Re: [Harp-L] Cadillac Records - Little Walter

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

That shooting was pure fiction. But clips of it on Youtube got enthusiastic 
thumbs up from folks who like that gangsta image.

As to LW's death, what the writers did was to combine his death with that of 
Sonny Boy Williamson I, who did die (more or less) in the arms of his wife, 
falling through his front door after staggering home following being stabbed in 
a robbery.

And no, Leonard Chess did not die driving away from the Chess Records office 
after selling the business. He lived for awhile and eventually did die of a 
coronary event, but not while driving a car.

Hey, it's fiction based on reality. Bound to piss off those of us who see or 
know the real people behind these dramatic characters.

Winslow
 
Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com




________________________________
From: Bill Kumpe <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, May 10, 2011 7:37:09 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Cadillac Records - Little Walter

Quite a bit of artistic license was taken in the film and I suspect the
Little Walter shooting was an attempt to reinterpret him as an early father
of the modern rap gangsta character.

But, we make a mistake to try to canonize these old blues men.  Every
objective report I have read describes Walter as brilliant, difficult, mean
and irresponsible.  And that was not out of the ordinary for a bluesman of
the time apparently.  Of the characters in the film, only Howlin Wolf was
what you could really call a solid citizen.  And the movie portrayed him
badly.  He did not drive to Chicago in a rusty pickup.  He was probably the
only musician to ever drive up the blues highway with real money in his
pocket ($4000.00) and while I don't know exactly what he did drive on that
particular early trip I believe he later preferred Pontiac station wagons
over Cadillacs and for that matter Epiphone guitars over Gibsons.  

Bill Kumpe
Tulsa, OK