Willie Dixon and Friends to Salute the World Capital of Blues, Chicago
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Willie Dixon and friends to salute the world capital BY DAVE HOEKSTRA of blues, Chicago L OS ANGELES-The old fighter sleeps in his favorite chair in the corner of his living room ring . It is a sticky September afternoon in suburban Glendale-mellow down easy, as Little Walter once sang . It is a good day for respite . Across the way from the peaceful fighter is an empty coat stand that looks like a tree in winter. Atop the tree rests a snow white derby . You connect the crown with the old champion . That's Willie Dixon . The 75-year-old Dixon is the heavyweight champion of the blues . He comes home as the king of the Benson & Hedges Blues Festival~ which will m romZ ct'TT3 at tcago area ' locations. Some call Muddy Waters the father of the blues, but no one could bob and weave between ribald rhythms like Dixon . Consider the output on the Willie Dixon box set from Chess-MCA ,Records . Dixon wrote "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" for Waters . Dixon wrote "Mellow Down Easy" for Little Walter & His Jukes . Dixon wrote "Spoonful" for Howlin' Wolf. Dixon wrote "Wang Dang Doodle" for Koko Taylor. Dixon wrote "You Need Love" for Muddy, and Led Zeppelin "reinterpreted" it as "Whole Lotta Love" (in 1987, Dixon's copyright was settled suit out of court). I could go on, but by the time I finished, we'd be back in Book Week. Long before Dixon was a songwriter, house Paul Natkm i Photo Reserve bassist and arranger-producer at Chess Records, wllie Dixon he was a very good boxer, the winner of the Illinois State Golden Gloves heavyweight cham- pionship (he fought at 230 pounds in the novice division) in 1937 . Dixon wakes up from his gentle nap and begins to bask in stories of elemental boxing and the summertime blues . He spends more than three hours talking about the blues, peri- odically telling his grandchildren in a nearby kitchen to keep it down . "They get all excited when I do interviews," he says . To understand Dixon's blues, it helps to understand boxing. "Timing is a very good thing for both," Dixon says . "My mother used to say, 'The more you know about anything, the better off you are about everything, and one thing helps the other thing all the time, anyway.' Unconsciously, I did relate boxing with music . I learned to time things pretty well [in boxing] . That was great for counterpointing [in music] . I timed a guy's [musical] licks the same way I would counter- Paul Natkin, Photo Reserve Irma Thomas Source: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/lzdl0000 204056752 1 S . Michigan . Before the Chicago Blues Festiva in lmie, the building was given landmark status. The :,Nillie Dixon building is owned by former Chess studio musician Continued from Page I Gerald Sims, who plans to turn it into a "living museum where artists can record ." punch . [Counterpunching is a punch thrown in Dixon says, "1 think it's a good idea-if they do response to an opponent's lead. anything with it . I t .houghtit would he a good spot to ] - "~Come to think of it, my best efforts were counter- have the 131ues Heaven Foundation [which Dixon pointing," he said . "When I fought. I could hit right- and manager Scott Cameron created in 1982] . 1 or left-handed . If I had to hit someone, he had tu• would have never left Chicago, but I got pretty sick pull his hand back-unless he's extremely fast . with . [in 1977, lie lost a foot to diabetes and he suffers the one-two." Dixon laughs and says, "But you check from arthritis and rheumatism], and I had to come out those things before you get in the ring with a guy , out here . I like Chess, but frankly, I think it's a little . too small for what I had in mind [using the building Dixon built up his boxer's strength as a manchild• as a base for the Blues Heaven Foundation] . " near his hometown of Vicksburg, Miss. He used to The I31ues Heaven Foundation had approached .ebins, and he worked i n . haul logs to help build c Sims about purchasing the building, but Sims would levee camps. "I used to be young and strong," Dixon not sell . says with a sigh . "When I was young, I thought no There are three major objectives of the Blues . " , one could hurt me, no way lieaven Fuundation. The organization assists young Besides the Golden Gloves win, Dixon's mos itucVents with iU~Muddy 1Wnters 5clwihrship Fund . t nolable boxing accornplishment Wa, to serve as a l „ It helps alder biues artists track down royalties I'eisty sparring partner to heavyweiglit champron Joe through an extenstive resource library. The founda- l .uuis. He used to shout the jab with I.oufs in the tion evenluallyplans to estabdish a legal referral basement or Eddie Nichols' gym at 15th and Indiana service and program for royalty investigatiuns. Final- .uuis," Dixo . "I held up real well against Joe L ly, the 1'uundation has donated $12,000 worth of band . "My manager and his manager had na proudly says instruments to high schools in Chicago, Memphis, ] ;rudge against each other. My manager [ex-fighter' Los Angeles and Vicksburg, Miss. The gifts were 1'iger Williams] would tell me to knock the hell out made in memory of Memphis Slim, Little Brother of him . Louis ahvays had the idea to get the best lick Montgomery (Dixon's early hero), How'lin' Wolf and in or don't trade licks . My manager would say, 'Beat !•i Big Joe 'I'urner . Supporlers of Blues Heaven include him to the punch and knock him out if you can . ' John Mellencamp, Dan Aykroyd and George Thore- Hell, the managers would almost come to fight ' . , good . (For more information, write the Blues Heaven themselves." Foundation Inc., Box 6926, 2001 W. Magnolia Blvd ., The choppy bravado that later defined Dixon's Burbank, Cali4 91606 .) music surfaced in 1938 when the yuung flghter and Dixon see5[hqlbluesas4het'o'undationforcommon his fly-by-night manager, Jab Burton, got into a sense. brawl of their own in the boxing commissioner's Why is Willie Dixon on top of a camel? At the postscript of Dixon's comprehensive oral office . "I thought I should be making more money "Me and Memphis Slim were in Israel," Dixon be down and then you both go up? As he was history The Willie Dixon Story-I An2 the Blue.s, co- than I was," Dixon says. "lie and I had (luite a tussle said. "We were on the first American Folk getting up, the camel was grunting real loud. I written with caue by Los Angeles journalist Don ttp there . They expelled me and him from the ring Blues Festival tour [around 19601. We were was kind of fat and Slim thought the camel ~Snawden (Dixon will be signing copies of the book 1'ur six months. down by the Red Sea, checking out what was was grunting because I was on it. Then it ~9e,t . II atiGuid Books, '~4`~f N . Linculn), Dixon "f never did get back ." happening . Slim said, 'Man, why don't you ride looked like I was going to fall off backward~s . 5~uggcsts the fav~rlle sorng hi',his dazzl(ng catcdog is However, an itinerant musician named Leonard the camel?' I said I had never been on a camel Slim started laughing so hard, he couldn't take an obscure 198~1 aohnpusitron, "'It Don't Make Sense "Baby Duo" Castun was hanging around Eddie in my life. He said, '1'11 take a picture.' So, you the picture . Some other guy took this pic- (1'uu Can'1 Make I'eacel. " Nichols' gym . Baby Duo always had a guitar in hand know how when you get on a camel, he has to ture ." and Dixon remembered them harmonizing ringside . "Wheu I first tnade that liltle 45 [single], I senl it to Presidenl. Heagan and Congress ." Dixon saya "I cuald sing pretty good, because I had been "I'hey sent nie sume cul'I'links. See, the b6ues have around spiritual things in the South ;" Dixon recalls . of his songs, mostly written for Chess artists. The dum the Chess bruthers allowed him . The saucy hurns been neglected su long until people autumaticail "And I knetv all the bass lines because we used to blues wreath fell from his neck to the fluur. that filled out Fulsuns Texas blues didn't match lhc . I'euple think tlte blues are aheavs sadNneglect them . imitate the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers . Su Dixon began work at Chess in 1948 as a studio stark musical agenda ulproducer Leonard Chess . The biues are the true I'acts--good, bad, right or Baby Duo made me a tin call with one string tied to player on a Robert Nightlmwk track . He became a "Sume of the guys didn't get freedom," Dixon w'rung . So .'It Dun't Make Sense .' like all uther blues it stick. He showed me how to play bass on thal . tull-time employee in 1951 . He took a hiatus to says . "A new artist ahvays thought they had to think snngs, is making it snnement of the facl . And the fact Well, the people got a kick out me playing this tin competing Cobra Records in 1956, returning to Chess like the old artist to be good . But if you sound too is it don't make sense if you can't nmke peace:' - can and slapping it .