confined to dank spaces playing the rhythms of sin

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

Sonny played in the sweaty bars in Calumet City, south of Chicago—“Sin City,” as it was called, packed with sleazy clubs and strip joints run mostly by the mob. The money was good, but the hours were grueling, eight to twelve at a stretch, with strippers coming and going behind a flimsy partition hiding white bodies from black eyes. Bugs Hunter formed a trio with Sonny and Red Holloway on saxophone to comp the sex and sin that simmered in clubs such as the Capital Bar, Sid’s Oasis, and the Peacock Club. Their music was the usual dive-bar bump and grind. Sonny played it straight, honking and tonking while the dancers bobbed.

He wanted the "burlesque sound" from his drummers, a sensuous beat

pdf (24MB) with thanks to the original sharer

the band was also a magnet for the strange, drawing all sorts of people off the streets to rehearsals and performances. One of the most bizarre of those who turned up was Yochannan, one of many eccentric blues singers (like Dr.JoJo Adams and The Sandman) who could be seen on weekends on Maxwell Street and at local blues clubs like the Green Door. Yochannan had many stage names, including the Man from Outer Space, the Man from Mars, and the Muck Muck Man, and declared himself a descendant of the sun. Dressed in turban, sandals, and red, orange, and yellow "Asiatic" robes, he was always quick to hold forth to anyone on his private philosophy. And when he performed he was unpredictable and crude, often working bawdy material into the last song he sang at club appearances. His performance was wild, and Hattie Randolph remembers a gig with Yochannan in Kokomo, Indiana. "It was a big package thing. There was a band for dancing, a comic, a blues singer ... and Yochannan was on the show. When he started his act and began leaping over tables, one woman jumped up and shouted, "He's possessed! He's possessed!" and ran out of the club."

sad, angry grown-ups, dreary music, stewed meat, church and school

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

The Kinks were a guiding light to me when I was young. I went to the same schools as them, junior, secondary and art school. As I went into Year One of secondary school at eleven years old, the bassist Pete Quaife’s younger brother was just leaving, so there was quite a big age gap, but I followed in their wake, and I was very aware of every move they made ahead of me. Everyone in Muswell Hill seemed to have a vague connection to them, even my mum. She worked at Crouch End library and Dave Davies’s girlfriend – a beautiful natural blonde – worked there too. Mum used to come home with tales of how volatile Dave was. In junior school I’d ask the teachers, ‘Did you teach them? What were they like? Do you think you might have any of their old exercise books at home?’ I was extremely curious, much more so than I was in any lessons. I didn’t aspire to be a musician – there wasn’t that equality at the time, it was inconceivable that a girl could cross over into male territory and be in a band. When I got to secondary school, people were much more interested in them: the older boys dressed like them, long hair in side or front partings, very low-cut hipster trousers – we called them bumsters – and stack-heeled boots. The young male teachers dressed like that too. To Muswell Hill kids, the Kinks were heroes, they came from the same place as us and they made something of themselves.