The second of two special STAR BLUES shows last night took another glimpse at blues classics for new listeners. There was an emphasis in the first hour on the Chess-label stars and some superb performances from Koko Taylor and Muddy Waters in particular.
By coincidence I'd just watched the DVD of "Cadillac Records", the story of Chess Records - though I remain somewhat annoyed at the missed opportunity to document a fascinating tale of such influential music and musicians. Hollywood rarely takes subjects such as this, so why - when the Chess label was run by two brothers - did the film not even mention Phil Chess? The sequence of events was wrong and there were several errors that even Wikipedia spotted. In mitigation the film does have a caption at the start that says "Based on true events" but there are captions at the end to bring the stories up to date (and those ignored Phil Chess as well). I'm only on my soapbox because films are proven to be how history is "remembered" by younger generations. The actor that played Howlin' Wolf was however quite magnificent, capturing the essence of a giant of a man - a true bluesman.
There'll be a competition this upcoming Sunday on STAR BLUES to win tix to see Bill Wyman, that plus a whole basketload of new goodies. I'll be pleased to have your company, until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you
Gary Blue
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