Jazz for aficionados

Rok, the slides on my first clip told us a lot about the Delta; those juke joints weren't as big as a lot of folks living rooms, and judging by the coats worn, they were only suitable when it was cool. The most deprived people in the United States of America came out of the Mississippi Delta.

"I see a resilient people that contributed great things under trying conditions." Crap! Even when Black people were "resilient" enough, and worked hard enough to buy their own land, politicians made laws to to take it from them. Other people hear the music, I hear the denial of an education; that's probably the most authentic thing about "Delta Blues"; but the best thing about the Delta is all that deprivation made them leave in droves. Here's Albert KIng's "Cadillac Assembly Line",

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfO1MhbJqsE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQE41oeHaY

One of the clips is for you to see Albert King, the other is for you to hear Albert King. I saw him so many times in the late 50's and early 60's, that I can close my eyes, see and hear him now.

I saw some of those people after they caught that jet to Detroit and went to work on somebody's assembly line making top wages in the middle 60's to early 70's. People I visited lived in nice homes, drove new cars, and dressed elegantly. All people need is an opportunity, they'll do the rest.

Today it's not just the people from the Delta who don't have the opportunity to earn an "honest living".

Enjoy the music.

*****The most deprived people in the United States of America came out of the Mississippi Delta.*****

Ever heard of Appalachia? Probably not. No one had, until LBJ went there in 1960, while running for office. Of course, poverty in this country HAS to be Minority. Otherwise it's invisible to the politicians..

BTW, Black people in Mississippi were at the bottom of society legally, but not necessarily on the bottom socially. You had to be there to understand.

*****I saw some of those people after they caught that jet to Detroit and went to work on somebody's assembly line making top wages in the middle 60's to early 70's. People I visited lived in nice homes, drove new cars, and dressed elegantly. All people need is an opportunity, they'll do the rest.******

Been to Detroit lately? Better be able to speak Arabic. Many of those nice homes are now abandoned, and used as crack dens. No one works anymore. The women are all married to Uncle Sam. You would be amazed at the number of children fathered by the Government. I applied for a job in that department(baby making) once, but never received a reply.

So, what happened?? The Great Society happened. People sold their families and their souls for a welfare check. Ain't progress grand!!

Many people in Mississippi were poor in material wealth. They were not poor in spirit or Character. That would come later, in the Northern Inner-Cities.

Who left the South for the North, and who did not, is a fascinating discussion.

Cheers

Gil Scott-Heron still sucks.

Yes, I've heard of Appalachia; they seem to regard poverty as a minority disease they caught, and are ashamed of it, it's not politicians that hide non minority poverty, but the people themselves. Right now, non minority poverty is worse than it's ever been at any time other than the great depression. Non minorities make camps in the middle of nowhere, and live in busses, cars, trucks, and home made shacks; these are people who would be employed working a decent job if they had found one, but now they quit looking so no longer even count as unemployed.

Been to Detroit lately? Have you ever heard of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement or the Trans Pacific Partnership? How about "Globalization"? All of those things stand for loss of jobs, and Mo money for the rich.

"The women are all married to Uncle Sam". This statement is lower than whale feces; it blames the victim for the crime.

"The Great Society" The political scam of the 20th century should go to conservatives for propagating as conventional wisdom that the Great Society programs of the 1960's were a misguided and failed social experiment that wasted taxpayers money. Nothing could be farther from the truth. (I'll discuss this at lenth if you like)

Detroit looked like the gleaming city of "Oz" in the 60's; remember "Motown". It looked that way because of all those assembly lines: Cadillac, Pontiac, Gray Hound Bus, and those are just the ones I remember; were paying top wages and going full blast. I saw more new cars on the streets of Detroit than I ever saw anywhere before or since. I also went to Mississippi, this was about the time "Ode To Billy Joe" came out. I thought I must have passed through some kind of time warp without knowing it; the service stations were even old fashioned, everything seemed to be from a different era.

I learned a lot about the people of Mississippi from reading "Eudora Welty" and Faulkner, the people got a kind of backwardness that's passed down from generation to generation; for example when things are going real bad, they say "It could be worse, you could have been born black".

I may disagree (some times) with Rok about music, and certainly about communication style; but, truth be told, little else.

The blues transcends politics and demographics.

its a universal language. That's largely what makes it such a force of nature.