00:00Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together and give it up for the one and only, Mr. Super
00:09Hawk, James Coydorff.
00:15I came from a family of mine.
00:18We didn't have no money.
00:19We didn't have nothing.
00:21Three more games.
00:23You know, you gotta be black to have a blues.
00:25But that's not so, you know.
00:26My wife and nephew, Cotton broke down.
00:30You got a blues, man.
00:37Hearing James Cotton is like getting run over by a freight train.
00:41Cotton's tone was in your face.
00:44It just slams into you.
00:47On a Saturday night, there would be 40 clubs in Chicago that would have live blues.
00:53Everyone knew Cotton.
00:54It was like trial by fire.
00:58And he would thrive on lesser play-ups.
01:01He knew he could kick them in the butt, you know.
01:05It was thugs and gangsters.
01:08He was like a scary guy.
01:11You know, like you didn't want to go hang out with James Cotton back then, those days.
01:15Cotton got shot five times.
01:17Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
01:18He said, I got one good sign.
01:21Never been shot.
01:22And don't you mess with me, boy.
01:25Yeah.
01:30James came out and stayed at our hippie house in the Haight-Ashbury.
01:34I don't think they had ever stayed in a house with white people.
01:38The young white kids and the hippies discovered the blues, and he's right there.
01:46Yeah, I was a total hippie.
01:47When I brought him home to my father and stepmother, I almost had a stroke.
01:53He walks out and goes, like this.
01:58This is great performers, all of them.
02:00He'd open to the who, and they'd have to hold the who for a half hour, because Cotton was
02:06doing headstands across the stage.
02:09We gave quite a bit to the audience, and the audience gave quite a bit back to us, you
02:13know.
02:14When the night is over, it also soothes your soul, too.
02:21He was doing some serious flirting with me, and he said,
02:29I need a pack of cigarettes.
02:31Would you go with me?
02:33I said, sure.
02:33And we never went back to the club.
02:38Never learned to read a race.
02:42The blues is all I know to do.
Comments