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00:00:26You're right, I'm full of babies.
00:00:54A party developed, people were mingling and you could sense that people were
00:01:01very different from one another.
00:01:04It was really beautiful.
00:01:10And it's hard for people to recreate that moment, the moment in time that this was.
00:01:26You felt the need to get this music out there and you felt the need to create a space for
00:01:35younger generations to both see this music and have access to this music and imagine a
00:01:42new world.
00:02:18Memphis, despite the claims of the audience in St. Louis, is the home of the blues.
00:02:36My mother took me down to Handy Park on Beale Street.
00:02:40It had to be in the late 50s.
00:02:42I mean, I wasn't even into music or anything like that, but we went to see Bobby Blue Bland
00:02:48and BB King and they were performing on a flatbed truck.
00:02:53You know, I didn't realize that back at the time, but that particular performance, my mother
00:02:57taking me down on Beale Street and seeing that performance, it had a hell of an effect on me.
00:03:05No one can tell you why Memphis is as magical as it really is.
00:03:12It's as magical as the Egyptian place from whence it took its name.
00:03:19All the hell Memphis has done is taught people how to talk, dance and play music.
00:03:24And we still do that.
00:03:29Memphis and this area has a rich musical heritage.
00:03:33They have a jewel here and they don't really realize it and they don't really cherish it.
00:03:38They don't really study the history that much.
00:03:40This city and this area has been a hotbed for years.
00:03:43It has one of the richest histories of any music city in the world.
00:03:50There is this kind of erasure that happens in Memphis again and again.
00:03:56Memphis is the city of good abode.
00:04:00For who?
00:04:07Blues had been recorded in Memphis since the 1920s, but the city had never embraced it.
00:04:12The city was adamant about keeping the black people in their place.
00:04:22Growing up in the 1940s and 50s in Memphis, the racial divide was virtually absolute.
00:04:33There were very limited circumstances in which white people and black people were together.
00:04:42The parents didn't really approve of that kind of music.
00:04:45So you go to bed at nine or ten o'clock at night and turn on the radio
00:04:49and there would be the Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters,
00:04:54people like that who had made it into Chicago and had become electrified.
00:05:15Growing up, here's what the blues was.
00:05:18We had front yard concerts.
00:05:21It was a neighborhood thing.
00:05:26I don't know where the water is.
00:05:29I don't know where the water is.
00:05:36That's what you heard every Saturday, all day Saturday.
00:05:40Like the blues to me, it was entrenched into a kind of community.
00:05:51Now, my parents grew up, that's all they listened to was the blues.
00:06:09The blues was not necessarily to be shared.
00:06:13You know, it was something that you brought into your home.
00:06:15It was something that you went to the juke joint to listen to.
00:06:23It was a very private thing.
00:06:25It was something that belonged to a culture, to black people.
00:06:40While we tend to think of the blues as being born out of slavery,
00:06:43it's important to remember that the blues is born out of post-reconstruction
00:06:46and strict segregation and sharecropping.
00:06:55I think the blues comes from impossible situations.
00:07:16By 65, Memphis was essentially pretty barren.
00:07:21There were no art galleries.
00:07:23Just a small group of artists, poets, some musicians.
00:07:29Those people would be attracted to whatever it was here in Memphis.
00:07:38John McIntyre, the sculptor, put together a coffee house called the Bitter Lemon.
00:07:46Originally, it started with a dream up in Michigan.
00:07:50I came to Memphis.
00:07:52I was teaching at the Art Academy.
00:07:57I found a building for 150 bucks out on Poplar.
00:08:01I had a little bit of money saved up.
00:08:04We had a little stage in a corner.
00:08:06It was about four or five inches off the floor.
00:08:10That's all the stage was.
00:08:12So that's how it got started.
00:08:14And we had one singer.
00:08:21Okay, this is reel number two in the Memphis State Oral History Project,
00:08:25documenting jazz and blues in Memphis with Furry Lewis.
00:08:29Yeah.
00:08:29Reel number two.
00:08:35I woke up this morning with a sound of rain.
00:08:38Around the curb was a passenger train.
00:08:41Our little father was a hobo down.
00:08:43He's a good old hobo, but he's dead gone.
00:08:46Dead gone.
00:08:49Good old hobo, but he's dead gone.
00:08:56I'm on the road again.
00:09:01I'm not born east on the road again.
00:09:05I'm going to leave Memphis to spread the news.
00:09:08The Memphis women don't wear no shoes.
00:09:11I got it written in the back of my shirt.
00:09:13I'm a net born east and I don't have to wait.
00:09:15I don't have to wait.
00:09:21I'm not born east and I don't have to wait.
00:09:26I'm not born east and I don't have to wait.
00:09:28It was a complete transformative situation.
00:09:31And I got it and showed me his tuning right there in the Bitter Lemon.
00:09:34Once I heard it, I ran home and put my guitar in the tuning.
00:09:38I started making that sound and I said, oh, there is a guy.
00:09:53We were going around the country on our way to San Francisco,
00:09:55our Volkswagen bus, so cliched now,
00:10:00and stopping in different cities on the way
00:10:02and finding out where the clubs were,
00:10:04if there was a coffee house or something.
00:10:07Memphis was one of the stops.
00:10:16And we really liked it there.
00:10:18We stayed there for a little while.
00:10:20We were very interested in the blues
00:10:23and we were friends with a bunch of people
00:10:25who were blues fanatics
00:10:27and they would go to the south
00:10:28and collect 78 RPM records
00:10:30from the old neighborhoods
00:10:32trying to preserve this music
00:10:33that hadn't really got a fair shot
00:10:35at being preserved.
00:10:38I don't think many Memphians
00:10:40actually call themselves hippies.
00:10:45Memphis was more of a bohemian culture.
00:10:52It had more of a beat philosophy to it
00:10:55than it did a hippie philosophy
00:10:56until we got LSD, of course.
00:10:59And then, you know, that changed the whole game.
00:11:06I had just got out of high school.
00:11:09Oh, it was a colorful time.
00:11:12Well, maybe the LSD brought the colors out
00:11:15and everything.
00:11:15But we were definitely tripping daily.
00:11:18We weren't just tripping once in a while.
00:11:20We were tripping all the time.
00:11:25So it was a giant mass experiment.
00:11:27And in the beginning of it,
00:11:29people really did do it to seek some knowledge,
00:11:33some connection.
00:11:34It was the opposite of dulling your senses.
00:11:37It was the opposite of that.
00:11:39He was waking up.
00:11:43We came to feel that the people
00:11:45who had developed this style
00:11:46from which rock and roll music really came,
00:11:49we felt that they were being forgotten.
00:11:52So for us, it was kind of like,
00:11:54well, here is this guy who has zero money
00:11:57and lives in a shotgun shack.
00:11:59But I see him as someone
00:12:01who's created a movement.
00:12:04I see him as someone
00:12:05who's given us a precious gift.
00:12:19blues music developed in rural areas of the South
00:12:22in the 19th century.
00:12:24Memphis, at the top of the Delta,
00:12:26became the headquarters for early blues men.
00:12:30Musicians found plentiful work on Beale Street,
00:12:32while labels like Bunzik and Wokallin recorded Furry Lewis and other blues artists.
00:12:38By the 1960s, the public found blues recordings difficult to obtain,
00:12:44and most of the players were presumed lost.
00:12:48I ain't been lost. I've been right here. Ask anybody.
00:12:56People like Furry Lewis, Booker White, and Gus Cannon were living among us,
00:13:02but in many ways they had been neglected and forgotten.
00:13:07And there was this whole resurgence then in country blues.
00:13:18So from 1920 to, let's say, 1934, you have vaudeville blues,
00:13:23which is popular music.
00:13:25Around 1925, you start to see that blues start to evolve and change
00:13:29and become more of a single, solo, male, guitar-oriented blues,
00:13:33and that's considered country blues.
00:13:35Innumerable people were coming south looking for the people
00:13:38that they'd rediscovered on 78 records.
00:13:43And they were mostly white. They were all white, as a matter of fact.
