Bob Dylan and Big Joe Williams With Victoria Spivey and John Hammond NYC 1962

Left to right in the above photo: Bob Dylan, Victoria Spivey, John Hammond, and Big Joe Williams. From the album Three Kings and a Queen. Photo taken March 1962.
Here is some more of the mixing of fact and fiction about Bob Dylan and Big Joe Williams.
http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/who/w/williamsbigjoe.html

Also take a look at this. Click on Enter to see some of the Spivey Records:
http://www.spiveyrecords.com/
Click on the names Bob Dylan and Big Joe Williams in the label box below to see my other posts about each of them.

Big Joe Williams BABY PLEASE DON'T GO

These are photos made in Crawford,
Mississippi after a funeral. Big Joe came by and played for us after the
wake. These photos were taken on the back porch of Mrs. Carrie Lee
Harvey's house. That is me and my wife Rachel and Big Joe Williams. April 18, 1975.
Click on all the photos to enlarge them. Check out his amp sitting in the chair and the electrical cord that goes up to a light socket.


Here is a picture of Big Joe Williams sitting in his car from 1978 and another of the pictures on the back porch in Crawford taken on April 18, 1975.

That is me in the photo above with Big Joe Williams and the 60 pound watermelon. We were in Crawford, Miss. on our way to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to do some recordings. It was late August 1978.

Here is Big Joe Williams singing his famous song BABY PLEASE DON'T GO. Big Joe Williams was born on my grandfather Stewart's farm in Crawford, Mississippi. I first met him in 1975 in Crawford and then later in 1978 went with him and my friend George Cummings(of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show)to Muscle Shoals, Alabama where they did some recordings. Baby Please Dont Go is apparently the most recorded of all blues songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikxLNaAYu5k

And here is another video of Big Joe singing Highway 49. This video was made in Crawford, Miss. outside his trailer. It was made around 1978.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWpqrKNgsNA&feature=related

This is the Wikipedia entry on Big Joe Williams. It contains good biographical information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Joe_Williams
  
Big Joe Williams was a early influence on Bob Dylan. They knew each other in the early 1960s. Bob Dylan names Big Joe Williams as an influence on the back of his first or second album. Dylan also got Big Joe booked in Gerde's Folk City in 1962.

Extra Added Attraction: Here is a video of Willie Dixon doing I'M NERVOUS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrQLvBQax0&feature=PlayList&p=EAD61F1146178EF5&index=0&playnext=1

Ivory Joe Hunter Since I Met You Baby

Ivory Joe Hunter was one of Elvis Presley's favorite singers. Ivory Joe Hunter was born in Kirbyville, Texas. My family lived in Kirbyville, Texas from 1952 to 1955. If I remember correctly one time the high school wanted to have Ivory Joe come back to play but the school could not afford him. Or maybe he had better things to do.
Here he sings his big hit that he wrote called Since I Met You Baby. Many other musicians covered this song including Elvis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxvFF1bQNu8

Here is the Wikipedia entry on Ivory Joe Hunter. Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the page to see Ivory Joe's TV debut long ago. He does some of his up tempo boogie woogie. He was a boogie woogie man long before he did pop songs and rock and roll and then country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Joe_Hunter

Down In Mississippi Jimmy Reed Old School Even the Boll Weevils Wear Overalls

Here is Jimmy Reed singing Down in Mississippi (where even the boll weevils wear overalls).
I saw him once in Columbus, Mississippi in 1961. He was playing a high school dance to a small crowd. And yes his wife stood by the piano and whispered the lyrics to him in his ear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO8blq8i3L4&feature=related

Jerry Lee Lewis Middle Age Crazy Arrested After Trying to Break in Graceland To see Elvis

Jerry Lee actually did have long blond hair like in the picture above in 1958. I saw him in the Fall of 1958 in Hattiesburg, Miss. It was a real small place like a warehouse. It was more like a high school dance size crowd. After it was over he ran out the front door. I saw him with his long blond curls. Some girl ran at him with a pair of scissors. He yelled, " Did you see that she came at me with a pair of scissors to cut my hair man!".
He used some local band musicians. The drummer was Popeye Phillips from Mobile, Alabama. Popeye later played with the band The Flying Burritto Brothers on their first album THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN. He plays the drums on the tune LITTLE HIPPY BOY.


The video linked below has a mug shot of Jerry Lee Lewis taken in Memphis after he tried to break into Graceland to see Elvis. I guess the King wasn't home or didn't want to see him. God Bless Jerry Lee. He is still around and still rocking. He went to the Betty Ford Clinic once to dry out and they told him he would have to work at something while there. He refused and checked himself out. One of his buddies said, "Jerry Lee doesn't have to do anything but rock and roll".
Here is a link to the video of Middle Age Crazy by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Since some of us are well past middle age and are approaching old age this song no longer applies to us. Unless 70 is the new middle age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0o0QO2riY&feature=fvw

Close Shave in Rome Italy Dinner Opera Singers Barber of Seville

That is me in Rome in June of 2007. I was called up on stage to be the Patsy. Everyone seemed to get a big kick out of it. These singers are good and so is the food at the Tanagra Restaurant in Rome. Here is a link to the Tanagra Restaurant. You can see the Menu and photos,etc.

http://www.tanagra.it/inizio.html

Here is what it looks and sounds like: This is another guy named Joe. Not me but it is the same place and the same singers and the same experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRNX-EL3qhc

And for those of you who like the 3 Tenors here is the same place with some customers who were pulled up on stage for more fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9fBAQOoL5c

John Coltrane at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco April 1962

I saw John Coltrane at the Jazz Workshop in April of 1962. He played the song My Favorite Things on his soprano saxophone shown in the picture above. Here is a link to a Youtube of him playing the song in Baden Baden Germany in 1961.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_n-gRS_wdI
And here is another of him playing the same song from Belgium in 1965.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NllPZ5_Tw40&feature=related
We were sitting on the front row at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. I was fascinated by the drummer Elvin Jones. He was wailing away and sweating up a storm. It was a night to remember. And I have never forgotten it. I was 21 years old at the time.