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SKIP JAMES by Peter Gurolnick

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SKIP JAMES by Peter Gurolnick 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<ing to do now? You just going 10 .it and lilt.n to tn;,. n;99'" Wolter ploy? t don" ..e why you wont to do that. A.. you from some r.<»rd compcny?" W. odmitted we were not. ·You i"'" going 10 I"'e" to him ploy onc:I oing? You dan', hov. any b...ineu with him, then? I dcwI't know thot you OVf/It to do thot if you WO$ fiICling 10 make ""cordi. Of" _thing lik. lhot. maybe it would be different.· We said we we"" making recordl, but ....e did nol warlo: for 0 COOlilpon)'. ·Well. now, you folks know Our CU$tOll'll. Where you all fixing to make the.. reo;ords? You o;n', going 10 do it in thot nigger', ho"",_ are you? Because I'll Tell you, we hod $OmI! Iroubl. with thot niwr lost yeor. Some kids come here from Col ifomia, and you know whot they did? They .toyed ave... night at that nigger's house. You all oin't filling 10 do thot, are you?" I told him we ...ere Sloying at the Plantation Hotel, and I affered to make the tOpel in the berber Ihop."Collinl rubbed h1s crew-cut and thaught about it. "Chrill, don'l do thaI," he said finally, "You belter go to his house, but don't stay there too long. Them nigger! o"er there will report you if they think you en agitator. They I>cte them WOl"$e thOlt we do, and that'5 the truth. I don't mind telling you, we'_ hod some trouble here ond ""e're e><peding more next week. Thinll' ore mighty touchy here ond we don't wont no.tA:luble.~ I 50id we did not mean 10 eouse any trouble. ~All righl. You all 9"'t your b..... ineu O"er with and ll'l't lhe hell out of town.· It was only the beginni"". (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<lppQinted, man? I cvl 26 sides for Poramount in Grefton, W;~onsin. I didn't get paid but S40. Thot', no good, Wouldn't you be disoppoinled?" MNo more contracts. My centrad with Bullfrog ron out July the 26th, I don't ,ign no more cenlrocts Wlless lhey come ocross wilh the money firs'. Or WIlen it's 0 company thot', in good enough 110 it cen maIoe the gllOrvntee, Otherwise -- otherwise, Skipper'lI jusl be 0 drifting men.M Drifting and drifting like 0 ship out on the $'la, Mlike a tin con, like a little tin con on lhe seo. I con moke it, 1 con rnoke myselF like 0 littl. tin con. Or -- , con be o.nip. But I con get along. 'clan'l mind ,itting on croekerborret5. I can ploy 01 perties. I con ploy in coFfeeho<.Rs, I ploy anything. 12. 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<ed out. I'll be ployinglhem ..••• For 30 yeo~ he had wrilten no $OI'lgs, He seemed to have no regrets oYer this woste of lolenl. Hi. rediscovery hod aclivated him, but he could scarcely be biller over posl neglect. Han:! lime. here Everywh... you IlO Times is harder Than lhey ever been before If I ev.r get aif of this shit-oss floor I'll never get ovt of th.
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