00:13:47They'd come down, go into the delta, but mostly they stopped here.
00:14:02Even the birds were blue.
00:14:05On the scene at about this time was a New Yorker named Bill Barth,
00:14:09one of the strange breed of northern musicologists
00:14:12like Sam Charters and the Lomaxes
00:14:15who spend their lives looking for the blues
00:14:17without ever quite finding it.
00:14:23You know, Bill Barth was part of a group of people
00:14:26who were known for collecting 78 RPM records,
00:14:29and they would make field trips to the south.
00:14:34We spent a lot of time playing music and hanging out.
00:14:38You know, like going to the people's houses,
00:14:40we'd go see Reverend Robert Wilkins or Furry Lewis
00:14:42or people who lived in the Memphis area, spend time with them,
00:14:46Nathan Beauregard, play music with them.
00:14:49I mean, in hindsight, it was probably really silly
00:14:51and kind of shocking to them
00:14:53to have these hippie characters coming and hanging out.
00:14:58For us, it was kind of like,
00:14:59well, we love this music,
00:15:01and we went there to find this music,
00:15:03to promote this music.
00:15:06We decided to have a blues festival,
00:15:08and we wanted to get all the old blues guys
00:15:11and get them a chance to make some money,
00:15:14and we wanted to call it
00:15:16the Memphis Country Blues Society.
00:15:20The idea for the festival was to pay homage
00:15:23to the originators of this musical style
00:15:26that was, you know, influencing such a large movement
00:15:30in rock music at the time.
00:15:33Bill Barth rented the show.
00:15:35The only money involved was my session check
00:15:39from Cadillac Man, $65.
00:15:42And Barth had a lump of hash the size of a softball.
00:15:47And between that hash and my $65,
00:15:50we put on the first Memphis Country Blues Festival.
00:15:53All right, here we go.
00:15:55All right.
00:15:56So, you know, the principals of the blues festival,
00:15:58the ones who signed the papers,
00:16:00were myself, Bill Barth, Randall Lyon, and Bob Palmer.
00:16:06That was a funny group of people.
00:16:08I mean, Bob Palmer was, you know,
00:16:09already a writer and a musician,
00:16:12and he came from Little Rock to be there.
00:16:18The entire show was put together
00:16:21within a group of musicians, photographers,
00:16:24artists, writers, and friends,
00:16:25working together as a Memphis Country Blues Society.
00:16:29And Randall Lyon was a crazy artist.
00:16:52Lots of people helped.
00:16:53It was a community thing.
00:16:57I always figured that was the best thing
00:16:59that could happen to you,
00:17:00to be caught up with a group of people
00:17:02who have this heroic enthusiasm,
00:17:05you know, for what they're doing.
00:17:06I mean, it was like, that's beautiful.
00:17:09We had what you would call
00:17:12eroici furore.
00:17:13We were in poetic furore.
00:17:19We were amateurs.
00:17:20We were definitely amateurs at work.
00:17:23You know, just skimming by, really,
00:17:25in terms of the legalities and everything else.
00:17:42We sold ads in the program to local firms
00:17:44and used the money to print tickets and posters as well.
00:17:48And the newspapers and even a congressman
00:17:51spoke out in favor of the show.
00:17:58This was kind of a new idea.
00:18:02You know, blues music in a shell.
00:18:05It had only been for symphonic music before then.
00:18:10Before 66, there was no integration out here.
00:18:15There was not a sense of safety here for black people.
00:18:20I mean, that place is not mine.
00:18:24I mean, so there's a generation
00:18:27who never felt invited to the park.
00:18:33So they announced this first festival in 1966.
00:18:37And just before the festival,
00:18:40an imperial grand wizard from the Ku Klux Klan
00:18:42held a rally at Overton Park.
00:18:48That was the world,
00:18:50this world of inequality
00:18:52and blind, rabid hatred
00:18:55of blacks by whites.
00:18:58And in the same place,
00:19:00they drew about a thousand people
00:19:02to this blues festival.
00:19:04The P.A. used to be loud.
00:19:07Oh, cool, cool, cool.
00:19:09I don't know how to go.
00:19:10Is there somebody who can do that?
00:19:12Sure is hot, man.
00:19:15There were middle-aged and elderly couples,
00:19:18crew-cut executive types,
00:19:19college students, teenagers,
00:19:21and all the freaks in town.
00:19:24We were all young.
00:19:26We were all confused.
00:19:27Vietnam was this big sack of shit
00:19:29hanging over all our heads.
00:19:31And nobody knew from one day to another
00:19:33if they or their friends were going to be around.
00:19:38You just didn't know.
00:19:39So everything was okay to experiment with.
00:19:42You know, everybody was welcome.
00:19:44There was nobody excluded from anything.
00:19:46You'd see guys in uniform there.
00:19:48And they were fine.
00:19:50You know, they were fine with it.
00:19:51We were fine with them.
00:19:56Almost everybody was there.
00:19:59Furry Lewis, Reverend Robert Wilkins,
00:20:02Booker White, Piano Red was there.
00:20:05Fred McDowell was there.
00:20:06Furry go, tell them Grand Central Station,
00:20:09that's the only place you know.
00:20:11Anybody ever ask you,
00:20:14which way of Furry go?
00:20:19Tell them Grand Central Station,
00:20:22that's the only place you know.
00:20:27Say my Monday's woman live on feeling mean,
00:20:32And my Tuesday's woman bring me pocket change,
00:20:35And my Wednesday's woman bring me daily news,
00:20:39And my Thursday's woman buy my socks and shoes,
00:20:43And where my Friday's woman put it on the shelf,
00:20:46The saddest woman give me the devil she'll ever catch me,
00:20:49Yeah, my saddest woman give me the devil she'll ever catch me,
00:20:54Yeah, say I got a sunny woman cook my something to eat,
00:21:00I got a woman, good God, I'm out every day in the week.
00:21:04Thank God, I got a woman.
00:21:12And as a black musician,
00:21:15We was going places that our people couldn't go,
00:21:18Because they wanted to hear us play.
00:21:20It was all white facilities,
00:21:22Couldn't nobody come see us by them, you know.
00:21:25But back on the shelves there,
00:21:27It was a wide open thing,
00:21:29You know, it wasn't an enclosed thing,
00:21:30And it was open,
00:21:31So everybody got a chance to really come and enjoy the music.
00:21:35Well, I went through, couldn't get across,
00:21:38Look at my muley,
00:21:39Well, lost, lost, lost, yeah,
00:21:41Roll the movie,
00:21:42Give me a co-colle,
00:21:43And then we saw,
00:21:45Jock the ice cream,
00:21:46Dig soap and water,
00:21:48A little water,
00:21:48Keep it clean,
00:21:51It won't get the heavy,
00:21:53And say what it is,
00:21:54It's really so deep,
00:21:55But it's really,
00:21:57Go,
00:21:58Give me a co-colle,
00:22:04If you were on stage,
00:22:06And you look out in the audience,
00:22:08And you saw the unity,
00:22:10And everyone caring for each other,
00:22:13Even watching over the kids,
00:22:15Whether it was your child,
00:22:17Or someone else's child,
00:22:18You made sure that kid was okay,
00:22:21It was a wonderful and a beautiful thing.
00:22:25A lot of people,
00:22:26When they look at the 60s now,
00:22:27They see everybody stoned out of their minds,
00:22:29At Woodstock,
00:22:30You know,
00:22:31Playing in the mud,
00:22:32And dancing to the music,
00:22:33So yeah,
00:22:34That was part of what went on,
00:22:36Definitely,
00:22:38But,
00:22:38People did it with a motivation,
00:22:41I think most people,
00:22:43Maybe when it gets to be 500,000 people,
00:22:45In a meadow,
00:22:46The motivation slips,
00:22:47If you want to act with,
00:22:49Whatever you want to act with.
00:22:51Bye.
00:22:56Bye.
00:23:10Bye.
00:23:13Bye.
00:23:37I'm thinking about how good the Lord was to me.
