Saturday 14 June 2008

Song Saturday, Howlin Wolf, an old blues man,

Thing is, just recently I've been thinking a lot about my past, in my case this is the dim and distant past. The period I'm thinking about is the late 60's early 70's. At that time I was still pretty young, too young to go into pubs and clubs but as I recall that didn't stop me. Seem to remember going on a regular basis, well every friday night actually, to the 'Blues Loft' above the Nags Head, High Wycombe. I didn't realise at the time but this tiny little space above a pretty ordinary pub was the place to be if you wanted to see the greatest Blues singers of the time. Think I took it all for grantage at the time but looking back, I was one hell of a lucky person to have done that. Case of right place right time I think. I saw B. B. king, Chicken Shack, John Lee Hooker, Freddy King, Howlin Wolf and many, many more really old and now almost forgotten blues men. In fact I sat at the bar with Howlin Wolf and had a beer or two before heading up to the loft, him to play, me to listen. Great big hulk of a man with enormous hands. He signed a beer mat with a cross, don't think he could write too well, as for the beer mat...lost in the mists of time I'm afraid. Strange thing is the video I found about the little museum dedicated to his memory talks about cards he sent home while on tour. I always thought he was virtually illiterate, maybe I got that wrong. Those were pre-digi days, where not every occasion was marked with a card full of pictures which means there is absolutely no evidence of any of this. The only pictures are in my head.

But the music lives on.

 

 

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for trip down memory lane

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  2. this was very nice loretta what a story yes no digital stuff then and maybe for the better his music was sooo good-

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  3. what a great experience you had in those days.... and how neat that you met one of the musicians... and had some time to talk with him..... Unforgettable and what great memories you must have. Who needs a digicam when you have these wonderful memories...

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