Tuesday, September 30, 2003|
The Blues finally gets its due. 12:12:43 AM | Tonight's film, The Soul of a Man by Wim Wenders, managed to sneak in one first-class Chicago artist, JB Lenoir, and managed, too, to get Blind Willie Johnson's brilliant "God Don't Never Change" lodged in my brain. I'll admit it. I'm homesick. Even after this past weekend of incredible music here in New Orleans. It's just not the same. Not that there is any home to miss anymore. The ongoing transformation of Chicago into a fully gentrified metropolis led to the destruction of the Maxwell Street Market, the Sunday open-air street fair where Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, James Cotton, Koko Taylor, and numerous others played for years, and where bootlegs of any of the blues masters (including Blind Willie) could be bought for a song (among other things -- if you lost your left shoe, Maxwell Street was the place to get a replacement; same if you needed an inner tube, a spare part for your blender. It was all there.). Now it's "University Village," a collection of bland, brick veneer townhomes too expensive for even the middle class to purchase. The market is gone and there's no sign marking where it once was. It's so easy to dismiss history. I'm looking forward to Marc Levin's film, Godfathers and Sons, airing this Thursday night. Levin goes to Chicago with Chuck D and Marshall Chess. Best of all, Willie Dixon gets lots of play, judging from the song list. The man was a genius; wrote most of the songs we think of as the blues (Robert Johnson wrote many of the others, of course), including Killing Floor, Hoochie Coochie Man, Spoonful, and That's Why I'm Crying. To hear Koko sing that song...my chest gets tight just thinking about it. Oh sweet home Chicago. 
|
Last update: 8/24/05; 7:06:06 PM .
