Cadillac Records is an easy ride, enjoy;}
March 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Drummer JohnI’m sitting in this juke joint, cigarette in my hand. Bartender buy her a drink on me and I’ll tip the band, cause I got the blues and I’m a lonely man. I just sit here and typed that out. No biggee. Three cord blues strum and you got a blues song. The blues can be and are about whatever the blues is for you, and everyone can relate in one way or another. It’s basic, it’s raw and it’s real. It started out being called “Folk” music in the US and then when it got on the airwaves, it was “Race” music. Even though all skin colors were listening. Nobody and everybody owns and has a right to have and sing the blues and it puts a little flavor into everything if ya sprinkle a little blues into it;} Cadillac Records: Written and directed by Darnell Martin Chess Records was started in 1950 by Lenny Chess and his brother, Polish Immigrants who came to America, Chicago to be exact. It’s first artist, who in my opinion was more of a rock in this than the other brother, is Muddy Waters, a sharecropper from Mississippi. Allan Lomax traveled with a “recorder” in his trunk searching for Folk music for the Library of Congress. From his front porch McKinley Morganfield played his guitar and sang and heard himself for the first time and decided there that he was meant for bigger things. He packed his little belongings and set out for the city, Chicago. It was the 40’s and the Civil Rights bill didn’t come to the US until 1962 even though slavery had been over for a while! Not many people would take a chance in the big city on “Race” music so many of the artist would be playing on the street corners just to make a few cents a day. All they had were the clothes on their backs and their talent, their instruments, and they were hid away in alleys playing so that you could hear them over the city noises. Len Chess had started a blues club, The Mocomba, in the “colored district” of the southside of Chicago. By the time he met Muddy, well, Muddy already had made a name for himself on the streets. The way he cut the strings on that acoustic was something no one had heard before and it was mesmerizing as was his personality. He came upon a harp player in the alley one day and he was tearing it down with that mouth harp! He knew then and there, the mix of the two, would be an explosion of music, especially when you hook an amp to it;} Everybody started listening then. Muddy Waters, Lil Walter (the harp stylist) and Jimmy Rogers were known as the headhunters on the way they tore down their competition. In 1947, this All Star Trio comes into the Mocomba, where a band is already playing, and set up their own amps. Lenn told the other band to let them play. Of course they blew the band on stage away and it turned into a shooting match for a little while, but a union was made then and there between Len and Muddy. He heard what he was giving and he knew it would get played. He recorded Muddy only and then took him back down south to get the record airtime and people listening to the Chess family of artist which is extensive and explosive. It was hard to get records on the radio. The DJ’s at that time decided who got on the radio and who made it as stars and they took a lot of gifts and money just to put a race record on, even in the south. The record got recognition because it was GOOD music. After their trip the Mocomba mysteriously burned. No one was there at the time. Len took the insurance money and built Chess Records Studio and it was state of the art for the times. Mud convinced him to bring Lil Walter in with his harp and amp it up and that started a whole new kind of blues….every step was a huge one. Lil Walter started making some solo records also. They had Willie Dixon writing most of the songs, how could this not be a sweet set-up! So why was it called Cadillac Records? Because instead of the royalties they should have been paid, Chess bought them a Caddy. He gave them money when they asked but always told them the records weren’t selling enough, or he’d buy them a new Caddy. That happened a lot back then. The artist who put the blood, sweat and tears into it had it all stripped except the right to sing it over the radio. As soon as Lil Walter and the Jukes career was going well, we introduce Howlin Wolf to the family. You may remember the song “Smokestack Lightning”, that was him and you never forgot that howl. Ya see, in the blues world, things aren’t always what they seem. Robert Johnson was rumored to have met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul to be able to play the guitar the way he did. Well, rumor on Howling Wolf was that a dead man came out the cemetery and gave him the name and he’d been howlin at the moon ever since. And he howled his way to the R&R Hall of Fame just like the rest of the artist I am speaking of. Chuck Berry had already made a name for himself in Country music but when he got to the city, they saw his skin color and would not let him play in their clubs. He hooked up with Len and started putting the hits out!!! What we had now was called Rock and Roll by Alan Freid, a DJ. Chess Records and Alan Freid starting this thing called Rock and Roll is here to stay…….Chuck Berry went on to be a guest on American Bandstand and many other television shows. It was a different era in music and now people had television and could see that the artist they had been listening to and thought were white, actually weren’t. Take all of that and throw in the awesomely talented Etta James, now you got it all. The soundtrack to this movie is as varied as any I have seen and it tells a good story of how they all came together at Chess Records. 1950-1969. Things on the southside of Chicago were changing and Len was attacked when called out one night by the ruse of the studio had been broke into. He decided it was time to get out of the business, he’d made plenty. He died before he turned the corner when he cleaned out his office and was leaving the studio for the last time. What is supposed to come to mind when you hear Cadillac? Style, class, comfort and an easy ride. That is what this movie is with an awesome soundtrack and HOW it came together.
- The Father of Chicago Blues
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March 4th, 2010 at 3:48 am
you have an attractive looking blog, but it’s very difficult to read. red on black makes my eyes buggy as hell. also, please break it up into smaller paragraphs.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Sounds like a good movie…It is a movie right? Not a documentary?
March 4th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
It is a movie based on a true story, there isn’t a “soundtrack” category so being a true story I class it as a documentary. It is a very good movie with a GREAT soundtrack!