Posted on 10/14/2010 11:32:09 PM PDT by Kimberly GG
The sun went down and they hit it. Then, Burke and his band started noticing that the people coming in were all dressed in white sheets and were wearing white hoods and masks. He had been booked into a Ku Klux Klan rally. Apparently, the Klan had thought that he was white.
"I was the only black artist in the world having country-western hits," he later said, as for the reason that he had been booked by the KKK. "My drummer said to me, 'Are we gonna get out of here alive?' I told him, 'Don't quit playing till they say quit!' We played 'Down in the Valley' for at least 45 minutes.".....
....."Burke, who died Sunday (Oct. 10) at the Amsterdam airport en route to yet another gig, was 70. He was the last of the great male soul singers. But he also greatly loved country music, "because of its stories," and he remained close to Nashville."
Cry To Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEu8DrO9PbY
Cry to Me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEu8DrO9PbY
Cry to Me (Dirty Dancing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pouIFiaIig&feature=related
RIP
Indeed it is. I was just thinking about him the other day.
Ray Charles, against the advice of his producers/managers, made a Country Western album.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Sounds_in_Country_and_Western_Music
A few years ago (1994) a smart producer (Don Was) compiled a CD of duets, featuring top flight Rhythm/Blues and Country performers.
“Rhythm, Country and Blues”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm,_Country_and_Blues
Both music types are distinctly American in origin, with common and similar roots.
Ray Charles and Dean Martin both performed brilliantly on the country side of music.
He should have started playing “White Christmas”...
I can’t believe I did not hear of this until now. Jeez. Soul of the Blues is going right in my CD player tomorrow morning. RIP, Bishop.
The simple fact is that R&B and country USED to be the same genre, until a music festival in the first half of the century intentionally split the two.
Check out this book, if interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Faking-Quest-Authenticity-Popular-Music/dp/0393060780
One of the best nonfiction reads I’ve had in the past couple of years.
The reason Solomon Burke and Ray Charles were also great country singers is because both genres are working the same mine, so to speak, and music promoters (and, no doubt, racist ones) wanted to force southern blacks and whites apart when they had no problems mixing and mingling music.
Dean Martin grew up on the Ohio River Valley, across the river from West Virginia. You couldn't grow up there without picking up a lot of country music in your soul. If only by osmosis.
There were a lot of early to mid 20th century country performers who were black. Due to the racial climate, they were not marketed on a nationwide basis. Junior Norman of Malta, OH was regularly featured on the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree. Which at one time rivaled the Grand Ol’ Opry in popularity.
.....”Burke, who died Sunday (Oct. 10) at the Amsterdam airport en route to yet another gig, was 70.’
Well, that’s how Hank went. Guess a country singer can’t do better than that.
Was Sheets Byrd in attendance at that concert?
Charlie Pride.
Thanks for that, I had completely forgotten about Junior Norman.
The Allman Brothers Band has prospered for over forty years playing music influenced by blues, soul, country and jazz with songs as diverse as Whipping Post and Blue Sky. Critics named it Southern Rock. God bless King Solomon Burke and RIP.
When I see Nashville Skyline I think of Bob Dylan and then I think of my mother smashing the record when Lay Lady Lay was playing :)
Didn’t Charlie Pride describe country music as “the white man’s blues”?
Out if curiousity, are you from SE Ohio?
No, but Ohio. Close enough that we listened to WWVA for several years.
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