Ever since the wife and I cancelled our cable and TiVo subscriptions, we’ve been watching a lot of PBS. Damn if that’s not a kick ass station.
Currently, we are addicted to The Blues, the seven part series produced by Martin Scorsese that is showing this week. The other night we watched The Soul of a Man, Wim Wenders’ look at the lives of Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J. B. Lenoir. I was amazed by the stories of these men and how they lived and died playing the music they loved. Each story is one of sacrifice, hardship and suffering, but you knew that; it is the blues after all.
Blind Willie got that way after his mother threw lye in his eyes after a fight with his father. Skip James wrote and recorded for a record label that paid him $40 for his first session and then he drifted back into obscurity and became a preacher. He never heard those recordings. J. B. Lenoir died in a car accident when he was 38. He received poor treatment at the hospital and later died at his home of internal bleeding. He was a dishwasher at the time.
It truly was amazing to watch and listen to these men play. The blues is definitely made up of a simple structure, but to listen to these three different interpretations of the form is amazing. Skip James’ ethereal, high-pitched singing, Blind Willie Johnson’s powerful voice and J. B. Lenoir’s effortless guitar playing and playful personality each brought something different to the form. Each song and approach was so unique; I went out the next day and bought me some blues records.
The Complete Blind Willie Johnson