00:23:42It spared me all these many years, and yet in pretty fair health and strength, and yet
00:23:53able to tickle these springs, and I wanted to thank the Lord for it, and I said, Lord,
00:24:03I ain't got enough time to thank you. I said, I'm going to do it. He said, we're going to
00:24:11take the guitar and make the guitar say, thank you, Jesus. Hold it a minute. Then I took
00:24:18the guitar say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
00:25:15I didn't do any clean music around Memphis
00:25:17until just regularly, about 1928, I was recorded records.
00:25:25What did you record for?
00:25:26I don't know, I was at Brunswick.
00:25:31Were they recorded here in Memphis?
00:25:33I recorded here in Memphis, I recorded an auditorium twice,
00:25:36in Peabody Hotel once.
00:25:40Is it your son that sometimes plays?
00:25:42Yes, my son.
00:25:45When I was small, we'd go to church and I'd stand up and play with him,
00:25:49yeah, my little old guitar and stuff.
00:25:52Before my dad was playing the blues,
00:25:55I was too young to travel anything with him during that time,
00:25:59back in the 20s.
00:26:01Well, back in the 30s and 20s, I wasn't even born,
00:26:03so, you know, he was traveling then, you know.
00:26:27When we went to the Shell, sat down and started hearing all these people
00:26:31I'd never heard before, didn't even know who they were.
00:26:35I looked at my friend and said, all these guys are doing this,
00:26:38just playing all this old New Orleans music.
00:26:41And this guy looked at me like I was absolutely crazy,
00:26:44and he says, New Orleans?
00:26:47Where do you think this music came from?
00:26:50He said, those are all handy tunes, those are all blues,
00:26:53that music came from Memphis.
00:26:55I realized that what was happening here was really important.
00:27:00These men were geniuses.
00:27:02They were American heroes.
00:27:05They should be, as Jim would put it, in other more advanced societies,
00:27:09they would have been worshipped as shamans.
00:27:14These two fringes of society came together,
00:27:18and mainstream society took notice basically because they had to.
00:27:23It was kind of like a big announcement.
00:27:25We're here.
00:27:29See you next year!
00:27:45Special.
00:27:48We spent half the year in Memphis doing the blues festivals
00:27:52and half the year in New York.
00:27:55Special.
00:27:58That's how I remember it.
00:28:05Bob, Bill, and myself started the Insect Trust then.
00:28:10The worst named band in history.
00:28:13And gradually other people came in.
00:28:25I always think of it as like an early on art rock band.
00:28:29You know, it's like jazz, blues, everything mixed in.
00:28:35We needed to work as a band and New York was the place to do that.
00:28:39We did that for six months of the year.
00:28:41And then we'd go down to Memphis and put the festival on for six months.
00:28:45Bob Homer worked for the magazines and for the New York Times eventually
00:28:48and all that as a writer.
00:28:49We were motivated to then use some connections that we got in New York to promote the festival.
00:29:00The Memphis Blues Festival continued for five years.
00:29:06In 1969, we changed the name to the Memphis Country Blues Festival.
00:29:13Well, the first two festivals were really homemade.
00:29:16Silly things were going on and people were being very creative.
00:29:19And to me, that was the sweetest time.
00:29:23John McIntyre did the poster.
00:29:26Bill Barth kept coming and adding people to it.
00:29:28He had to have to squeeze another name in somewhere.
00:29:31That's why it's so cluttered.
00:29:34Bill Barth grabbed it and I chased him down the street trying to get it back.
00:29:37But he said, you've got to get to the printers.
00:29:41I was married to Bob Palmer and I wasn't a musician and I wasn't really an organizer.
00:29:48I did the drawings for the program.
00:29:52They said, take tickets.
00:29:55I took tickets.
00:30:02We had all these props.
00:30:04This huge cardboard cutout of this sitting Buddha.
00:30:07It was about 20 feet tall.
00:30:09So all these people like Furry and Nathan Beauregard were playing in front of this huge golden Buddha.
00:30:14And there were like stage pop trees and motorcycles.
00:30:18Oh boy, we're long ways from home.
00:30:30What good is your food if you say it won't run.
00:30:36What good is your food if you say it won't run.
00:30:43What you need when a woman calling she won't come.
00:30:57Seymour Stein was looking out for projects and he said to me, I tell you what, there's a very interesting
00:31:02festival that's going to happen in Memphis during July.
00:31:05Featuring Booker White and Furry Lewis.
00:31:08It was as if I was on the plane already.
00:31:12Mike Vernon could produce anything.
00:31:15He could produce a classical orchestra.
00:31:18He did David Bowie's first album.
00:31:21But what he loved was the blues.
00:31:25When he met these blues musicians, I remember his eyes were welled up.
00:31:31Mike was in heaven.
00:31:33I actually arrived the day before the festival and was almost immediately whisked off to Nesbitt where I met Joe
00:31:41Calicut, his wife and their milk cow.
00:31:44It was a wonderful experience.
00:31:49The festival was a bit of a rush.
00:31:52We really didn't know what was going to happen next.
00:31:57We were never completely professional.
00:32:00They became busier and a little more stressful.
00:32:03It was fun.
00:32:04It was fun to say, oh, Steve Allen's on the phone or whatever.
00:32:07You know, it was just fun and we were in our little hippie apartment in Hoboken with a phone on
00:32:12the wall, you know.
00:32:14Pretending like we're wheeler dealers or whatever, which we were not.
00:32:17But that's how people start.
00:32:18That's what starts it.
00:32:20You just go as if.
00:32:21A lot of the money stuff was literally counting dollar bills and paper bags and giving them out.
00:32:26But I can tell you that it was done honestly and done from that perspective and that's what happened.
00:32:39It was also sort of like a school.
00:32:42Because in the process of enjoying each other, we learned about each other's cultures and how to take the music
00:32:53and blend it together to where you had an amazing sound.
00:33:04I was the emcee and I played music with Booker White.
00:33:12There was a camaraderie and a humanity that got shared that is above and beyond the ordinary.
00:33:21It was transcendental in a sense.
00:33:26Next, you're going to hear from Mr. Booker White and my own self.
00:33:35The first selection would be.
00:33:38Hello Central, give me 49.
00:33:49Hello Central, hello Central
00:33:52Will you please now give me 49
00:33:58Hello Central, hello Central
00:34:01Will you please now give me 49
00:34:08I got a little woman, she didn't love me
00:34:12Boy, you know the cloud of that little woman, she can't even find
00:34:17My baby, she left me
00:34:21She left fire, there's someone crying
00:34:25I didn't mind that woman going, but I just hate to see you
00:34:28Leave me in the fire, come and cry
00:34:31And I said, if you find that woman
00:34:36I wouldn't leave my club on 309
00:34:41Yeah, I had to buy in a guy a little
00:34:43And I didn't get to write the season on him
00:34:46And so they gave me a little time down there
00:34:49You know, a lot of time, it's not what you do
00:34:53It's the way you do it and the way that justice you get
00:34:55You don't get justice all the time on things
00:34:58And so, don't care how good you're
00:35:00Sometimes you get, you know, you get killed for darn right
00:35:02Sometimes people will let you go for darn wrong
00:35:12I was taking Booker White from Memphis to Little Rock for a concert
00:35:16And it was just me and him, because what did I care?
00:35:19I knew what I was doing, you know
00:35:21But we were pulled over by the cops
00:35:23Because it wasn't seemly that I would be driving this elderly gentleman
00:35:28Of color to this concert
00:35:30So I kind of, you know, I was pretty
00:35:34I was pretty bold in those days
00:35:36I just told the guy, look, this is what I'm doing
00:35:39Everybody was prejudiced
00:35:40My parents were prejudiced
00:35:41It wasn't just a southern thing
00:35:45There'd be all kinds of marijuana and stuff like that
00:35:47They could have busted us and sent us all to jail for six years
00:35:50And they would come in and bust us because
00:35:53We were black and white
00:35:54At a party, playing music and just having a good time
00:35:57And it was lots of fun
00:36:05I think what happens is that we were like
00:36:08Let's be friends, despite power dynamics
00:36:12Because there's not slavery anymore
00:36:15And so we can
00:36:15But no, that's
00:36:17It's a
00:36:18It's a really difficult thing
00:36:21There is always
00:36:23A disconnect
00:36:25That complicates
00:36:27Cross-racial friendships, collaborations
00:36:30Because that power dynamic
00:36:32Is always sitting there in that room
00:36:34In the deep context of the music
00:36:37Which is violence and pain and hurt
00:36:58Ferry Lewis, he lived in Memphis most of his life
00:37:01He lost his leg working on the Illinois Central Railroad
00:37:05So he got a job sweeping the streets
00:37:13Well, one thing when you
00:37:15When you write the blues
00:37:16And what you be thinking about
00:37:17You be blue
00:37:18And you ain't got nothing harder to think about
00:37:19You're just already blue
00:37:20And that's all right
00:37:25He did that for, you know, 20 years
00:37:27And then he retired
00:37:31The city said you don't qualify for retirement
00:37:34Because you have a wooden leg
00:37:36And actually, with a wooden leg
00:37:38You're not supposed to have the job you have
00:37:41So we don't know whether or not
00:37:43You can really get retirement
00:37:45I got your walking blues
00:37:47I'm going to get my walking shoes
00:37:52In February 1968
00:37:55In Memphis, Tennessee
00:37:57Some 1,300 sanitation workers
00:38:00Began a strike
00:38:02This wasn't an ordinary strike
00:38:09We felt like we would have to let this city know
00:38:13That because we were sanitation workers
00:38:16We were human beings
00:38:19The signs that we were cared
00:38:21Said that I am a man
00:38:23And we was going to demand
00:38:25To have the same dignity
00:38:28And the same courtesy
00:38:30Any other citizen of Memphis has
00:38:35But let me say to you tonight
00:38:37That whenever you are engaged in work
00:38:41That serves humanity
00:38:44And is for the building of humanity
00:38:47It has dignity
00:38:50And it has worth
00:39:01Dr. Martin Luther King
00:39:03The apostle of nonviolence
00:39:05In the civil rights movement
00:39:06Has been shot to death
00:39:08In Memphis, Tennessee
00:39:09Police have issued
00:39:10An all points bulletin
00:39:11A curfew
00:39:13Which requires all citizens
00:39:15To be off the streets
00:39:16Of the city of Memphis
00:39:17By 7 p.m. tonight
00:39:18And remain off the streets
00:39:21Until 5 a.m.
00:39:28The Marques
00:39:28We were in the studio
00:39:30The night that
00:39:32The assassination occurred
00:39:33We had to spend the night
00:39:35At the studio
00:39:35Because posted right outside
00:39:37Of that studio
00:39:38Well, you know
00:39:39The National Guard
00:39:46That moment is still so fraught
00:39:48And we're like living it
00:39:49Over and over
00:39:50Over and over again
00:39:51It is a hinge
00:39:53And at any moment
00:39:54It could fall back
00:39:55On to something else
00:39:57That is painful
00:39:59And hurtful
00:39:59Just like that moment
00:40:01It was the sore
00:40:03That totally separated
00:40:05Even more so
00:40:06The community
00:40:10Glory, glory
00:40:21First you had the civil rights movement
00:40:24But afterwards
00:40:25The black power movement came in
00:40:26And there was a big generational shift
00:40:29While ultimately the blues
00:40:31Has been respected within the black community
00:40:33It came off a little bit old hat
00:40:35And it was a little bit different
00:40:37In terms of the way that the protest
00:40:38Was being articulated
00:40:40And disseminated within the music community
00:40:43So I think that that led to a lot of younger
00:40:45African-American people drifting away from the blues
00:40:52The blues was all around me
00:40:54It was always
00:40:56Always
00:40:56In the background
00:40:58You know that I want to be together
00:41:04Me hating the blues
00:41:06Is kind of like
00:41:06A fish hating water
00:41:14I felt a little embarrassed
00:41:17A little twinge of something there
00:41:21That I didn't even understand
00:41:22So, you know
00:41:24I told myself that I hated it
00:41:25Because I thought the blues was sad
00:41:28It was poor
00:41:31So these things in the blues
00:41:35They were not abstract to me
00:41:37Right
00:41:38I was not separate
00:41:39From them
00:41:41Right
00:41:43But I felt
00:41:44Like I needed to be
00:41:48I think seeing other people consume the blues
00:41:51Also made me turn away
00:41:55There were people like Ferri Lewis on the ground
00:41:57And totally people to steal those off
00:41:59A lot of them by children's eyes
00:42:03Now, hell, I want
00:42:07Everybody out there
00:42:08I want to pick this up
00:42:08Because I just really want to call you that
00:42:11Let me call you sweetheart
00:42:19He's one of the finest gentlemen
00:42:20I've ever met in my life
00:42:24I would say Ferri Lewis
00:42:25Is the most important male figure
00:42:27In my life
00:42:28Other than my father
00:42:29And my grandfather
00:42:48Won't you let me call you sweetheart
00:42:51I'm in love with you
00:42:56Let me hear you whisper
00:42:59That you love me too
00:43:04Keep your love light
00:43:07Blaming in your eyes
00:43:10So blue
00:43:12Let Ferri call you
00:43:15Sweet arum and love
00:43:27Party on Jeff, baby
00:43:29On the side of the apple tree
00:43:32Hoodie
00:43:37Long Jeff, baby
00:43:39On the side of the apple tree
00:43:41As we go marching on
00:43:45Take your time, guitar
00:43:47Say that long before me
00:43:48Glory, glory, hallelujah
00:44:05I think the reason that Ferri
00:44:08Tolerated me playing with him
00:44:09Is that I didn't get in the way
00:44:11My job was to make him sound good
00:44:14You know
00:44:14And which he already sounded good
00:44:16He didn't need me
00:44:17My thing was to boost his thing up
00:44:20You know
00:44:21Because there wasn't any doubt
00:44:22You know
00:44:23Who the master was
00:44:25You know
00:44:26Because I was learning from him
00:44:28I'm fighting
00:44:29All right
00:44:31Yeah
00:44:38Barth and I went down at one point
00:44:40Trying to find Joe Calicott
00:44:41Because Barth was such a big fan of his records
00:44:44And we heard he was living down there
00:44:45In North Mississippi
00:44:47We got put in jail overnight
00:44:48The first time we went looking
00:44:50But the next weekend
00:44:52We found him
00:44:53When you see me laughing
00:44:53I'm keeping from crying
00:44:55Say you don't know
00:44:57Don't know my mind
00:45:02When you see me laughing
00:45:04Laughing
