The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #124786 Message #2760031
Posted By: Bobert
05-Nov-09 - 07:59 AM
Thread Name: Saving The Sacred Blues Of Highway 61
Subject: RE: Saving The Sacred Blues Of Highway 61
Interesting story... Folks do forget that BB King wasn't always this successful Chicogo styled bluesman...
I've heard some stories about juke joints... There was one that was especially cool outside o' Como, Mississippi that was owned by the late Junior Kimbrough... I burned down many years ago but was the juke joint for all the British blues-rockers, including the Rolling Stones... I've seen where it was but ain't nuthin' there no more...
I did get an opportunity to spend a long night at Wild Bill's in Memphis a few years back... The in-an-out that BB talks about is the real deal... The door was always busy... Wild Bill would stand by the door taking $5 a head and no matter how many peoples cvame in that night he would remember who paid and who didn't, meaning you could pay and go out to cool down and he'd remember you when you came back in... The joint really began to smoke around 1:00 in the morning...
Met the late Sam Carr when I was in Mississippi at his shotgun shack off Highway 61 north of Clarksdale... He had been the drummer for John Lee and alor of others over the years... He was talkin' about being the door man at the jukes when he was a young man and said that was the hardest job... Not only did ya' have to do what Wild Bill did in collecting money at the door but you also had to protect that money... Sam said that all the door guys carried a pistol in their belt... Of course, didn't matter if someone got shot back then 'cause the law might arrest the shooter but come Monday mornin' the farm owner would come and get ya' outta jail and stick youb ack in the field...
People say that Greyhound bus don't run Yeah, people say that Greyhound bus don't run I say, People, come to West Memphis, Arkansas An' look down Highway 61...