When he was first interviewed by the author, [Skip] James claimed that blues singing had served as a form of inner expression, acting as a salve for unspecified sorrows. But this was a veil he had thrown over himself to avoid detailing the actual attraction blues-singing originally held for him. Eventually, he was to reveal that he had been drawn to blues singing on a professional level because he wanted to become a pimp. Becoming a blues singer was, in his immediate environment, almost an initiation rite for budding pimps.
(Stephen Calt, I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues)
You can sublimate it all you want. As for me, it's futile to pretend that music is unconnected, on some deep and inexorable level, to sex.
1 comment:
1. Apparently, I have failed miserably as a pimp.
2. I can think of several pimps who became more successful as musicians, but then again perhaps I am not privy to the cultural legacy specific pimps may hold.
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