1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about 2 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: Skip James are insane. One of the last discovered authentic 3 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,079 Speaker 1: Delta bluesmen of the nineteen sixties blues revival, Skip James 4 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:28,280 Speaker 1: shot and perhaps killed more than one man. He was 5 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: a pimp, a bootlegger, and a preacher's son. Yet Skip 6 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 1: James was celebrated, feted, and embraced for his undeniable musical 7 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:43,560 Speaker 1: talent because Skip James made great music. Unlike that music 8 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show. 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,639 Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from 10 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: my mellotron called Wiggle Waggle MK. Two. I played you 11 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: that clip because I can't afford the rights to Raggall 12 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: by Frankie Valley in the Forest Seasons. And why would 13 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,960 Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of Jersey Boy Cheese? 14 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one 15 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: song in America On July twenty sixth, nineteen sixty four, 16 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: and that was the day Skip James first played the 17 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: Newport Folk Festival, an event that would mark the long 18 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,400 Speaker 1: overdue arrival onto the scene of one of the greatest 19 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: blues men of all time and simultaneously marked the beginning 20 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,039 Speaker 1: of the end for the tortured and doomed Blue Singer. 21 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:36,160 Speaker 1: On this episode sawmill shootouts, pimping, bootlegging, and the son 22 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: of a preacher man dealt a Blue Singer Skip James, 23 00:01:40,640 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgrace. Land Blantis is 24 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,239 Speaker 1: a condition where the head of the penis becomes inflamed, 25 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: causing pain, swelling, itching, a rash, and a strong smelling discharge. 26 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: Episidius is what it is called when one is born 27 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: without a fully developed urethra, so the opening that is 28 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: normally at the top of one's penis sends up on 29 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: the side of one's penis. This causes a shorter, wider 30 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: penis that is abnormally shaped. Priaphism is an erection that 31 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: lasts four or more hours, the result of which is 32 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: extreme and constant pain that cannot be relieved by any 33 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:53,079 Speaker 1: normal methods. Manually draining the blood from the penis in 34 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,079 Speaker 1: a hospital room is as of this writing, the only 35 00:02:56,160 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: known cure. Fun parodies disease condition where platforms within the 36 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 1: penis causing it to curve drastically. This leads to a 37 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: rectile dysfunction. It makes sex impossible. Time and evengeful God 38 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: seemed to be the only solution. Penile cancer is exactly 39 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: what it sounds like, cancer cells within the penis. If 40 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: caught early, the penis can be saved. If not, the 41 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 1: penis has to be removed in an amputation process known 42 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 1: as a penectomy. Celebrated Blues singer Skip James screamed in agony. 43 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: The orderlies held him down. There were no match for him, 44 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: even with his skinny frame. The sawmill camps have been 45 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: far tougher than this, Skip James knew from tough. Skip 46 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: bucked and the orderlies pressed him down by his shoulders 47 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: and his ankles onto the hospital bed. It took four 48 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: of them to do what the sedative wasn't doing, holding 49 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: him down, So the surgeon's job was tougher than it 50 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: had to be in this procedure. The penectomy was already 51 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: a tough gig. Amputating a penis was tricky business. It 52 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: wasn't like offing an arm or a leg. Any butcher 53 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: from a state medical school could handle that, but amputating 54 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: a penis was a higher degree of difficulty, and even 55 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: with the surgeon's private medical school education, this amputation in particular, 56 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: was proving more challenging than most. For one, the patient 57 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: was not adhering to the sedative. Local anesthesia was the 58 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: wrong way to go. Turns out, leaving a man awake 59 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: while another man endeavors to sever his manhood isn't a 60 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: smart idea. A guy tends to get possessive about such things. 61 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: The surgeon regretted not opting for the general anesthesia, which 62 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: would have knocked the patient out cold. But that ship 63 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: had sailed. This patient was not taking to the procedure. 64 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: He was resisting at every turn, but his strength was fading. 65 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: He was, after all, an old man sixty two. In 66 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,480 Speaker 1: between screams of agony, the patient spoke of an evil 67 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: woman with the words cribed from the Old Testament. The 68 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 1: patient swore his penis malady and this resultant amputation was 69 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: her fault. His wrath consumed him. He was overcome, his 70 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,600 Speaker 1: strength drained. He faded off to sleep with the familiar 71 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: knowledge that once again his penis had done him in. 72 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: When Skip James awoke, his penis was gone. In its place, 73 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,799 Speaker 1: a man's sized pit in his stomach, a palpable absence, 74 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: the feeling of a vacuum that would never be filled. Psychologically, 75 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: he was horrified. It was worse than the pain of 76 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: losing his wife, worse than the stress of trying to 77 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: keep in line the women he kept during his days 78 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: as a pimp, worse than the fear he felt when 79 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: he dodged violent revenue men as a bootlegger, worse than 80 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: fending off murderers in the saw milk camps, worse than 81 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: the shame from his judgmental preacher father's eyes, and worse 82 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: than the god from his father's parishioners, and even worse 83 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: than the humiliation he felt as a failed musician despite 84 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: his unique and undeniable talent. At least he could do 85 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: something about all of that. He aspired. He identified opportunities 86 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,600 Speaker 1: where others couldn't, and he seized them. Skip's father got 87 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: himself in trouble with the law, and then got religion. 88 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: He took off from the family of Anonia, Mississippi, to 89 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,600 Speaker 1: set up shop in Plano, Texas as a preacher. The 90 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,800 Speaker 1: abandonment stopped as young Skip matured into a man. He 91 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,280 Speaker 1: suspected there was an opportunity preaching with his father if 92 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:39,599 Speaker 1: he could only find him. But where was the fun 93 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,600 Speaker 1: in that? Where was the adventure and where was the freedom? 94 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: Seemed to Skip that there were better opportunities like the 95 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:52,880 Speaker 1: one music presented, specifically the blues in the nineteen twenties. 96 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: Skip James saw the blues music presented a path beyond 97 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 1: the discipline of religion or the bleakness of the Mississippi Delta, 98 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,320 Speaker 1: and that he, somehow, ironically, by the grace of God, 99 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,880 Speaker 1: had that necessary something to make words sing in juke 100 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,480 Speaker 1: joints swaying. So Skip James put rhymes together in his 101 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: head and then songs together with his piano and his guitar. 102 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: He wrote. Specifically, he wrote the words I'd rather be 103 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: the devil for the recording of his nineteen thirty one 104 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: song Devil Got My Woman, because, as Skip James saw it, 105 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: at least the devil had an agency. At least the 106 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,480 Speaker 1: devil had a choice. The devil had options, and that 107 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: was more than could be said for Skip James and 108 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: most black people in the early nineteen thirties when he 109 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:40,440 Speaker 1: sang those words in the Jim Crow South, a time 110 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:45,560 Speaker 1: in place of unimaginable hardship, injustice and deprivation for so 111 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: called free black men, and by the time the nineteen 112 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: sixties rolled around, and white American and English kids started 113 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: taking an interest in blues music. Skip James's unique experiences 114 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: in his place in this flawed but unique exparoent called 115 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: America resulted in an authenticity that was and still is 116 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: extremely rare in popular music and culture. It was the 117 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: type of authenticity that caused young, progressive white blues obsessives 118 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: from the North to scour the Mississippi Delta in hopes 119 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:22,240 Speaker 1: of discovering the last great bluesman. Emmett Till was murdered 120 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 1: on August twenty eighth, nineteen fifty five. The fourteen year 121 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: old black Mississippian was tortured and lynched for merely speaking 122 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,559 Speaker 1: to a married white woman. Sadly, Till's murder wasn't an 123 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: uncommon event. To say that the state of Mississippi in 124 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: early and mid twentieth century was a largely lawless, violent 125 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: place would be an understatement, But that didn't stop John Fahey, 126 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:47,680 Speaker 1: a twenty five year old white guitar enthusiast from Maryland, 127 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: