[Harp-L] Cadillac Records...Again

["sam blancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To say Cadillac Records isn?t a very good movie isn?t really fair.  I think
it is actually a VERY GOOD movie.  Here are my reasons:

First for the general reasons, reasons that don?t involve my personal
harmonica-centric viewpoint: CR tries to tell a very large story on a very
small budget, with a very small cast of characters, and in a fairly short
stretch of time.  Much of what the film tries to assert about the music, how
Chess Records was a breeding ground for a form of blues that in tern gave
birth to Rock and Roll, Some Soul sub-ganeres, and many modern ?pop? and
?rock? sounds is basically true.  It?s just that there were several other
labels that also did this at more or less the same time, spread all over the
country.  Also the cast of characters in the Chicago scene numbered a little
larger than Muddy, Willy, Walter, Hubert, Wolf, James, et al.  I?m not going
to list any because it?s a LONG LIST and you all know who most of them are.
Using Willy Dixon as narrator was a great idea that I think went a long way
toward making the history accessible and he was a also a fitting choice,
being the writer of most of the songs featured in the story (except Chuck
Berry?s and Wolf?s stuff) .  

In terms of the look and style of the film, it would get an A+ from anybody
in the film industry.  The set and consumes, the studio design ? every
element is superb, and on a fairly small budget.  If you buy the DVD, like I
did, (and I never buy DVDs) you can watch two short features about the
making of the film that explain a lot on how sets and costumes were
designed, and how actors were chosen and why the story was structured the
way it was.  The woman who wrote and directed this little film really
impressed me with a lot of her comments (you can also watch the entire film
with her commentary).  She really was in awe of these historical figures.
She also expressed dismay that Little Walter was inducted into the R&R Hall
of Fame as a side man, asserting that this was a mistake and that he truly
was an important band Leader and that while he had the role of side man in
Muddy?s band, she believed he was actually a co-leader because of the
importance of his harp to the whole sound.  She want as far as to say that
Little Walter *was* the blues.  

Personally, I let the film off the hook on its heavy use of narrative
license because there is so much material to cover.  I think that for the
overall thrust of the story to work, to get across the feel of these
peoples? music and their style of living there just had to be a lot of
narrative anchors.  I don?t know much about the details of Little Walters
life and I don?t know and have never heard anything about his having shot a
Little Walter imposter, but I?m sure that?s pure Hollywood story telling.  I
do know that LW had a violent, unstable life, that he was cocky, that his
mouth got him into lots of trouble, that he had some drug and alcohol
problems and that he died by violence.  I?m sure it didn?t happen like it
did in this film but the overall thrust of the Little Walter character as a
tragic figure doesn?t strike me as too far off the mark.  I also do know
that Muddy Waters really did love Walters?s playing and regarded it as an
integral part of what he was doing.     

But I do have some problems with this film.  I really think this story could
have gone a great deal farther toward telling the story of the music by
including three people:  Fred Bellow and the Meyers brothers.  Bellow was a
major influence in creating the Chicago sound and in creating the modern
urban blues sound.  Bellow took the hopped up electrified delta thing that
Muddy was doing and gave it a swing and sophistication that it lacked.  And
with the Meyers brothers, as the Aces fronting Walter ? and many others-
these three musicians, IMHO, want at least as far as Muddy in codifying the
now famous Chicago sound.

The two main things about this film that really brought me joy was to have a
movie, any movie, that has Little Walter as one of the characters and shows
him playing both Juke and My Babe!  I mean, man; that was enough for me to
go out and buy the DVD.  The second thing is that this film has great music
and really gives a general audience ? as opposed to blues and harmonica
buffs ? a great sampling of the real thing.  In places like Pittsburgh,
which is IMHO a true blues wasteland, most people only understand this music
and it?s progenitors in terms of cliché? and caricature; something that
really frustrates me.  

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh