Tuesday, January 25, 2011

This week she'll be my idol

Quite a few years ago I walked into The Warehouse in Gisborne with the prospect of a long drive ahead of me to what ever other part of New Zealand I was desperate to escape from there to. I went over to the bargain bin and pulled out a handful of CD's that looked interesting. One was a recording of Bo Diddley live and I got it for $1. I'd never heard him before, but it was cheap and my constricting environment was making me feeling experimental. Two days later as I drove the windy roads I placed the CD on. From the first track I was fixated, the rhythm seemed so simple, yet was complex enough to be masterful. It was John Lee Hooker upbeat. This was somewhere in the mist where blues became rock and roll and I wanted to know more.

A couple of days ago a documentary on Sister Rosetta Tharpe gave me that. This was a woman who suppossedly influenced Elvis. This clip is from a disused railway platform just outside Manchester, UK when Rosetta was aged 49.



The story of her life is incredible, being slamed between the twin forces of the church and the music industry from the age of six (mostly by her mother), never knowing anything other than a life on the road.

I'm not going to tell all it to you here, but I thought I'd make a note of it anyway.

3 comments:

  1. Fabulous. Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Mahalia Jackson all rolled into one. The incongruous look with the coat, dress shoes and electric guitar on the station is stunning. I would have liked to have been there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So would I. I think that is the only reason I have to beileve in the after life- so that I can somehow go back to events like these and experience them. Although, on second thoughts a rather accurate time machine would suffice.

    ReplyDelete