Another bit of brilliance from Frederic!
Will ashes remember the Fire?
Will the Night hear from the Light?
“I” was a play on words
and so were the shadows of the world.
The stars are veiled, the poet has failed:
nothing will remain
but the dark whiteness of Silence.
THE END.
© Frédéric Georges Martin
Les cendres se souviendront-elles du Feu
et la nuit, de la Lumière ?
“Je” était un jeu de mot,
de même que les ombres du monde.
Les étoiles sont voilées, le poète a échoué
et rien ne restera
que l’obscure blancheur du Silence.
TERMINÉ.
© Frédéric Georges Martin
~
Illustration: White Line on Black (Jiro Yochihara, 1968)
Hooker’s story is actually as thus:
As a teenager he lied about his age to get into the army. Later he drifted to Memphis, Cincinatti and finally to Detroit where he settled, aged 23. Although he had been taught how to play guitar by his stepfather earlier, he didn’t have one until given it by T-Bone Walker in 1947.
He worked only as a janitor at a car factory in Detroit by day, playing clubs at night.
He always maintained he didn’t like Chicago because there were too many other guitar players there. He made his first recordings in November 1948 – Boogie Chillun was one of them.
In 1949 he recorded as John Lee Hooker, Delta John, Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar, The Boogie Man and John Lee Booker.
In 1950 he recorded as Texas Slim and Johnny Williams
1951 as John Lee Booker and from summer as John Lee Hooker and remained as such.
Cheers Andrew – very succinct and clear.
I should really thank the Bluesologist Robert Palmer – he who wrote and published ‘Deep Blues’ in 1981. I sent him a letter back then with a load of questions and he replied and we subsequently corresponded every 6 months or so over several years. He showed me the way, who to listen to, who not to, who was original, who wasn’t (too many of them) etc.
I couldn’t have had a more knowledgeable person.
I’ll have to check that out. I ordered Red Devils and Rainer. They sounded good.