from venturing into the heart of American darkness to seek 128 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: out who he thought to be the last of the 129 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:57,440 Speaker 1: great undiscovered authentic bluesman. Skip James Till's murder in fifty 130 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: five had in part given rise to but the inactivism 131 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: from Northeast progressives who supported what had come to be 132 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,840 Speaker 1: known as the Civil rights movement. The brutality of tills 133 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:10,480 Speaker 1: lynching and the unjust acquittal of the men who admitted 134 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 1: to killing the boy led to large groups of white 135 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:16,719 Speaker 1: liberal college students infiltrating the South from northern universities and 136 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 1: support of civil rights. They made strides to register as 137 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: many unregistered black voters as possible, an unferral democracy across 138 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:28,840 Speaker 1: a largely undemocratic region of the not soo United States. 139 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: Needless to say, the effort was not welcomed by local conservatives, 140 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: who aimed to keep their racist power structure untouched by 141 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,920 Speaker 1: the hand of these progressive interlovers. Violence, the threat of it, 142 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 1: and the implementation of it as attacked it to keep 143 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,959 Speaker 1: meddling Northeasterners away from rilling up the local black population 144 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 1: and disrupting the way things were. None of that could 145 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:54,480 Speaker 1: be discounted by any white visitor to Mississippi. In nineteen 146 00:09:54,559 --> 00:10:01,440 Speaker 1: sixty four, young On Faye he saw the car in 147 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: his rear view. The two good old boys following him 148 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,239 Speaker 1: in the beat up forward smacked of menace and stupidity. 149 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,959 Speaker 1: Even at this distance. They weren't too far, though far 150 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: enough to maintain deniability, close enough to intimidate. The good 151 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: old boys knew why Faye was in their state, at 152 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:20,800 Speaker 1: least they thought they did. Fay. He slowed his car 153 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 1: as he wheeled into the town of Bentonia, Mississippi, population 154 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,480 Speaker 1: five hundred and eleven. The good old boys in the 155 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,960 Speaker 1: rear view peeled off Fay. He breathed a sigh of relief. 156 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,360 Speaker 1: He curbed his car at the local post office, entered, 157 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: asked about a black man who was rumored to be local, 158 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: a man named Skip James. The postman grunted off to 159 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: the town clerk, same question, no response. Over to the 160 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: drug store again nothing Fay. He then hopped back in 161 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: his car and began cruising with his eyes wide, scanning 162 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,280 Speaker 1: for elderly black residents of Bentonia, men and women who 163 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: would be roughly Skipped James's age early sixties. They weren't 164 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: hurt to find, but they wouldn't talk. The fact that 165 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: no one was saying anything was a tell to local Bentonians. 166 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:13,800 Speaker 1: Skip James was trouble trou b l e and trouble, 167 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: any trouble for black residents of Mississippi in the early 168 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties was a tough road to hoe, and if 169 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,160 Speaker 1: it was tough in the nineteen sixties, it was a 170 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: lot tougher in the nineteen twenties. Skip James was a 171 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:29,959 Speaker 1: hard man to find, either because he didn't want to 172 00:11:30,000 --> 00:12:00,080 Speaker 1: be found or because no one wanted him. Around te 173 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,600 Speaker 1: teen nineteen, at the age of seventeen, Skip James left 174 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: his home in Ventonia, Mississippi, to find work elsewhere. Staying 175 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:13,200 Speaker 1: in Bentonia meant one thing, sharecropping, and sharecropping, or what 176 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,720 Speaker 1: some called slavery by another name, meant death. Skip could 177 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: handle the hard work, but handling the hard reality that 178 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:25,720 Speaker 1: the landlord effectively owned Skip was unacceptable. When prohibition became 179 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:28,680 Speaker 1: the law of the land, Skip not unlike other young, 180 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 1: enterprising black men in the Delta, found work as a bootlegger. 181 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: Bootlegging had its perks and the product for one and 182 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: of course the freedom it afforded Skip. But at the 183 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:41,880 Speaker 1: end of the day, Skip still had to answer to 184 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 1: the man who put up the cash for his Still 185 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:48,080 Speaker 1: Skip was still hustling someone else's property, just like a sharecropper. 