Leadfoot's Empty Kit
"We are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we have inherited from our father & mother that 'walks' in us. It is all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs...we cannot shake them off."- Ibsen
I am turning over this newsletter’s preamble to my dear friend Harry Duncan. I cannot remember how I met Harry…but one of my fondest memories with him is the night we went dining with Doug Sahm in North Beach, hearing Doug’s whispers about the San Francisco/Texas connection. Harry has a deep weave into the tapestry of some of America’s greatest music and showcases his favorites on radio station KCSM Sunday from 8-10 pm PST with his show The Soul Kitchen (which you can listen to through the KCSM website). With drummer Howard Grimes’ passing, Harry sent the following as an e-mail to friends. He is kindly letting me reprint it here:
Drummer Howard Grimes, the backbone of the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, died this morning (February 12) in Memphis due to complications from kidney disease.
Howard’s genius can be heard in the masterfully simple but deeply soulful and funky pockets he created with Hi Rhythm for producer Willie Mitchell on all those great O.V. Wright sides on Backbeat + the Al Green, Ann Peebles. Syl Johnson, Otis Clay, The Masqueraders, Veniece Starks and many more Hi label artists. Then there’s his later work with producer, bass player Scott Bomar where, as the drummer for Scott’s band, The Bo Keys, he played on the Grammy nominated Cyndi Lauper album Memphis Blues and two fine albums with Memphis deep soul man Don Bryant.
We lovingly called him Leadfoot (which is a story that’s too long to write up here). Howard was a humble, kind and generous person who finally was able to tell his story in the recently-released autobiography called Timekeeper written with long time friend and author Preston Lauterbach. I highly recommend it for Howard’s involvement with and perspective on the history of Memphis soul from the very beginning. https://amzn.to/3JpMjVm\
He was always pleased to hear about what drummers (many of them great drummers in their own right) that he had influenced or touched-one way or the other.
Howard and I have been dear friends since 1995. Besides some good laughs, we spent time on every phone call talking about thankful we felt about still being here after losing family like Otis Clay, songwriter Darryl Carter (and too many others that we cared about).
Much respect and appreciation to Scott Bomar for his unconditional love for and focused attention over the years to Howard and his wife Juanita. Particularly during these last two, difficult weeks when Howard was in the hospital. Scott made it possible for Howard and me to talk on the phone Thursday night from his hospital room. I will always be grateful to both of them for that.
-Harry Duncan
Pete Townshend on the Who’s 2022 Tour, the Keith Moon Biopic, and His Inevitable Retirement
Pete Townshend is a hero I would never want to meet. The first band I ever loved and collected…The Who have had such an impact on me….on my kids, who I took to their concert when they were 3 and 5 years old. Pete was the first guitar hero, windmilling as if he was staving off an attack from Don Quixote. Pete seems like such a complicated person…completely interesting, with a lot of insight in this interview for a Who fan…but with a darkness behind every answer, which explains the meanings behind many of his songs (Behind Blue Eyes, comes to mind: “When I smile, tell me some bad news/Before I laugh and act like a fool/And if I swallow anything evil/Put your finger down my throat”).
New Graphic Novel Pays Homage to a Kurt Vonnegut Classic
So it looks as though Slaughterhouse 5 is getting the graphic novel do-over including plot/pros additions made by creators Ryan North and Albert Monteys….
Publishing innovator Jason Epstein has died at 93
A giant has passed. Epstein’s vision for the New York Review of Books was so against the grain…..the long-formatted, awkwardly-big sized….brilliantly overseen magazine that is one of the greats of this day, or any day. RIP.
I came upon Van Magazine’s website this past weekend that caters to the fine musical art enthusiast (Classical, Opera, anon) and got caught up in their well written examination of music cultures that I know so little about. This article was my favorite…with critic Olivia Giovetti telling ghost stories while reviewing some incredible current classical releases…sparse, dark recordings that are well curated and completely compelling. I recommend this article highly (and the music featured), especially for the voyeur classical music fan.
Interview: Art Spiegelman on Maus and free speech: ‘Who’s the snowflake now?’’
After an incredible, dark week where we saw Spiegelman’s landmark graphic novel, Maus, get blacklisted, he spoke to the Guardian, with an understandable pointed tongue. To signal that book out carries so many different layers of horrible meanings.
Miracle Fair
By: WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA (Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak)1
The commonplace miracle:
that so many common miracles take place.
The usual miracles:
invisible dogs barking
in the dead of night.
One of many miracles:
a small and airy cloud
is able to upstage the massive moon.
Several miracles in one:
an alder is reflected in the water
and is reversed from left to right
and grows from crown to root
and never hits bottom
though the water isn’t deep.
A run-of-the-mill miracle:
winds mild to moderate
turning gusty in storms.
A miracle in the first place:
cows will be cows.
Next but not least:
just this cherry orchard
from just this cherry pit.
A miracle minus top hat and tails:
fluttering white doves.
A miracle (what else can you call it):
the sun rose today at three fourteen AM
and will set tonight at one past eight.
A miracle that’s lost on us:
the hand actually has fewer than six fingers
but still it’s got more than four.
A miracle, just take a look around:
the inescapable earth.
An extra miracle, extra and ordinary:
the unthinkable
can be thought.
I found this poem in the Sun’s November 2021 issue