Re: [Harp-L] The fiasco formerly known as Cadillac Records

[harmoniman@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks,Sonny. Did you go to Theresa's ?

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: InfamousOGI@xxxxxxx 

> Hi Sonny Hudson here. I 've stayed unusually quiet on the list for a long 
> time but this really irks me. I moved to Chicago in the winter of 1970 as a 
> 16 year old runaway. Along the way I met and was befriended by blues musicians 
> on the South Side who took pity on my naivete and lack of fear of an often 
> harsh environment. I was a tough street kid and I survived 
> violence,crime,poverty there. There are people portrayed in the movie (and 
> excluded from it) 
> that I knew. This movie,while exposing a new generation to the genesis of most 
> modern music has done history an injustice. The true story is a much more 
> interesting "read" than this tripe. 
> I went to see this movie with my girlfriend and when she saw me with 
> tears in my eyes at the end,she was puzzled.She thought that it was a good 
> movie. To trivialize what made these men and women tick, downplay the impetus 
> for them to express themselves,and to distort chonological events is a sin.We 
> are sensitized to these distortions,so to us it is like saying Poland dropped 
> the hydrogen bomb on Pearl Harbor in 1949. 
> This "romanticizing" of the facts is a funny thing.The reality is 
> that most of these guys played not in big clubs ,but small neighborhood 
> dives. They were no different than guys in NYC. On any given night during the 
> heyday of NYC blues activity,you could see me as the house band in Manny's Car 
> Wash,Frankie Paris holding court in Dan Lynch's,Bill SimsJr. (my former 
> partner/co leader) at Wonderland, our Rob Paparozzi and his incredible Hudson 
> River 
> Rats somewhere else. Some of us "made it" and others fell by the 
> wayside.Some like the powerhouse Frankie Paris played until their hearts gave 
> out. Most 
> fell into obscurity after Giuliani and Bloomburg and 9/ 11 hacked away at 
> NYC's blues clubs. 
> In the end, just as Chess musicians made their deals with the devil 
> Leonard in order to shine, this movie ,tainted as it is may cause an interest 
> and resurgence in the music we all so identify with. All we can do is remember 
> and enjoy those who came before us and contribute to the communal gumbo know 
> as the Blues. I wish you all a very safe,prosperous and joyous holiday 
> season. Please give what you can to those who are less fortunate than you. 
> 
> Sonny Hudson 
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