186 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: And making matters less than ideal. Bootlegging was more dangerous 187 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:55,600 Speaker 1: than sharecropping. Bootlegging could get you killed, end you up 188 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: on the wrong side of a revenue man, shotgun revenue 189 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: men up. Federal men in league with the local white 190 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:04,560 Speaker 1: authorities might as well have been in league with satan 191 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 1: revenue men government men. They weren't to be challenged a 192 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 1: black man in a white man's crosshairs. There's no place 193 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,199 Speaker 1: to be for young Skip James. So he put bootlegging 194 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:18,079 Speaker 1: down and set out for the road camps, manual labor 195 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:20,959 Speaker 1: crews organized throughout the South and the teens and twenties 196 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,720 Speaker 1: funded by the federal government to build highways and roads. 197 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,680 Speaker 1: The work was harsh. From there, Skip moved on to 198 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: become a dynamite blast, more hard work, and finally he 199 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: settled upon the job of log cutter at a saw 200 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:37,720 Speaker 1: mill camp in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Life at the saw 201 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 1: mill camp was harsh, but at least Skip had some 202 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,439 Speaker 1: sort of freedom. Long days and deadly working conditions. Aside, 203 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:47,440 Speaker 1: Skip did not if the deals corrupt and violent sharecropping 204 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: landlords or revenue men. Instead, he had a deal with 205 00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 1: his coworkers men who were far less refined and far 206 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: more violent than Skip, who had grown up in a 207 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,120 Speaker 1: Christian home. But unlike the land lords and g men, 208 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: these men were black, which men's Skip was allowed to 209 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: defend himself against their transgressions, and there were many transgressions. 210 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,040 Speaker 1: Familiality does indeed breed contempt, and these men work together, 211 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:18,000 Speaker 1: lived together, ate together, and eventually fought together. The saw 212 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: milk camp's communication style relied on the practice of playing 213 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,800 Speaker 1: the dozens or hurling insults at one another mercilessly to 214 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: grab attention or to motivate a one of Skip's first days, 215 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 1: he saw how brutal life on the saw milk camp 216 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: could be. Two workers broke out into a fight over 217 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: something or another. No one intervened to break it up, 218 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:38,600 Speaker 1: and one of the men worked his way over to 219 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: an ox and yoke a heavy wooden't beam strong enough 220 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:44,600 Speaker 1: to yoke together two three thousand pounds oxen, and the 221 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:48,000 Speaker 1: guy picked it up. He then heaved it down upon 222 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 1: the head of his brawling coworker. The unlucky coworker's brains 223 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: literally blasted out of his nostrils from the impact of 224 00:14:55,480 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: his skull skit saw him die instantly. It was a 225 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:06,200 Speaker 1: culture of only the strong survive. The week got sorted 226 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 1: out quickly. If some worker wanted something from another, they 227 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: just took it, and there was no moral code. There 228 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,760 Speaker 1: was hardly any social order at all. As long as 229 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: the workers showed up on time for their shift in 230 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: the morning and worked the whole day through, the boss 231 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: man couldn't care less how they treated each other. Cheap 232 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:25,840 Speaker 1: labor was bountiful. Of the three hundred man crew, two 233 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: armed guards were stationed on site round the clock to 234 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: shoot and kill any worker who stepped out of line. 235 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: Each saw mill camp had a makeshift cemetery nearby to 236 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:38,200 Speaker 1: handle the inevitable body count. Black on black crime was 237 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,240 Speaker 1: almost entirely ignored in the South, and this practice of 238 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,840 Speaker 1: injustice extended, of course to the saw mill camps. It 239 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 1: was a lawless existence for black Americans in nineteen twenties Mississippi, 240 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: nearly as lawless as America's wild Wild West some fifty 241 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: years prior. Skipp James kept his head down while they 242 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:01,400 Speaker 1: worked toiling under a merciless sun. He weaved rhymes together 243 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: at his head, violent rhymes and the thought of his gun. 244 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: His twenty two to twenty gave him some sense of security. 245 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: Oh you're thirty eight, special, buddy, It's too late, but 246 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 1: my twenty two to twenty will make everything all right. 