Spider John is still out there! And he always was. Tell me there's a better cover than Spider Blues [left - Ed.].
Bob Dylan: "I dropped into the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a Beat coffeehouse. I was looking for players with kindred spirits. The first guy I met in Minneapolis was Spider John Koerner and he also had an accoustic guitar with him. Koerner was tall and thin with a look of perpetual amusement on his face. We hit it off right away. When he spoke he was soft spoken, but when he sang he became a field holler shouter. Koerner was an exciting singer, and we began playing a lot together."
Spider John: "We were thinkers and drinkers and artists and players, and Dylan was one of us. He was another guy ..."
Spider John's star on the mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh.
You always dug him.
You have these already, I know that. To get them again, perhaps as giveaways for when unexpected guests drop by, or reimagined as attractive drinks coasters for your tiki bar, talk about smoking. Spider John could wear a see-gar. Me, I've always looked dumber with something on fire sticking out my pan.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was life-flighted to the Cleveland Clinic 4 yrs ago I was told that there was no on-board smoking allowed. I took that as a sign that I should cease and desist my nicotine cravings. Never had an affinity for cigars.
ReplyDeleteSneaking Swisher Sweets with the boys when I was 13 . . . I think that sez it all.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Swisher Sweets are one of the world's most popular cigar manufacturers? This company is known to manufacture some of the world's smoothest, evenly burning cigars. With a great reputation, Swisher Sweets have taken the lead in the cigar market. It says here.
DeleteIt was a gateway drug . . . amen.
DeleteMy gateway drug was Afghan black sold at the gateway to our school.
DeleteBack in the 1980s I was manager of a record shop. Part of a chain of stores, managers had a degree of freedom but were required to do window displays based round a current release and mostly intended to promote stuff like Madonna’s latest. At the time UK jazzman Andy Sheppard had a new album (Introductions in the Dark) which features the artist in moody monochrome holding his sax with a smoking cigarette in hand. I used this as the centrepiece of a display titled The Cigarette in Jazz. It wasnt hard to find album sleeves to fit, we had a good jazz section and them jazz types love a crafty fag. I crafted a giant fag from a cardboard poster tube, suspended that in mid-air, had plenty of my own dog-ends in ashtrays on the floor. The display lasted until the area manager visited. And now that I come to think about it, my own musical listening preferences and experiments as a hippy-blues guitarist have been entirely shaped (some say stunted) by my fondness for jazz cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteGreat, great story!
Deletemusician smoking:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDMMHQJX2tE
... please post the music, i don't have it.
I'll loadup it as soon as I've finished sealing the yurt with yak fat.
Deleteisn't yak fat on a desert isle gonna get...ne'er mind. You're the pro.
Deletelooking forward to the links; I only have the Blues, Rags pair.
Never really smoked cigarettes. Was into cigars for a spell, but now only light one about 3 times a year. When I do, its mainly cubans. Ms. Pmac's cousin goes there semi-regularly and brings back a stash for me.
ReplyDeleteNever been a fan of tobacco products.
ReplyDeleteI've had a love affair with weed since Christmas of '66. Prefer sativa to indica. Current favorite strains: "Super Silver Haze" and "Jack Herer"
Two years ago I was given a New York State medical marijuana card when I was undergoing Chemo treatments. Currently, Cancer free.
On Sunday evenings, 60 plus years ago, when I was about 6 or 7 and my parents had gone off to the church service, my grandmother, who lived with us, and who smoked,taught me a number of card games. One time when we were playing, and she was smoking, we both reached out at the same moment to take a card and she stubbed out her cigarette on my wrist. For some reason I never, even remotely had the desire to take up smoking. (Mind you, to give her fair credit, she also taught me to enjoy sherry, which gave me a taste for other similar beverages.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a yoot, my dad smoked these imported dried-up-worm-like cigars called Palumbos. Smelled horrendous. He told me never to smoke them as they'd probably kill me.
ReplyDeleteFirst cigarette, stolen from my mother, at eight. Severely beaten.
ReplyDeleteSecond cigarette, bummed from a fellow drunk student at eighteen. severely hung over.
Cigars in the 90's and aughts after a jazz musician friend brought heaps back from trips to Cuba. Never could shake the morning after mouth. Stopped.
All those year and a nice joint would fill in the slack times.
Now, gummies. No fuss no muss.
two quick bits: (1) put a lit cigarette in the end of my thinline tele first time I played a gig with it, promptly forgot about it and still have the burn scar.
ReplyDelete(2) got my PhD at the University of Minnesota and these folks were gods there....true fact (best kind), even Prince liked them. Talked to Tony Glover a few times at The 400 near campus where a lunch time beer and a shot was 1 U.S. dollar. The coolest eurowhite coolcats in a cold, cold town.
I've been a pretty heavy cigarette smoker for about 45 years, though I stopped roughly 3 months ago. I say "stopped" rather than "quit" because I miss it all the time -- and am still at continual risk of slipping.
ReplyDeleteNote to Eric: I have a Thinline, too. I'm so used to smoking while playing it that just taking the guitar out of the case is currently a trigger for me.
love a thinline....
Delete
ReplyDeleteSpider Man!
No desire to smoke tobacco. It smells and tastes terrible!
ReplyDeleteI don't drink coffee either. People's addiction to that is just as strong as to tobacco (it seems).
Spider John is someone special. When he played a bar in town some years ago, he joined us for a beer during the set break. A fine man.
ReplyDeleteBut you want stories about smoking. I only smoked briefly ... a friend and I were traveling in Yugoslavia in 1972; it seemed that everyone smoked. After we both declined the offer of a cigarette a few times, we realized we were being unsociable. So we bought a pack of cigarettes, and tried to offer them to people we met. We never gave a cigarette away, but we accepted the cigarettes offered, and met some wonderful people. By the end of the trip, I could feel the pull of the nicotine, but quit before it became a habit. Fond memories of a beautiful country ... if you have the time for a long book, I recommend Rebecca West's "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:A Journey Through Yugoslavia" published in 1941.
Alan
Alan, stories about the artists are always welcome, and unexpected.
DeleteI like the idea of smoking much more than the actuality - nicotine has always made me feel nauseous, and I can get that way easier by looking at the news.
so, yeah, we're all getting older and seeing too many doctors. Typically, some kindly nurse usually sees me first and asks the same questions, and we eventually get to the smoking question. Ok, so, yeah, i like entertaining myself as much as you three or four other readers here. Next time they ask you if you smoke, it's ok to say "long as i can find paper or pipe". Thanks for the Spiders.
ReplyDeletethx.
ReplyDeletewlc.
DeleteOverflowing ashtrays were such an unappetizing part of growing up that the cigarette thing never had any personal appeal. And the cool kids had nothing to do with me in school, so that wasn't a problem, either. Smoking weed? That's one of those things I only do when it's available.
ReplyDeleteMe also. So I smoke weed never. I was always an LSD-type guy, anyway. Non-recreational, revelatory, sacramental selflessness.
Delete