"Blues is my life. It's a true feeling that comes from the heart, not something that just comes out of my mouth."
We* saw Koko Taylor** at the Blind Pig*** in Ann Arbor circa 1970. Koko seemed pretty old then, but we were young. We're old now, and Koko lived a long time.
RIP, Koko Taylor.
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* "We" = my then-future, now ex-husband Richard and I.
** The one song I know she sang that night is "Wang Dang Doodle," which, I see now, is a song Willie Dixon wrote for Howlin' Wolf. Neither Dixon nor Wolf liked the song, which Wolf called a "levee camp" song. We had no associations like that, of course. No thoughts of levee camps for us Ann Arbor college kids who filled the basement night club. We just assumed it was about sex — though I don't think anyone (in Ann Arbor) used the word "wang" to mean penis in those Vietnam-and-hippie days. It seemed like she hollered the lyric "all night long" a hundred times.
*** The Blind Pig is still around.
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""Wang Dang Doodle" was based on a song popular with lesbians called the "Bull Daggers Ball" with "Fast Talkin' Fannie" for example replacing Fast F***ing Fannie,".
With it's roster of odd characters--Butcher-knife toting Annie, Abyssnian Ned and Pistol Pete--and it's colorful description of a party where "when the fish scent fill the air...snuff juice everywhere," "Wang Dang Doodle" was a celebration of Saturday night fish fries down South. "Wang Dang Doodle" meant a good time, especially if a guy came in from the South," Dixon explained. "A wang-dang meant having a ball and a lot of dancing, they called it a rocking style, so that's what it meant to wang dang doodle."
Wolf hated the song, Dixon said, "He hated that "Tell Automatic Slim and Razor-Toting Jim." He'd say "Man that's too old-timey, sound like some old levee camp number"."
Moaning at Midnight
The Life and Times of Howling Wolf
James Segrest and Mark Hoffman
Pantheon Books 2004
The Blind Pig is still going strong in Ann Arbor, Ann. Same location too. Though, nowadays, it seems to host mostly hard rock-n-roll acts, and college/garage bands on their way up.
BTW, Ann, did the "Half-Ass Inn" aka the Half-Way Inn exist in East Quad when you lived there? Nowadays, it is a venue where a lot of very interesting bands and solo acts perform.
The Blind Pig is still going strong in Ann Arbor, Ann. Same location too. Though, nowadays, it seems to host mostly hard rock-n-roll acts, and college/garage bands on their way up.
Right -- artists like Ko Ko Taylor in Ann Arbor would play at 'The Ark' (which is also a holdover from Ann's college days) rather than The Blind Pig.
The Ark, though, has migrated gradually over the years in the direction of the Blind Pig and is now only a couple of blocks away.
Koko came through town about three or four years ago. She was frail, but her love for what she did was as strong as ever. When her performance was over, she was practically carried off the stage, but five minutes later, she was back to sign autographs. She was too exhausted to stand, so they brought a chair out for her, and placed it at the edge of the stage. When all the cd's and memorabilia were signed, no one went anywhere. We just hung out there with Koko, and she with us.
Everyone knew it would be the last time we would see her perform. Blues lovers and their Queen. RIP Ms. Koko Taylor. Thanks for the "Wang Dang Doodle".
You don't know blues until you hear Frank Grace play with Clyde Stubblefield. Sad loss for Madison that Frank moved away.
Per Frank Grace for the Madisonians:
I'd Rather Be Blind
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