“Sitting above the visitors’ dugout at a Cubs game once, I heard someone in the Pirates’ camp yell at his own teammate: ‘If you had one more eye, you’d be a Cyclops!’”
Great article on identifying some of the musical roots of the 60s black culture. I also was very fortunate to play and be part of a “voice” that expressed the sign of the times. This article has a second underlying theme that addresses how creative, talented musicians go unrecognized for all of the years spent “woodshedding.” All of these musicians would still be playing today if society got its priorities straight! I’m glad to hear that drummer Steve Cobb is still active in the biz. Play on, brother!
Claire:
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All this started with “drug-free” workplaces, which allowed employers to drug test their workers as a condition of employment. I’ll bet that employees being tested for tobacco usage isn’t all that far behind. After all, why take anyone’s word for it?
Thomas Lundby:
Enough of this hero worship of Algren without a frank evaluation of his books. You could start with explaining Saul Bellow’s comment: “Algren was indeed an original, unfortunately susceptible to ideological infection, a radical bohemian in a quickly dated Chicago style.” As for Studs, he did great work a long time ago. Praising his fuzzy, rehashed memories is simply ancestor worship.
And, notice his choice of topics, all sensationalistic and eye-catching. Basquiat, who hung around with fashionable people. Arenas, a superstar among oppressed artists, not least because he was locked up for being gay. (Any chance of Schnabel making a movie about some guy locked up in Uzbekistan for a not-so-sensationalistic reason?)