00:45:10I'm going to the racetrack
00:45:12See my pony run
00:45:14When some money
00:45:15I'm gonna save you
00:45:17Some maybe you don't know
00:45:21I'm looking for this guy
00:45:22Joe Calicott
00:45:23And we never heard of Joe Calicott
00:45:25You know
00:45:25And I thought
00:45:25That sounds like a made up name
00:45:27You know
00:45:27And my mom was
00:45:30At the door
00:45:31And I saw him
00:45:32I thought
00:45:32Man it looks kind of funky
00:45:33You know
00:45:33Kind of suspicious
00:45:34You know
00:45:35You know
00:45:35We'd never seen anybody
00:45:36With long hair really
00:45:37So I was standing back there
00:45:39With his shotgun
00:45:40You know
00:45:40I didn't know
00:45:41Well I'm here
00:45:44I don't hardly know what to do
00:45:47I'm up here
00:45:50Amongst all these folks
00:45:53For the whole congregation
00:46:00I've been around a great long time
00:46:06While I've been around a good long time
00:46:10That changed my life
00:46:12I heard him playing music over there
00:46:14And started paying attention
00:46:16You know
00:46:16He was like my best friend
00:46:18You know
00:46:18And mentor
00:46:21You know
00:46:21And teacher
00:46:24And he was cool
00:46:25You know
00:46:25Just the coolest cat
00:46:26You ever want to meet
00:46:27You know
00:46:29His last words
00:46:30He was telling me about
00:46:31You know
00:46:32Drive for yourself
00:46:33And the other fella too
00:46:35Because I was getting
00:46:36Getting my driver's license
00:46:37You know
00:46:37And that was
00:46:38The thing he told me
00:46:39You know
00:46:39Meant watch out
00:46:40For the other people
00:46:42But when he died
00:46:44He rolled over in the bed
00:46:46And said
00:46:46Can you be a good boy
00:46:47And drive for yourself
00:46:49And the other fella too
00:46:50And those were the last words
00:46:52His wife told me
00:46:53He said
00:46:54I'm going to save you some
00:47:00Told me
00:47:01That you'll love me free
00:47:05And you told me
00:47:07That you'll love me
00:47:16Bill Barth was staying
00:47:18At McIntyre's beatnik manor flop house
00:47:20He started canvassing for records
00:47:23With the money he'd earned
00:47:24Modeling nude for classes
00:47:25At the Memphis College of Art
00:47:30One time
00:47:31He thought he heard
00:47:31An old record
00:47:32Playing inside a house
00:47:33So
00:47:33He knocked on the front door
00:47:36Inside
00:47:37He saw
00:47:38A wisened
00:47:39Little gnome of a man
00:47:40Playing guitar
00:47:41And singing
00:47:43Nathan Beauregard
00:47:44Some said
00:47:45He was over a hundred
00:47:46Turns out
00:47:47They found his draft card
00:47:48Recently
00:47:49And
00:47:49He was only in his
00:47:50Seventies
00:47:51Back then
00:47:52Go to jail
00:47:53About Spoonful
00:47:54Go to jail
00:47:56About Spoonful
00:48:00Spoonful
00:48:01You go to jail
00:48:03Bar
00:48:04Bar
00:48:06Fight my papa
00:48:07Bar
00:48:07Oh
00:48:09Fight my papa
00:48:10Bar
00:48:11Spoonful
00:48:12Fight my papa
00:48:14My Spoonful
00:48:15Find the father
00:48:19Come on
00:48:20A little bit
00:48:21Stressed
00:48:22Time
00:48:23But a little
00:48:24Bit
00:48:24Stressed
00:48:25For
00:48:26All
00:48:27A little
00:48:27Stressed
00:48:28But
00:48:30There
00:48:32No
00:48:33Business
00:48:34Starting
00:48:35If
00:48:36You
00:48:37Know
00:48:37You
00:48:37Couldn't
00:48:38Keep
00:48:38It
00:48:38Time
00:48:40But
00:48:40A little
00:48:40Bit
00:48:41Stressed
00:48:42Time
00:48:43How did
00:48:44You happen
00:48:44To pick up
00:48:45The guitar
00:48:45Did you hear
00:48:46Somebody
00:48:46When I first started
00:48:47Learning on
00:48:47The little
00:48:48Banjo
00:48:48You seen
00:48:49The little
00:48:49Round
00:48:49Thing
00:48:50Banjo
00:48:51Fire strings
00:48:52On
00:48:52I see
00:48:52But you don't
00:48:53Recall when
00:48:54They first
00:48:54Started
00:48:55Going crazy
00:48:55About them
00:48:56Blues
00:48:56Do you
00:48:56Yeah
00:48:57That's what
00:48:57Most people
00:48:58Was after
00:48:59Now
00:48:59Blue
00:49:02Everyone
00:49:03You meet
00:49:03Now
00:49:04Mostly
00:49:04He's
00:49:04Wanting
00:49:05The blues
00:49:05Well you
00:49:05Can't
00:49:05Tell
00:49:07What's
00:49:07On a
00:49:08Sweet
00:49:08Woman
00:49:08On
00:49:09Mine
00:49:13Well
00:49:13You
00:49:14Can't
00:49:14Tell
00:49:16What's
00:49:16On
00:49:16Love
00:49:18Was
00:49:18Mine
00:49:22When
00:49:22You're
00:49:23Thanks
00:49:23She
00:49:23Loving
00:49:24You
00:49:24Yeah
00:49:25She
00:49:26Put
00:49:26You
00:49:26Down
00:49:27Oh
00:49:28The man
00:49:29Had been
00:49:29Born
00:49:29A slave
00:49:31He's
00:49:31Over
00:49:31A hundred
00:49:32Years
00:49:32Old
00:49:32And he's
00:49:33Still
00:49:33Playing
00:49:33Guitar
00:49:34And singing
00:49:34He was
00:49:3598
00:49:36No
00:49:37He's
00:49:37A hundred
00:49:37And
00:49:37I think
00:49:38It was
00:49:39Figured
00:49:39Out
00:49:39He
00:49:39Was
00:49:39A hundred
00:49:40And
00:49:40Two
00:49:40Years
00:49:40Old
00:49:42We
00:49:43Definitely
00:49:43Know
00:49:44That
00:49:44He
00:49:44Wasn't
00:49:44A hundred
00:49:45Years
00:49:45Old
00:49:45At
00:49:45The time
00:49:46He
00:49:46Was
00:49:46Rediscovered
00:49:47This
00:49:48Was
00:49:48A real
00:49:48Person
00:49:48This
00:49:49Wasn't
00:49:49A gnome
00:49:51You know
00:49:51He
00:49:51Was
00:49:51A real
00:49:52Human
00:49:52Being
00:49:52Who
00:49:52Had
00:49:53Experiences
00:49:54In
00:49:54Mississippi
00:49:55In
00:49:55Ashland
00:49:57Did
00:49:57A lot
00:49:58More
00:49:58Than
00:49:58Play
00:49:58Music
00:49:59He
00:50:00Did
00:50:00Go
00:50:00Blind
00:50:01But
00:50:01He
00:50:01Wasn't
00:50:01Blind
00:50:01At
00:50:02Birth
00:50:02We
00:50:02Know
00:50:03That
00:50:03Now
00:50:04So
00:50:04The
00:50:04Problem
00:50:05With
00:50:05Nathan
00:50:05Beauregard
00:50:06And
00:50:06Saying
00:50:06He's
00:50:06A hundred
00:50:07Years
00:50:07Old
00:50:07Is
00:50:08That
00:50:08It's
00:50:08Not
00:50:08True
00:50:09And
00:50:09It's
00:50:10A falsehood
00:50:10And
00:50:11If
00:50:11You
00:50:11Repeat
00:50:11This
00:50:12Over
00:50:12And
00:50:12Over
00:50:12Eventually
00:50:13Those
00:50:13Become
00:50:14Stereotypes
00:50:14He
00:50:15Was
00:50:15There
00:50:16To
00:50:16Entertain
00:50:17Them
00:50:17Show
00:50:18Them
00:50:18The
00:50:18Blues
00:50:19Be
00:50:19A
00:50:19Representative
00:50:20Of
00:50:21This
00:50:22African
00:50:22American
00:50:22Culture
00:50:23And
00:50:23History
00:50:23But
00:50:24Only
00:50:24A
00:50:24Representative
00:50:25Of
00:50:25What
00:50:26They
00:50:26Perceived
00:50:26It
00:50:26As
00:50:27And
00:50:27What
00:50:27They
00:50:27Knew
00:50:30It's
00:50:31Difficult
00:50:31To
00:50:32Create
00:50:33A
00:50:33Real
00:50:34History
00:50:34When
00:50:35We've
00:50:35Got
00:50:35These
00:50:35Color
00:50:36Blind
00:50:36Histories
00:50:36Ones
00:50:37That
00:50:38Both
00:50:38Erase
00:50:38The
00:50:39Structures
00:50:39Of
00:50:40Racism
00:50:40And
00:50:40Then
00:50:41Also
00:50:41Erase
00:50:42The
00:50:42Histories
00:50:43That
00:50:43Got
00:50:44Us
00:50:44To
00:50:44This
00:50:44Point
00:50:46To
00:50:47Them
00:50:47You
00:50:48Don't
00:50:48Really
00:50:49Get
00:50:50The
00:50:50Depths
00:50:51Of
00:50:51It
00:50:51You
00:50:51Don't
00:50:52Feel
00:50:52The
00:50:52Depths
00:50:52Of
00:50:52It
00:50:53Because
00:50:53It
00:50:54Hurts
00:50:54Mr.
