So now I'm wondering what the hell am I doing sitting at a table with a Klansman? And I gave him back his card and we talked about some other things. I stop laughing 'cause I recognized that stuff, you know, this is for real. It's called a MIOAK or blood drop emblem. His looked like it had a Klansman on horseback and then on the other side was this red circle the white cross in the red blood in the center, which is the Ku Klux Klan insignia. While I'm laughing, he goes inside his pocket, pulls out his wallet and hands me his Klan card. I figured, OK, this guy thinks I'm jerking him around about Jerry Lee Lewis so he's going to jerk me around about the Klan. Now he says, I'm a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He stared at the tabletop and his buddy elbowed him in the ribs and said, tell him, tell him. I asked him, I said, why? And he didn't answer me. And I'm thinking, you know, this guy is really having a night of firsts here. He says, you know, this is the first time I ever sat down had a drink with a black man. Now I don't drink but I agreed to go back to his table and have a cranberry juice. But he was fascinated with me and said he wanted to buy me a drink. He's told me himself where he learned how to play. I even told the guy, I know Jerry Lee Lewis personally. I ain't never heard no black man play like that until you. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no - Jerry Lee invented that. That's where rockabilly and rock 'n' roll came from. I had no idea where this guy was coming from and I naively and innocently asked him, where did you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned how to play? He says, what are you talking about? And I said well, Jerry Lee learned how to play that style from black blues and boogie-woogie piano players. This is the first time I ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. First time I played there, I came off the bandstand after the first set and I was walking across the dance floor to sit with some of my band mates and this white gentleman, probably in his mid to late 40s, gets up from his table and walks across the bandstand from behind, puts his arm around my shoulder and I stopped and turned around, looked to see who was touching me and he says, I really like your all's music. In the bottom of the motel was this lounge called the Silver Dollar Lounge and it was basically an all-white lounge. Well, there was this truck stop in a place called Frederick, Maryland. I was the only black guy in the band and consequently, usually the only black guy in many of the places where we played. Country music had made a resurgence in this country so I joined a country band. Actually, the word is not appropriate for any company whatsoever.ĭARYL DAVIS: 1983. For our next story we sent SNAP's own Nick van der Kolk out to the wilds of Maryland to meet Daryl Davis, where he told us his story.įair warning - this piece does use a word that is not appropriate for polite company. Welcome back to SNAP, the Unrequited episode, where we give love hoping for a little bit in return.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |