Allegheny Plateau Blues: Director's Cut

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Want to know what kind of man I am?

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Did you like that video? I;ll bet you did. I'll bet it amused the shit out of you. You lurking bastards and bitches. So, what would you care that it's That's right, it's impossible for me to write and blog anymore, living in a noisy hell-hole like Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania, especially with a crazy people-hating German shepherd bitch howling and screaming and wailing and carrying on like a f*****g goddamn coyote/wolf hybrid bitch beast (which is what a German shepherd is and why the cops and the feds use them against people). You goddamn sub-life fuckers are the PITS of humanity. You care more about DOGS and MACHINES than you do people and YOU are the reason the human race on Earth will be EXTERMINATED very shortly. Good riddance. You miscreants can stick your fucking mutts up your goddamn asses. What's left to say isn't much. That there are some local people — so few I could count them on one hand — whom I like and talk to on a regular basis, or occasionally, and you know who you are by now. Nothing's changed there. Keep being who you are because they're aren't nearly enough of you in the world. But, if others see me in public (unless it's for conducting business, and you think for one f*****g minute that you can come up to me and ruin my day with your hateful hostility, just steer clear of me. You'll be better off if you do. Trust me on this. Do your bitching about me on your own time, not mine. Trust me on this.

Talking with John Lee Hooker

It was either 1978 or 1979, I can't remember which year, that I met blues singer John Lee Hooker. He was standing on the concrete porch at the Scorpion in State College, Pennsylvania, which was a tavern with a nice stage and plenty of tables. He was wearing a big hat and he smiled broadly at everyone coming up the steps.

I shook hands with him and told him how much I liked his music and how unique and how stirring I thought his style of folk/blues was to experience and he thanked me for that. His eyes had a far off look to them as we talked, as if they were looking past me and scanning the horizon for someone or something, so I let him go. There were others waiting in line to greet him.

How a man of his stature came to play a small tavern in an alley in a Pennsylvania college town mystified me somewhat. I guess he needed the money. After I'd heard and experienced his incredible performance, I was mystified all over again by the fact that John Lee Hooker had been on a stage where mostly local and regional rock bands had played. His performance was so moving that I had goose flesh for a long time afterward.

And that's how I met John Lee Hooker.

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