Goodbye Newport Blues: Issa's Sunday Service, #71

It's a slow blues Sunday with a song composed by one of our great 20th century poets, Langston Hughes. Here is the story behind "Goodbye Newport Blues":

In 1960 boisterous spectators created a major disturbance, and the National Guard was called to the scene. Word that the disturbances had meant the end of the festival, following the Sunday afternoon blues presentation headlined by Muddy Waters, reached poet Langston Hughes, who was in a meeting on the festival grounds. Hughes wrote an impromptu lyric, "Goodbye Newport Blues," that he brought to the Waters band onstage, announcing their likewise impromptu musical performance of the piece himself, before Waters pianist Otis Spann led the band and sang the Hughes poem.   Newport Jazz Festival, Wikipedia.

This performance by the great Otis Spann capped one of the most memorable sets of live blues ever recorded and released on record, Muddy Waters at Newport.   Legend has it when it came time to take a picture for the cover, Muddy grabbed the first guitar at hand, which happened to be John Lee Hooker's.  We are lucky enough to the have following performance captured not only on record, but on film.  Stick around for the encore to see Muddy do some amazing moves, including a sachet across the stage with James Cotton and his harmonica microphone wire:












Well, I guess we can't just stop there:











Here is a slightly abbreviated performance of "Hoochie Coochie Man" which, like the previous cut, captures Muddy's Delta Blues picking style translated to electric guitar:

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This week's feature poems, cause there's two, come from Lilliput Review #106, September 1999.  The first is timely, metaphorically, the second eternal, in every which way (and is presented in caps, as it was originally):



Recycled murky oils of ancient responses
Float on clear, liquid now
Preventing spirit from entering
James Livingston

ASPIRATION

THERE IS ONLY 

ONE SPACE 

THE UNIVERSE

THERE IS ONLY

ONE FLAG

THE PRAYER FLAG

THERE IS ONLY

ONE MIND

THE BIG MIND

THE BIG BEAUTIFUL MIND

Joe Staunton

in cherry blossom shade
there are even those
who hate this world

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue 

best,
Don

PS  Get 2 free issues     Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

 

Muddy Waters and Kurt Weill

You know you may have lived a good life when there is room for Muddy Waters (born 4/4/1913) and Kurt Weill (died 4/3/1950). I have been very fortunate, indeed.

Muddy, born McKinley Morganfield, has been a part of my musical experience for over 40 years, discovered in high school, along with Willie Dixon, while studying the record sleeves of, among others, the Rolling Stones. Muddy was the key that opened the door; with Muddy came Willie, and James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Otis Spann, Jimmie Rogers, Pinetop Perkins, Lafayette Leake, Little Walter and back, back to Lightnin' Hopkins and Robert Johnson, and Son House.

It's safe to say that the world would have been a bleaker, more hostile place for me, without these amazing musicians who could touch the soul with a single, aching, sustained note.

Kurt Weill came later, though Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" had captured the popular imagination early on. I'm sure that I was really first captivated with his music via Judy Collins' recording of "Pirate Jenny" on her seminal In My Life album. His collaborations with Bertolt Brecht are the stuff of legend and certainly what catapulted him into the public eye. The music, however, sustains those lyrics and has been hugely influential, even with someone as seemingly removed as the composer Tom Waits. There have been anthologies of popular interpretations of Weill's music over the years, which can give someone without a classical background an easy way in (it did me). I highly recommend both collections.

So, on this musical Friday, first here's Muddy, with "Crawlin' King Snake" followed by audio of the classic "Got My Mojo Workin':"












Here are three songs by Weill/Brecht sung by Lotte Lenya from a 1962 (or 1958 - I found conflicting dates) episode of the television series "Monitor" filmed by Ken Russell, followed by the scathing contemporary interpretation of "What Keeps Man Alive" by Tom Waits:

making a duet
with my flute...
cry of a deer

Issa
translated by David Lanoue

best,
Don