tina - that so sucks!

But at least your living situation will be resolved.

erika sent me a review of Peter Guralnick's new bio of Sam Cooke. Sam Cooke was a badass:

The horrors and humiliations of the road might have been enough to impress themselves on anyone. Cooke's upbringing ensured they did. Cooke was the son of a conservative preacher, so it might be supposed that Cooke -- who gave up sacred music for secular, who loved his women, who enjoyed all the advantages that money and being a truly beautiful-looking man brought him -- was a rebel. In truth, he took his father's advice to heart. "Respect your elders, respect authority," Guralnick recounts it. "But if you were in the right, don't back down for anyone, not the police, not the white man, not anyone." It's possible that what protected Cooke in some confrontations was the astonishment he provoked in others by being a black man who did not back down. Guralnick tells a story about Cooke's running out of gas on tour in Memphis. Waiting for Charles to come back from the service station, Cooke was approached by a white cop who told him to move the car, to push it if he had to. "His name was Sam Cooke, and he didn't push cars," is what he told the cop, before finally saying, "You push the fucking car. You may not know who I am, but your wife does. Go home and ask your wife about me." The unmistakable sexual nature of that taunt makes you gasp, as does the fact that Cooke got away with it.

Wow, you hadn't seen that? Impressed with myself now. And may I say "Damn!" about that last quote(although we white folks don't quite make that word say as much as most black people do, ime. I'm sorry...don't have as many inflections) No wonder there are so many rumors about people deciding he had to, well, "get got." and, shall we say, inadequate investigation.

The Meter column in the Chicago Reader last week was on Guralnick's exhaustive research for the Cooke bio... just a sec.

Ah. Here: [link]

Good luck, Tina. Crazy roommates are really stressful. Home is usually a refuge, but when you live with a loon you dread going home - an untenable situation.

I printed out an article about the Guralnick Cooke bio but haven't read it yet. Sam Cooke may be my favorite singer (pick hit "Jesus Wash Away My Troubles" -- either the intro Jesus or the one near the end, right before "take me on to glory," could be his peak) so I'll probably read it but every Guralnick book I've read has underwhelmed me. "Sweet Soul Music," "Feel Like Going Home," "Lost Highway," the reaction was always the same: is that it? I love understated. I love measured tones and assessments. (Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" is wonderful; Martin Williams is my favorite jazz critic.) His subjects include many of my favorites, but even as my expectations dropped with each volume he still managed to underwhelm me.

Interview with Guralnick in the Boston Globe: [link]

I with Joe on the constant Guralnick disappointment.

Also, I'm sorry to read about your roommate woes, Tina.

Finally, the RT set sounds phenomenal, Joe. I've seen him and DT do "Ghosts in the Wind" a couple of times, and it's always a highlight. I've also seen Mattacks with the RT band several times, and the man is a monster. Except when he played keyboards on, uh, "The Ghost of You Walks" on the You? Me? Us? tour. That was just not so good.

Industry is one of the few official releases missing from my RT collection

Wanna copy?

I with Joe on the constant Guralnick disappointment.

Not me. I really loved his pieces on Charlie Rich.

I think I read the Elvis book(ironically enough, not "Sweet Soul"...) I liked it. A certain exhaustiveness really gets my panties wet...otherwise, would I be here right now? Will definitely read the Sam Cooke book.

I really like Guralnick's topics. I think I just find his prose unnecessarily dull.