|
0.
I was on the sofa and outside it snowed Getting ready
to go to Florida.
They were playin Memphis Minnie on the radio
Just Memphis Minnie hour upon hour
And I started writing down what I heard
And observed
1
Her train done been here and gone
Look what you get...she says
Look what you gettin
Gettin for a lousy dime.
Splash!...the high hat says in turn
Ya gotta think about it
I’m gonna strut my stuff...she replies
Always calling...calling
Calling the Ice Man...warning...but friendly...
Calling the Butcher and of course the Chauffer
Taking misterioso up from the country.
Taking it for a drive
Encountering the Night Watchman
At the time for him
To punch his clock.
2
The chamber ensemble responding
But boy can
She
Play guitar
Piano playing pure hokum – odd for blues cause
vaudeville
Died ... but it lives on the side in her Victrola lines.
She suggests ... Minni ... that you go down in the alley
... Implores in fact ... you to quote-unquote
Get your business fixed;
Down in the
Alley
3.
Ok
Some people take a blues yknow
And she’s right on here ...
Go jump off a bridge and drown ...
Not the blues singer. Not Minnie. She looked up and
down the river
Sure
But Minnie’s mind never took her to jump
Overboard and drown.
4
Take it Charlie I think she said
but it could have been Joe
Joe McCoy
take it~at least when I'm looking at you ~
says she
choreographing the blues
painting a view
muddy river
big boat
that’s the Minnie thing
painting and waiting
waiting for the iceman
strutting here stuff
eye on the big boat
singing a blues
as she is waiting
that's what she do
5
Wondering in the SouthSide as now too
~ a kazoo plays ~
where is that Butcher Man who can
slice your ham?
Slice your ham
and cut it from the bone on down?
she dont have to wait for
the Butcher
but she must go
to the market
as she often told her
musicians
to take it to the bridge
alas
One night Minnie
take a Strange Man home.
He left her
And she wonders
where can her Strange Man be?
For that matter,
Where is her Rooster?
Too many eggs in her basket she note ~
Yet, as wolf noted too
that rooster been gone.
6
We asked Slim about Minnie
I’ll tell you a story, says he.
Memphis Joe, Yank Rachell and them playing cards
And Minnie comes home from work.
Takes off her falsies, takes out her dentures
Unstraps her wooden leg
Throws all of that in the bureau draw
You turning in? She asks Joe
I dont know. He says.
Dont know whether to jump in the bed or the bureau.
7
Was a big night for Minnie once
when her daddy took her to a show.
How poor but how happy but
Then ~yknow ~ he was
Gone
And with midnight train in mind ~
She must ask ~~ what road is he on?
She looks out at the whole damn dark world
Minnie
World that has so many roads
And she asked the questions we would ask
If we werent just watching
The snow
Minnie finally asks
To RCA man ~ Melrose? ~~
Recording the blues
Can we have a clarinet in this?
And what is Big Bill saying to Blind John in the corner?
The answer questioning comes
Get paid in ones?
Breaking ice.
Humming a blues in Chicago.
|
