Chicago engagement trip
Dream #1
I was on this bus kinda like a school bus. Sitting near the front all around me were all these black people. They were all sitting there quite happy. There was music around me, like gospel music. 'Lordee lord lord lord lord' clapping, chanting. i would say in notes it was like E G E A G C. Lor dee Lord lord lord lord. And i got up and started singing a Koko Taylor song, just a phrase that was in my head Wang Dang Doodle. I knew it was a song of hers but didn't know the tune. But i sang something and it sounded like it could have been because all the black people around me sang with me. Then the preacher stood beside me and sang the howlin wolf song The Red Rooster. Oh ya Oh ya, once that was over i started singing the soulful Let's Get it on. Wait a minute! that's not a song that fit into the previous stuff. That's like something i know from Toronto...hey i'm in chicago!... this was when i woke up
Translation:
Alright well i went to chicago this weekend mainly to hug my sis who is getting married. She just became engaged so i ran over to chicago to give her a hug and him a sturdy handshake. He's a good guy, very very nice steady guy. Though since he's in chicago i dont see him much so even though we're friendly we're not really friends. But he's gonna be my brother-in-law so that's kinda cool.
Ok back to the dream. As you know i did a trip down the Mississippi River 2 years ago and have a connection to old black music. But few have read the journal and thus wouldn't've known that there was alot of Chicago's past that i didn't get to see. Interesting little dilemma of my life in that time. My sis warned me that the neighbourhoods in Chicago were dangerous and i shouldn't go there, and i wasn't confident enough to go explore the old blues neighbourhoods. So fuck i didn't see the old blues clubs, just the rich touristy $30 cover BUDDY GUY's place.
But here now, i was in chicago and got a day away from the sis to do my own thing. ANd though it was only a few hours i went to find Chess Records. Now Chess Records was 2 jewish white guys in the 1930s that were the first to start recording all the blues musicians that were running away from the Mississippi plantation fields to a better life. Alot of them settled in Chicago, and in one certain spot in Chicago. I remember learning a whole lot about the CHicago scene in Clarksdale Mississippi 3 years ago and the Blues Museum.
Anyway me and my father trek down the coast walking my Holapalooza in Chicago who's claim to fame is that it was on The Simpson's with Sonic Youth and Nine Inch Nails. So we walked through some parks listening to the music, found ourselves in a fairly broken neighbourhood after walking through some nice clean neighbourhoods. Chicago a sociologists' dream. Each block contains different classes, wealth, and race. And it's usually the wealth of the neighbourhood that determines the race. Very evil. SO we get to this record label, Chess Records that recorded Muddy Waters, Bo Diddly, Howlin WOlf, Koko Taylor, SOnny Boy WIlliamson (i have gr8 stories about him) just to name a few. Saturday afternoon around 2pm and it was closed! SHIT! Said open monday-saturday by appointment. Doesn't even have regular hours...it's a touristy place OFF the Beaten Track. Tourists dont know about it though they should. Just like many things on the Blues Highway, hardly funded by any tourist board. That trip should've been more funded and if i could open up a hostel in Memphis right now by God i would!
I was on this bus kinda like a school bus. Sitting near the front all around me were all these black people. They were all sitting there quite happy. There was music around me, like gospel music. 'Lordee lord lord lord lord' clapping, chanting. i would say in notes it was like E G E A G C. Lor dee Lord lord lord lord. And i got up and started singing a Koko Taylor song, just a phrase that was in my head Wang Dang Doodle. I knew it was a song of hers but didn't know the tune. But i sang something and it sounded like it could have been because all the black people around me sang with me. Then the preacher stood beside me and sang the howlin wolf song The Red Rooster. Oh ya Oh ya, once that was over i started singing the soulful Let's Get it on. Wait a minute! that's not a song that fit into the previous stuff. That's like something i know from Toronto...hey i'm in chicago!... this was when i woke up
Translation:
Alright well i went to chicago this weekend mainly to hug my sis who is getting married. She just became engaged so i ran over to chicago to give her a hug and him a sturdy handshake. He's a good guy, very very nice steady guy. Though since he's in chicago i dont see him much so even though we're friendly we're not really friends. But he's gonna be my brother-in-law so that's kinda cool.
Ok back to the dream. As you know i did a trip down the Mississippi River 2 years ago and have a connection to old black music. But few have read the journal and thus wouldn't've known that there was alot of Chicago's past that i didn't get to see. Interesting little dilemma of my life in that time. My sis warned me that the neighbourhoods in Chicago were dangerous and i shouldn't go there, and i wasn't confident enough to go explore the old blues neighbourhoods. So fuck i didn't see the old blues clubs, just the rich touristy $30 cover BUDDY GUY's place.
But here now, i was in chicago and got a day away from the sis to do my own thing. ANd though it was only a few hours i went to find Chess Records. Now Chess Records was 2 jewish white guys in the 1930s that were the first to start recording all the blues musicians that were running away from the Mississippi plantation fields to a better life. Alot of them settled in Chicago, and in one certain spot in Chicago. I remember learning a whole lot about the CHicago scene in Clarksdale Mississippi 3 years ago and the Blues Museum.
Anyway me and my father trek down the coast walking my Holapalooza in Chicago who's claim to fame is that it was on The Simpson's with Sonic Youth and Nine Inch Nails. So we walked through some parks listening to the music, found ourselves in a fairly broken neighbourhood after walking through some nice clean neighbourhoods. Chicago a sociologists' dream. Each block contains different classes, wealth, and race. And it's usually the wealth of the neighbourhood that determines the race. Very evil. SO we get to this record label, Chess Records that recorded Muddy Waters, Bo Diddly, Howlin WOlf, Koko Taylor, SOnny Boy WIlliamson (i have gr8 stories about him) just to name a few. Saturday afternoon around 2pm and it was closed! SHIT! Said open monday-saturday by appointment. Doesn't even have regular hours...it's a touristy place OFF the Beaten Track. Tourists dont know about it though they should. Just like many things on the Blues Highway, hardly funded by any tourist board. That trip should've been more funded and if i could open up a hostel in Memphis right now by God i would!