North to Tupelo...through the Golden Triangle via Big Daddy's in the Delta.
Two yankees, a Canadian, an Australian and a Brit. Nevermind a Mississippian, there's not a Southerner in sight...just the writer.
While Oxford can boast the omnipresence of William Faulkner and R.L Burnside...Starkpatch has to settle for Tennessee Williams and Howlin' Wolf. Well actually Williams is from Columbus and Wolf is from West Point. So, unless you take in the whole Golden Triangle Starkville doesn't really come into the picture at all.*
Though, Johnny Cash did spend a night there.
Unlike Faulkner and Burnside both Williams and Wolf eventually moved away from Mississippi. Neither man seems to have really left though...maybe it was because of their Mother's. Williams' was a well known mess and she can be seen all over his work...the obsession with appearances and status. Issues that, even by Southern standards, wield and inordinate influence in Mississippi.
As does religion. Wolf's mamma never left Mississippi and she never forgave him for becoming the devil's bard...
and he never got over it.
She was hard but it just shows the level of respect that people have for the power of expression..and music in particular. How could it be otherwise in a place like Mississippi...
It's here that Saturday nights were first infused with the power of Sunday morning. Go down to that clip from Chase the Devil and then back to them girls in Tupelo.
Elvis grew up in the Pentecostal church too.
Southern Culture is complex but, it's not really complicated. Yet confusion about its roots and shaping abounds. Some of the confusion is deliberate...because so much of what is considered to be American culture is actually Southern culture...and not everybody is comfortable with that.
To me, one of the most absurd examples of how this phenomenon works is the notion of Southern Rock....
*I'm cracking jokes for the benefit of someone who doesn't even read the blog anymore. I guess J.Q.'s still around.
Starkvegas is the happiest place on earth. End of story.
ReplyDeleteA Bo Jangles chicken does not the happiest place on earth make.
ReplyDeleteHowlin Wolf and Johnny Cash..does it get any better, I think not.
ReplyDeleteOnly way it could be any better was if they were together in Oxford (Ms.).
DeleteHA.
I think Elvis seals the deal.
I'm reminded of a fascinating TV programme which was shown over here a few months back called 'The Dirty South' in which Rich Hall analyses and separates the truth from the fiction of Hollywood's stereotype of the Southern states. Has it been shown over there?- I'd like to know what you think of it, if so!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read a post from you too about *coughs* "Southern Rock". (Even if it didn't include any footage of Jim Dandy's androgynous dancing...)
Of course you, and your obsession with Jim Dandy's dancing, are largely responsible for the direction we're headed in.
DeleteI haven't seen the Dirty South but I'll be on the lookout...very curious.
I second the Dirty South recommendation, fantastic programme, I think I mentioned it on me blog a while back too. And obviously I agree that Bartlam's Southern Rock primer would be a magnificent thing. Specifically so I can argue about it. Heh, you know how much I love that stuff...
ReplyDeleteAlso, Going Down Slow. Now that's music.
The gist of it is this...the notion of Southern rock is as absurd as Black hip hop.
ReplyDeleteRocknRoll is Southern music...full stop.
Argue with that at your own peril.
:)