Chicago Cultural History
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Printers’ Ball Tonite!
Chicago is a hotbed for so many fields of creative art: among them printed arts. From edgy magazines (Alarm, Stop Smiling, et al), to indie book publishers, comics, literary journals, and newspapers, there’s myriad ways to get high on ink! Celebrate our collective literary history at the Printers’ Ball, organized by Poetry Magazine (an iconic…
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Natural Four: Soul, if only for a moment
By way of the Bay Area, it’s Chicago’s own Natural Four. They signed to Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom Records in 1972, after five years without a hit, and within a year they gave us this blue light basement classic: “Can This Be Real.” Inexplicably, the Natural Four never reached the success they deserved, dissolving in 1976. Robert…
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Stay in My Corner…for a long, long time
The Mighty Mighty Dells are by far the most enduring music group to ever come out of Chicago (Harvey, to be precise), performing with their original line-up since 1952. “Stay in My Corner”, their 1968 pop and R&B smash, was one the longest singles ever released at the time, breaking the 3 1/2 minute barrier established by…
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The Color of Water
[ Near Philadelphia, kids of color were allegedly turned away from a private club’s swimming pool (even though they’d ponied up the nearly $2000 entry fee). Upon arrival, the kids’ presence allegedly made the regular pool crowd uncomfortable. Now the blogosphere is abuzz. “Racism!” “It’s 2009!!!” What does that even mean? All I know is that racists are better…
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WBMX…and the White Sox?
I am posting this old ad for WBMX here just because: it is weird and wonderful. In the 80s, WBMX was the Electro/House/Italo-disco/club station, not only in Chicago. The radio station (and its DJs) gained an international reputation for being tastemakers in the burgeoning house community (whose pulsing heart was here in the Windy City). Jive on….
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Howlin’ Wolf (covering Howlin’ Wolf)
“Evil”. A fundamental Howlin Wolf record, created here in Chicago, back in the 1950s. A platter of standard electrified Delta Blues. Now, add Marshall Chess (son of Chess Records’ Leonard Chess), the turbulent and psychedelic 1960s, and some of the best jazz, funk, and soul studio players in the city. Remake and enjoy. Well that’s not exactly…
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Marion Perkins: Sculpted a Better Chicago, a Better World
Woodson Regional is a gem of the South Side. I’ve always believed that. One of my favorite locations of the Chicago Public Library, bar none. The library, located at 95th and Halsted, boasts the Vivian Harsh Research Collection (all manner of Black Ephemera) and a really strong overall collection. 1 of only two regional libraries in the…
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Light: On the South Side…Grit and Gold Lamé
I, for one, have stared for more than a moment at the forgotten, peeled paint on the side of the 408 Club building over on 79th Street (just East of King Drive). In mid-seventies hipster font, the ad reads “Sheba Disco”, apparently some sort of disco club. I’ve wondered what manner of elephant bells and Quiana was to be found…
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Dear Michael….
What bothers me are bandwagon tributes. An Icon, they say. A Genius. The same cackling media outlets that refused to play Michael Jackson’s music for years, and affixed an implicit punchline to his name. Whatever. Artists are not perfect people. We can choose to accept the art without embracing the artist. In the case of Michael Jackson,…
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Electric Mud: Electrified Delta Blues got a New Jolt
(“Tom Cat” by Muddy Waters) The late sixties in Chicago was a wild time. The Democratic National Convention and the Riots in 1968 labeled us as unruly, Serial Killer Richard Speck in 1966 labeled us as unsafe, and Martin Luther King, Jr., (marching in North Lawndale for equal housing in 1966), labeled us as a…
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