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D. B. COX
PASSING FOR BLUE ---For D.N.K. "The blues is a black man's music, and whites diminish it at best or steal it at worst" - Ralph J. Gleason - Jazz Critic My best friend died last year, in a 24-hour store -- shot by some shaky kid when he walked in on a 32 dollar holdup to buy a pack of Marlboros. He was a blues-man. He knew more about Robert Johnson and Tampa Red than Amiri Baraka -- or Leroi Jones. He used up most of his time, and all of his options preaching to the blue multitudes, jammed into the cheap neon playgrounds, along the whore-haunted streets of late-night Memphis; where no accusing eyes ever questioned the heartfelt disguise, he wore like an invisible man. And on the day his ashes were tossed toward the rain-polished sky, there were no sad fans weeping, no sanctifying poetry from Langston Hughes, just a southbound breeze to ride on, for the white boy -- passing for blue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE DO THEY ALL COME FROM "Then this morning I went to the bookstore and bought The Catcher in the Rye. I'm sure the large part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil." - Mark David Chapman He lies, face-up, on the floor of a hotel room he can't afford. His eyes are closed. On his chest, a closed paperback moves slowly up & down - marking time. The plan is clear. Everything he wants to say, reduced to a single blinding point. A warning message to false prophets. A Technicolor caution sign to purveyors of empty noise, & meaningless bullshit. A .38 special delivery from a real nowhere man, to the used-up hero who haunts Dakota halls, & hides behind elegant walls, that cannot save him. Lost to himself, hopelessly slipping into some half-assed parody. He opens his eyes & checks his watch. Almost time to rock & roll, lock & load, cross the street, & disappear into the faceless New York hum - "All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" Copyright © 2004 D.B. COX. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED D.B.Cox: Blues musician/poet, originally from South Carolina, currently resides in Watertown Massachusetts. Uses a Les Paul Standard, tuned to Open E chord for slide guitar, and prefers a glass slide to a metal one. No longer takes requests when he plays out. |
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© 2003 Underground Voices |
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