Big Bill Broonzy

["Jp Pagan" <coquiblues@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Big Bill Broonzy was one of the greatest blues singers ever, period. he had 
a powerful, touching voice that could wrnech tears from a stone. so far, i 
haven't run across any albums of his that i don't like. i would just pick 
the CD with the most songs on it, personally.
alot of Broonzy's recordings were really more "folk" music than blues in the 
way of Robert Johnson or Son House or Muddy and LW. "Sixteen Tons," "Frankie 
& Johnny," "Joe Turner," "Black, Brown, and White." my favorite of his tunes 
is "In the Evening," which is as lonesome a blues as i've ever heard.
as for being born the wrong color and in the wrong time, i don't know that 
i'd be so quick to wish i'd been black any time in American history before 
right this very second, if that. the LW bio makes it very clear that times 
were rough then, and if you were black, times were downright deadly. imagine 
what LW's career and life could have been like if all that talent had been 
in a white man's body. the music may not have been the same, but it makes 
LW's story that much more tragic, that so much pain could come from so 
meaningless a thing as skin color. Broonzy himself sang it: "If you're 
white, you all right/ If you're brown, stick around/ But if you're black, oh 
brother, get back, get back, get back!"
the ability to play and or enjoy good music has nothing to do with skin 
color, though i share in your wish to have lived when Muddy, Walter and the 
rest were at their prime. i'd take my chances to see them play. go get 
yourself a Big Bill album, friend, stat!

   --Jp




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