Sugarcane, gets the blues Options

[rob the bear]

Everyone in the modern world has to deal with 'dead' time. Those hours at airports--the DMV -supermarket-traffic jams --doing nothing but waiting. Anyone who has been to jail knows it is the deadest wait of all. Time is pointless. Life has no meaning. When Sugarcane came out of County jail he felt like a fox released from captivity and he was very surprised to find a check for 5877 dollars waiting at his mom's home in Altadeena-a royalty check from his song -I'm leavin it all up to you" which had hit number one recorded by Donny and Marie Osmond. Sugarcane got his violin from the pawnshop and his gold patek-phillipe watch---he paid his Mothers rent and filled her fridge and he bought a used blue cadallac. Next stop the thing he had been dreaming of for 24 months behind bars. He drove to the crack house and after several pipes with the junkie crowd he bought 7 rocks and headed out to the car -astonished to find it gone. Stolen. He went down to Woodbury ave. and looked east only to see the blue caddy in the middle of the street -doors open surrounded by squad cars. He approached and told the police it was his car. His jaundiced eyes looked like quail eggs coming out of the sockets and were red-veined like roadmaps of Hell; After showing the registration and his licence the police inquired about the 30 cartons of cigarettes in the back seat---Sugarcane scratched his head and looked like old uncle Remus but in truth rememberd buying the cigarettes from a crack head earlier in the day for 2 bucks a carton. The police informed him that the cigarettes had been stolen from the local Thrifty drug store and they had him cuffed and mirandized before he could utter "not guilty". Once again Sugarcane had the blues and the blues are a hurtful thing----'the blues aint nothin but a good man feelin bad'

This post has been edited by rob the bear: Jan 14 2005, 04:30 AM

[rob the bear]

Do you remember one night baby--- I was standin out in the rain-------you never asked me in -and I didn't even complain?---------I was broke -tired and hungry-but you threw me out your door-------------------now it's your turn to suffer----I can't use you anymore.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Don Sugarcane Harris-----(-I can't use you) 1974

[fons]

brought back to me some memories of the movie "Soul man", where guys like Will Johnson, Skip James and JB Lenoir were telling great stories from the past and about feeling the blues.

[Mudnuts]

...makes me think of Roy Buchannan. The worlds greatest unknown guitarist, the Messiah, hung himself in a lonely jail cell in Virgina in 1988.



-Mud

[rob the bear]

Dear Mud-true enough Roy and his telecaster were unknown ---I had 3 of his albums and loved his stlyle -a mix of blues-jazz-----he burned the guitar up.His hanging brings up a good point about suicide in general------Suicide is a permanent solution to what is often just a temporary problem.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Songwriter Pete Mccabe put it in even more succinct terms---------------------"suicide-has got it's pleasant side-----but I think I'll go outside--------and look for a girl"------------(Suicide -Pete Mccabe-1971)

This post has been edited by rob the bear: Jan 16 2005, 09:01 AM

[rob the bear]

since this was the time of death for Sugarcane and Dewey-in different years -I thought I would post this again------these guys were amazing musically and as funny as Amos And Andy-------Sugarcane sang and played on Frank Zappas great album weasals ripped my flesh----if any of you have it check out his angelic voice and screamin violin solo on directly from heart to you. Goddamit I miss those guys. Some people in our lives just cannot be outdone.

[Mimi]

http://sugarcane-harris.com/photos.htm


Dear Rob,

I love this.



Mimi

[rob the bear]

Dear Mimi--thanks for posting this for me-you are the best----Rob

[Lon]

true enough Roy and his  telecaster were unknown (etc.)

Hi, Rob!

Here's how much of a dinosaur I am: back in about '73-74 or thereabouts, I bought a cassette tape of Roy Buchanan's Second Album. Still have it, still play it from time to time.

A couple of decades ago, Buchanan was playing at a Huntington Beach club called The Golden Bear (long since replaced by a chrome-and-glass pizza parlor). He was scheduled to play two shows that night, and I got there just in time to hear the last number of the first show ("Sweet Dreams"). During intermission, it was announced that "Mr. Buchanan" was ill and couldn't play the second show. (After I learned more about the man, I began to have my own theories about the nature of the "illness.")

I've never heard why he decided to call it quits in a jail cell...

Lon

[rob the bear]

Dear Lon-I lived on the coast through the 70s and went to Golden bear a few times-seeing Leon redbone-Tom waits--etc. You were lucky to catch Roy. Roy was a drinker and a cocaine user-----like Richard Manuel of the Band fame who hung himself when his coke ran out late at night--it is possible that same despair got Roy.

[Chester]

I was listening to Sugarcane with Frank Zappa and thought of this tale from the many episodes of his comic and tragic life.

[Chester]

Judy---check it out