00:50:55Beauregard
00:50:55And
00:50:56John
00:50:56Wilkins
00:50:57I
00:50:57Mean
00:50:57They
00:50:58Were
00:50:58Sharing
00:50:58Their
00:50:58Souls
00:51:00Everybody
00:51:01Just
00:51:01Loved
00:51:02These
00:51:02Old
00:51:02Guys
00:51:03And
00:51:04It's
00:51:04Kind
00:51:04Of
00:51:05A
00:51:05Southern
00:51:05Attitude
00:51:06These
00:51:06Cute
00:51:07Old
00:51:08Black
00:51:08Coat
00:51:12Some
00:51:12Of
00:51:13It
00:51:13Quite
00:51:13Frankly
00:51:14Some
00:51:14Of
00:51:14It
00:51:14Was
00:51:15Paternalistic
00:51:15And
00:51:16We
00:51:16Didn't
00:51:16Even
00:51:16Realize
00:51:17It
00:51:17At
00:51:17The
00:51:17Time
00:51:17But
00:51:18It
00:51:18Was
00:51:25There's
00:51:26There's
00:51:26A
00:51:26Subtlety
00:51:26To
00:51:27What
00:51:29We
00:51:29Might
00:51:29Think
00:51:29Of
00:51:29As
00:51:30Appropriation
00:51:30It's
00:51:31Really
00:51:31An
00:51:32Erasure
00:51:32It
00:51:33Is
00:51:34An
00:51:34Obliteration
00:51:35So
00:51:36That
00:51:36Those
00:51:36People
00:51:36Don't
00:51:37Even
00:51:37Exist
00:51:38In
00:51:38The
00:51:38Landscape
00:51:43The
00:51:44Blue
00:51:44Sun
00:51:45That
00:51:45Is
00:51:45No
00:51:45Way
00:51:45To
00:51:45Get
00:51:46Along
00:51:46And
00:51:47After
00:51:47He
00:51:47Started
00:51:47Come
00:51:48On
00:51:49Other
00:51:49Side
00:51:49Religious
00:51:50Side
00:51:50My
00:51:50Daddy
00:51:51Kept
00:51:51The
00:51:51Same
00:51:51Music
00:51:52But
00:51:53He
00:51:53Wrote
00:51:53The
00:51:54Sun
00:51:54Prodigal
00:51:54Sun
00:52:01The
00:52:08Rolling
00:52:09Stones
00:52:09Recorded
00:52:10That
00:52:10Song
00:52:10On
00:52:11The
00:52:11Blues
00:52:11Style
00:52:14Four
00:52:15Boats
00:52:16As
00:52:16Far
00:52:16As
00:52:16Red
00:52:17Started
00:52:17Down
00:52:18The
00:52:18Road
00:52:18Started
00:52:20Down
00:52:20The
00:52:20Road
00:52:21Called
00:52:22All
00:52:22He
00:52:22Started
00:52:22Down
00:52:23The
00:52:24Road
00:52:25Going
00:52:26Out
00:52:26In
00:52:26This
00:52:27World
00:52:27We've
00:52:27Got
00:52:28On
00:52:28The
00:52:28Door
00:52:30And
00:52:30Last
00:52:31Word
00:52:31Our
00:52:32Man
00:52:32I
00:52:32Heard
00:52:33Him
00:52:33Say
00:52:35Last
00:52:36Word
00:52:36Our
00:52:37Man
00:52:37I
00:52:37Heard
00:52:38Him
00:52:38Say
00:52:39We
00:52:40Get
00:52:40A
00:52:40Little
00:52:40Roach
00:52:40Of
00:52:40This
00:52:41View
00:52:41There's
00:52:41Seven
00:52:41Of
00:52:42Us
00:52:42But
00:52:43It
00:52:43Ain't
00:52:43Which
00:52:43What
00:52:43It
00:52:44Should
00:52:44Be
00:52:44I
00:52:45Don't
00:52:45Think
00:52:45None
00:52:45Of
00:52:46Them
00:52:47Got
00:52:47Treated
00:52:48Right
00:52:48Because
00:52:49They
00:52:49Didn't
00:52:50Get
00:52:50The
00:52:51Didn't
00:52:51Get
00:52:51The
00:52:51Money
00:52:51They
00:52:52Should
00:52:52Have
00:52:52Got
00:52:53And
00:52:53Their
00:52:54Music
00:52:54Is
00:52:56Still
00:52:57Gone
00:52:57They
00:52:58Taking
00:52:58Advantage
00:52:59Because
00:53:00People
00:53:00Didn't
00:53:01Know
00:53:02And
00:53:02People
00:53:03Still
00:53:03Taking
00:53:03Advantage
00:53:04Of
00:53:04You
00:53:04If
00:53:05You
00:53:05Don't
00:53:05Know
00:53:05They
00:53:05Still
00:53:06Doing
00:53:08It
00:53:08The
00:53:09Boy
00:53:09Got
00:53:10All
00:53:10He
00:53:10Had
00:53:11And
00:53:11He
00:53:11Started
00:53:11On
00:53:12Down
00:53:12The
00:53:12Road
00:53:14He
00:53:15Got
00:53:15All
00:53:16He
00:53:16Had
00:53:16And
00:53:16Started
00:53:17On
00:53:17Down
00:53:18The
00:53:18Road
00:53:20Got
00:53:20All
00:53:21He
00:53:21Had
00:53:21And
00:53:21He
00:53:21Started
00:53:22On
00:53:22Down
00:53:23The
00:53:23Road
00:53:26The
00:53:27Marked
00:53:28The
00:53:28150th
00:53:29Birthday
00:53:30Of
00:53:31The
00:53:31City
00:53:31Of
00:53:31Memphis
00:53:32Bill
00:53:33Barth
00:53:33Who
00:53:33Had
00:53:34Remained
00:53:34The
00:53:34Blues
00:53:34Show
00:53:35Prime
00:53:35Mover
00:53:36Suggested
00:53:37The
00:53:37Celebration
00:53:38Include
00:53:38An
00:53:38Expanded
00:53:39Version
00:53:39Of
00:53:40The
00:53:40Blues
00:53:40Show
00:53:40And
00:53:41The
00:53:41City
00:53:42Desperate
00:53:42For
00:53:42Good
00:53:43Publicity
00:53:43Since
00:53:44The
00:53:44Death
00:53:44Of
00:53:44Martin
00:53:44Luther
00:53:45King
00:53:45Agreed
00:53:50And
00:53:51So
00:53:51We
00:53:51Ended
00:53:52Up
00:53:52Over
00:53:52At
00:53:52Robert
00:53:53Wilkins
00:53:53House
00:53:54Because
00:53:54We
00:53:55Needed
00:53:55To
00:53:55Talk
00:53:55To
00:53:55You
00:53:55About
00:53:55The
00:53:56Show
00:53:56Prodigal
00:53:57Son
00:53:57And
00:53:57The
00:53:58Rolling
00:53:58Stones
00:53:58And
00:53:59This
00:53:59And
00:53:59That
00:54:01I
00:54:01Remember
00:54:02Barth
00:54:02Being
00:54:02On
00:54:02Reverend
00:54:03Wilkins
00:54:04House
00:54:05Going
00:54:05Yes
00:54:06I'm
00:54:06Calling
00:54:07Collector
00:54:07Robert
00:54:08Wilkins
00:54:08House
00:54:08Yes
00:54:09I'll
00:54:09Hold
00:54:09And
00:54:10Then
00:54:10He
00:54:10Got
00:54:11Somebody
00:54:11On
00:54:11The
00:54:11Phone
00:54:12And
00:54:12Started
00:54:12Telling
00:54:13His
00:54:13Tale
00:54:14A
00:54:15Few
00:54:15Minutes
00:54:16Later
00:54:16I'm
00:54:17Back
00:54:17Out
00:54:17On
00:54:17The
00:54:17Porch
00:54:18And
00:54:19Barth
00:54:19Comes
00:54:19Out
00:54:19And
00:54:20Says
00:54:20Excuse
00:54:21Me
00:54:22Reverend
00:54:22Wilkins
00:54:22But
00:54:23Mick
00:54:23Jagger
00:54:24Wants
00:54:24To
00:54:24Talk
00:54:25To
00:54:25You
00:54:25On
00:54:25The
00:54:25Telephone
00:54:26And
00:54:27Robert
00:54:27Wilkins
00:54:28Doesn't
00:54:28Get
00:54:28Up
00:54:29He
00:54:29Doesn't
00:54:29Get
00:54:29Up
00:54:29Out
00:54:29Of
00:54:30His
00:54:30Chair
00:54:30Or
00:54:30Anything
00:54:30He
00:54:31Kind
00:54:31Of
00:54:31Just
00:54:31Leans
00:54:32Over
00:54:32And
00:54:32Says
00:54:33Tell
00:54:33The
00:54:33Boy
00:54:34I'll
00:54:34Talk
00:54:34To
00:54:35Him
00:54:35In
00:54:35Person
00:54:36And
00:54:37So
00:54:38That
00:54:38Put
00:54:39The
00:54:40Thing
00:54:40In
00:54:40The
00:54:40Works
00:54:41For
00:54:41The
00:54:41Rolling
00:54:42Stones
00:54:42To
00:54:43Come
00:54:43And
00:54:44Do
00:54:44A
00:54:44Benefit
00:54:45For
00:54:45The
00:54:45Old
00:54:45Blues
00:54:45Guys
00:54:46For
00:54:47The
00:54:47Memphis
00:54:47Country
00:54:48Blues
00:54:48Society
00:54:48For
00:54:49Our
00:54:49Show
00:54:49And
00:54:50They
00:54:51Said
00:54:51If
00:54:51You
00:54:51Guys
00:54:52Can
00:54:52Get
00:54:53The
00:54:53City
00:54:53Together
00:54:53To
00:54:54Get
00:54:54Us
00:54:54Plane
00:54:54Tickets
00:54:55We'll
00:54:55Come
00:55:00A Man
00:55:00You
00:55:00Know
00:55:00Something
00:55:01Like
00:55:01That
00:55:01And
00:55:02So
00:55:03When
00:55:03We
00:55:03Went
00:55:03Back
00:55:03To
00:55:04The
00:55:04City
00:55:04Of
00:55:04Memphis
00:55:04Back
00:55:05To
00:55:05Brandon
00:55:05Davis
00:55:06He
00:55:06Just
00:55:07Freaks
00:55:07Out
00:55:07It
00:55:08Was
00:55:08Just
00:55:09Too
00:55:09Much
00:55:09For
00:55:09Him
00:55:10All
00:55:11He
00:55:11Could
00:55:11See
00:55:11Was
00:55:12Trouble
00:55:12Trouble
00:55:13Trouble
00:55:13Trouble
00:55:40There
00:55:41Were
00:55:41Two
00:55:41Great
00:55:41White
00:55:42Vans
00:55:42Full
00:55:42Television
00:55:43Equipment
00:55:44Behind
00:55:44The
00:55:44Show
00:55:44And
00:55:45Strange
00:55:46Men
00:55:46Wearing
00:55:47Khaki
00:55:47Shorts
00:55:48Blue
00:55:48Knit
00:55:48Golf
00:55:49Shirts
00:55:49And
00:55:50Little
00:55:50Yellow
00:55:50Canvas
00:55:51Hats
00:55:52Bulting
00:55:52Around
00:55:53A
00:55:53Forest
00:55:53Of
00:55:54Cameras
00:55:54And
00:55:54Microphones
00:55:55Muttering
00:55:56To
00:55:56Each
00:55:56Other
00:55:56In
00:55:57Alien
00:55:57Accents
00:55:58Yeah
00:56:00I'm
00:56:01driving
00:56:02Away
00:56:03It's
00:56:04Brighter
00:56:05Than
00:56:05Day
00:56:06City
00:56:07Behind
00:56:07I'm
00:56:08Burning
00:56:08My
00:56:09Mind
00:56:09I'm
00:56:10Driving
00:56:10Away
00:56:11It's
00:56:11Brighter
00:56:15Barth
00:56:16Barth had been
00:56:16trying to talk to people on the city council, get some support from them, something, and we're getting nowhere, and
00:56:23getting nothing from them, and then they realized that the Goodyear Blimp was coming overhead and PBS was filming.
00:56:30And once the city was aware of that, they had a banner that they hung up backstage. I mean, the
00:56:38show had almost already started when somebody's up there doing that.
00:56:59But it was like, and they were having fun of that. It was like they were doing this. And the
00:57:02people came from Europe, from all over the country. Not in massive numbers, but in numbers, along with the people
00:57:11from the region of the South Park.
00:57:13South. So my brother Tommy and I headed south. We drove down in the Volkswagen. Driving down,
00:57:20I'd recognized all the local signs. I mean, I was going to Brownsville. I'm going to take that
00:57:25right-hand road. I mean, everything about it. I mean, you know, Tommy and I just laughed at
00:57:29ourselves, quoting blues lyrics back and forth. And that woman I love, and she got great long
00:57:38curly hair. That year, having a three-day festival, it really expanded somewhat. I mean, before
00:57:45that, we really hadn't been able to draw too much of the whole Memphis soul music thing.
00:57:49That was a whole different circuit.
00:57:54So even though we are considered a soul artist, when it's all said and done, it all is really
00:58:00comes from blues and gospel. Anyway, when you hear all this music coming up, it gets all
00:58:08in your bones and stuff like that.
00:58:10Thank you very much. This time, it's a great pleasure for me to introduce a fast coming,
00:58:17rising group. Ladies and gentlemen, a great big hand for the upcoming Wild Kays.
00:58:50I mean, because at that time, you know, we didn't have a vocalist, so, you know, we
00:58:54So as you can see, I was trying to do the vocals, so that was kind of special, to say
00:59:02the least.
00:59:38It was like 105 degrees, and they came out, and cameras went up, and everything got ready, and they did
00:59:46their whole set, and it was, like, brutal doing, because there was dancing and everything involved with their whole set.
00:59:54And at the end of it, the camera guy said, okay, let's do it again. We've got our levels.
01:00:02It was a rude awakening for us in the realities of what goes on.
01:00:11That was unusual for the blues festivals to have the barquades on stage, because the barquades are cool.
01:00:21You know what I mean? They're new cool.
01:00:25At 69, I was running away from home.
01:00:28I grew up in West Memphis, and at that time, parents would let you roam for miles, and I roamed
01:00:34to Memphis a lot.
01:00:35It was a 25-cent bus, but I remember Woodstock was happening that summer, and I wanted to be there.
01:00:41You know, it was like the summer of love, and I'm 15 years old, so I left home, and I
01:00:46thought if I came to Overton Park, I could get a ride.
01:00:51I started hanging out with the hippies that were here.
01:00:56I literally felt, for the first time, I had found my tribe.
01:01:11The only way that you can sing blues like this is to actually feel them deep down inside the soul.
01:01:18Ladies and gentlemen, Book of One.
01:01:25I remember, you know, Marcia holding the umbrella with such a beautiful juxtaposition.
01:01:31You know, it was like well said in terms of whoever staged that.
01:01:36I was a dancer.
01:01:38I probably wanted to dance with the umbrella, and they probably made me sit down with the umbrella.
01:01:48In this photo, you see Marcia, I don't need nobody protecting me, you know, and I certainly don't need anybody
01:01:55protecting me from these black people, because look, I'm helping them.
01:01:59They've helped me, I'm helping them.
01:02:02You know, and it was an inversion of what society understood.
01:02:13I mean, my parents grew up in Jim Crow, Mississippi.
