~veral son", he $ings O,e troditiOOCll. Yel both throush the music and sel ection of Iyric:s they <>t'e very lIIt,II;h invested with his ....,que fl_or, even in porticul". meaning. ·Crow J...... he introduces QI 0 JOng abo<"t ",he ~I .tuck-up Womal I ever know. She thought sh" wQS so good .he didn't hove 10 di., CIOW Jone, Crow J_, don't yc>u hold you head 50 high Someday, baby )'ou know, VOII got to die, Vou got to loy down, Vou got 10 die. loolu:d down the rood J...., OJ few os my eytl could see. Herherherhey For QI my eye "ould see Couldn't see nothing looked like mine to ..... , "Thot ""os the first ~ I teamed. The'woy it wQS back when roods were dusly. Not tOlTll!d like I'\OW, with as.phalt." Yel it becomes" personol .tote".."I. The lyrics ore good, beCOlJl.e they"'. direct and to the' point. O<:'c05lonolly, QS in "Hospital Cenler Blves" (with lis simple voriotion: You're 0 poor mon but" good mon, you're o good moo but you're 0 poor mon) or "Special Rider Blues" (I ain't got no/Speclol rider now .... Woke up this morninQllooked ot the spilciol rising sun) there is 0 kind of Vllrbol dexterity, There is nothing flashy obout them, however, other blves singers hove 1ung more t.dlliontly. The words of John Estes Or FurT)' lewis, fo< inston"e, are clevere<, lho$e of Bukko White mOre emotional. Yet none seems _ hon.st than Skip JQ'nei. And none os 0 result comes th~h as seoringly - - I sow you ot Newport. -When was thot? lost yeor Of' this?- - - 80th really -They jllllt played me my re""ro of the songs' did ot Newpo (Copyright August II, September 26-27, 1965. Not to be reproduced without permis.ion) NOTE: September, 1966, Since Augu.t of 1965, of course, Skip Jame, h", hod one record iswed on Melodeon (once S"lIfro9) ond an lP from Vonguord i. expected at any time. He is still moking the folk circult ond drawing audiences of 30 Or 40 while folk-rock~~olk-rock-pIQY$to standing rOOm only.