01:02:17Like, they had actual, for real deal segregation.
01:02:21One of my great uncles was actually killed by a white man because he confronted him about saying something to
01:02:29his daughter in a store.
01:02:32These things are very real to me.
01:03:03She went out of now.
01:03:06All right, ladies and gentlemen.
01:03:08Yes, mama, yeah, that I know, Lord, and I know that my time is gone.
01:03:181969, yesterday.
01:03:21Do I love a darling?
01:03:35What time can I get a train going?
01:03:44What time can I get a train going?
01:04:12What time can I get a train going?
01:04:25Well, how's it going?
01:04:29Hey, wow.
01:04:32Young man coming on now, comes from Houston, Texas.
01:04:39His name is Johnny Winner
01:04:46I have an announcement to make now
01:04:49I'm going to have
01:04:50Mrs. Mary Palmer, Bob Palmer's wife
01:04:53Speak to you for a minute
01:04:53She's been taking tickets here
01:04:55For the last couple of days
01:04:57Spending her days and nights up there
01:04:58The gate
01:04:59And she has something she wants to say to you
01:05:03800 people
01:05:04Paid admission here
01:05:05There are well over
01:05:073,000 people out there
01:05:10This is a benefit, people
01:05:12We try to make a little money
01:05:15For these people
01:05:16Who have made such great music
01:05:18In your great city
01:05:19All of their lives
01:05:21It's your city
01:05:22It's your music
01:05:24You should be proud of them both
01:05:26And damn it
01:05:28Why can't you even pay
01:05:30For your own tickets, people?
01:05:34I'd like to pass a hat
01:05:36For these people
01:05:38Who've never had any recognition
01:05:39All their lives
01:05:41It's their music you're listening to
01:05:43It's their music you're loving
01:05:45Now please, please people
01:05:50For them
01:05:53My one and only public speech
01:05:59There were people climbing the walls
01:06:03To get in
01:06:04And I think there were a huge bunch of people
01:06:08There that wanted to see Johnny Winter
01:06:10And didn't care about the blues people at all
01:06:35By now
01:06:36There must be in the world
01:06:38A million guitar virtuosos
01:06:40But there are very few
01:06:42Real blues players
01:06:44The reason for this
01:06:46Is that the blues
01:06:47Demand such dedication
01:06:49This dedication
01:06:50Lies beyond technique
01:06:52It makes being a blues player
01:06:54Something like being a priest
01:06:57Virtuosity in playing blues licks
01:06:59Is like virtuosity
01:07:00In celebrating the mass
01:07:02It is empty
01:07:03It means nothing
01:07:04Johnny Winter can play rings
01:07:06Around Furry Lewis
01:07:07The comparison is ludicrous
01:07:09I ain't gonna look
01:07:11But I take my time
01:07:12But when Furry Lewis
01:07:13At Winter's age
01:07:14Sanged
01:07:14My mother's dead
01:07:15My father just wells to be
01:07:17He was singing his life
01:07:19And that is blues
01:07:22I sold my gin
01:07:24I sold it straight
01:07:25The police rumble
01:07:26To my woman's gate
01:07:28She come to the door
01:07:29She nodded her head
01:07:30Said Furry you up
01:07:31To my folding bed
01:08:01Ha ha
01:08:10In the early 60s
01:08:12Young black and white musicians
01:08:14Based in and around Memphis
01:08:16Embarked on an effort
01:08:17To revive interest
01:08:18In that city's blues tradition
01:08:20For their efforts
01:08:22Some of these white performers
01:08:23Have been exposed
01:08:24To the criticism
01:08:24That only black people
01:08:26Can sing the blues
01:08:27With any authenticity
01:08:30This is an arguable position
01:08:32But it's one that I don't think
01:08:34Stands up
01:08:34In 1969
01:08:36It would be difficult to maintain
01:08:37For me anyway
01:08:38That melancholia
01:08:40And the ability to express it musically
01:08:43Is the exclusive property
01:08:46Of the black man
01:08:52It's ours
01:08:54It's ours
01:08:57It's ours
01:08:57You know
01:08:59Just simply because
01:09:02It's ours
01:09:03It's our legacy
01:09:16You can't
01:09:21Hurry up
01:09:37Things I've done here
01:09:40Most likely
01:09:40When I was supervising over here
01:09:42I kept the grass
01:09:55Let's cut
01:09:56Oh feel great
01:09:57Feel great
01:09:58Back in the play
01:09:59Plus I got my three daughters
01:10:00With me this time
01:10:01And everything
01:10:02It feels great
01:10:03To come back
01:10:04And redo it again
01:10:05Brings back old memories
01:10:07How my daddy sat there
01:10:08And talked
01:10:09And all those guys
01:10:11You know
01:10:11My god
01:10:12I remember
01:10:13Coming here years ago
01:10:15Years ago
01:10:15Young guy
01:10:16Real young guy
01:10:17There
01:10:27The blues is about
01:10:29Having nothing
01:10:31And creating joy
01:10:33Putting the joy
01:10:34And the survival
01:10:36On record
01:10:38We need that right now
01:10:40People need that
01:11:01All I could see
01:11:03when I was too young and too ignorant
01:11:06was that the pain and the sadness was mine,
01:11:10and I didn't want it.
01:11:12But I had to get that to get the joy of it,
01:11:16to get the survival of it.
01:11:19And I'm not going to let it go.
01:11:21I told his servant,
01:11:22won't kill my fattest cat,
01:11:24kill my fattest cat.
01:11:26He told his servant,
01:11:27won't kill my fattest cat.
01:11:30Well, he told his servant,
01:11:31won't kill my fattest cat.
01:11:34And that'll be a way to get along.
01:11:38We all sit down and eat
01:11:40and all be merry and glad.
01:11:42All be merry and glad.
01:11:44We all sit down and eat
01:11:45and all be merry and glad.
01:11:48We all sit down and eat
01:11:49and we all be merry and glad.
01:11:52That'll be a way to get along.
01:12:20All right.
01:12:22Now this, we're going to do another one.
01:12:28This song here now is in dedicated.
01:12:31To see if my grave kept clean.
01:12:35Oh, one kind of fever I ask to you.
01:12:41One kind of fever I ask to you.
01:12:46Just one kind of fever I ask to you.
01:12:53To see if my grave kept clean.
01:12:59My heart stopped beating, my hand got cold.
01:13:05My heart stopped beating, my hand got cold.
01:13:08My heart stopped beating, my hand got cold.
01:13:15It won't long before I then shake it grow.
01:13:22Oh, two white horses in a line.
01:13:27Two white horses in a line.
01:13:32That red, two white horses in a line.
01:13:37They're going to take me to my burying ground.
01:13:44Have you ever heard your coughing sound?
01:13:50Ever heard your coughing sound?
01:13:56Ever heard your, oh you know, furthing ground?
01:14:25You can dig my grave with a silver spade.
01:14:31Have you ever heard your coughing sound?
01:14:35Dig my grave with a silver spade.
01:14:41Dig my grave with a silver spade.
01:14:41You can't let me down with a golden chain.
01:14:48Oh, every length in my Jesus name.
01:14:52Every length in my Jesus name.
01:14:58Every length in my Jesus name.
01:15:02Every length in my Jesus name.
01:15:08One kind of favor I ask for you.
01:15:13One kind of favor I ask for you.
01:15:17Just one kind of favor I ask for you.
01:15:23Just see if my grave kept clean.
01:15:26One kind of Disney name.
01:15:27I'm so blind.
01:15:27I'm so blind.
01:15:28Of course you search for you.
01:15:28You can see if my girl sweatshirt.
01:15:29I'm so blind.
01:15:29I'm so blind.
01:15:29I'm so blind.
01:15:29You can see you then.
01:15:30I'm syshington.
01:15:30I'm s Perspects and Hardy,
01:15:30You can see you there.
01:15:30And the dream can be nicer than it good.
01:15:30I'm so이스.
01:15:30You can see you.
01:15:30I can see you going through many times.
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