247 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: The gun was the answer. There were lots of questions, 248 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 1: but the gun. The gun answered them all. What do 249 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: you do when the big man bust into your tent 250 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: at night looking to steal your kiddy? The answer is 251 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 1: the gun. And what about the other big man bent 252 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,720 Speaker 1: on taking your chow at lunch? The answer is the gun. 253 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,000 Speaker 1: And that mountain of a man who only speaks in grunts, 254 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:37,280 Speaker 1: the one who doesn't pay his gambling debts and eyes 255 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:41,400 Speaker 1: your poker winnings, The answer is the gun, the twenty 256 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 1: two to twenty. In or out of the sawmill camp. 257 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,080 Speaker 1: There was no straight path to adulthood for Skip James. 258 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 1: The only road in life that he saw was crooked, 259 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: and the alternative was a life under the thumb of 260 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:56,280 Speaker 1: someone else. So Skip James traveled that crooked road, and 261 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: he traveled it with his gun. I was stranding on 262 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: the highway with my twenty two twenty in my hand. 263 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,280 Speaker 1: They got accused for murder. I declare I never harmed 264 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:12,479 Speaker 1: a man, But that would change. Skip heard the angry 265 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: footsteps stamping the ground outside of his tent. Skip was 266 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,720 Speaker 1: in no position for what was coming next. He knew 267 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,879 Speaker 1: who it was, the husband, the little local bitty he 268 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:25,000 Speaker 1: lent some money to. He knew her husband would be upset. 269 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:28,640 Speaker 1: He wasn't surprised. He wondered why sometimes that he did 270 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: the stupid things that he did. His dick, mainly his dick. 271 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:35,080 Speaker 1: That's why he did the stupid things that he did 272 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:39,439 Speaker 1: not sometimes all the times, Skip's little king James was 273 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 1: constantly getting him in trouble. And now that trouble had 274 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,160 Speaker 1: come home to roost this man. The husband pulled back 275 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: the opening to Skip's tent. Skip sat naked, submerged in 276 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,439 Speaker 1: water and his cowboy barrel bathtub. The husband barked out 277 00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:56,920 Speaker 1: an angry verse at Skip. Skip sat quiet, and as 278 00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 1: the husband let his emotion get the better of him, 279 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,720 Speaker 1: Skips his hand outside of the tub and down to 280 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,720 Speaker 1: the table at its side. He grabbed his gun, and 281 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 1: the husband went for skipping the tub to wring his 282 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: neck or worse, Skip drew his pistol, aimed, and pumped 283 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:17,880 Speaker 1: six bullets into his attacker. What became of the man 284 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,160 Speaker 1: Skip James perhaps smart enough to know that no statute 285 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:24,879 Speaker 1: limitations exist for murder never admitted in his recounting of 286 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:28,480 Speaker 1: this story years later. We can assume that the man 287 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,160 Speaker 1: ended up in the sawmill cemetery, and that man wouldn't 288 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:37,159 Speaker 1: be Skip James's last victim. Skip carried his pistol everywhere. 289 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: At another sawmill camp in northern Mississippi, near Tupelo, Skip 290 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:43,959 Speaker 1: blasted two bullets into the shoulder of a coworker who 291 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: attacked him with a club, and the only regret Skip 292 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,480 Speaker 1: had was not setting his aim straight and blasting the 293 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,119 Speaker 1: man in the neck. The violence was ratcheting up. Skip 294 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: James was no dummy. He knew it was only a 295 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,240 Speaker 1: matter of time and there had to be another way. 296 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: So Skip James took to his music with a little 297 00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,120 Speaker 1: more intention than just piecing rhymes together in his head. 298 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,640 Speaker 1: He'd given the piano and guitar passing attention for as 299 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: far back as he could remember, but he never threw 300 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: his backbone into it until life on the camps. The 301 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,840 Speaker 1: camps had their own juke joints. At the jukes, you 302 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,760 Speaker 1: could drink, dance, or engage a working girl to take 303 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: care of you for the night. Those were your options, 304 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,359 Speaker 1: and all of them cost money, or you could make 305 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: money by being the entertainment. You could play the music 306 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:33,200 Speaker 1: that made people want to drink, dance and make time 307 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,680 Speaker 1: in the arms of a paid professional, and you could 308 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,959 Speaker 1: make money. To boot, Skip James smelled opportunity. Skip James 309 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,880 Speaker 1: went to work. Whenever the jukes hired piano player would 310 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 1: go on a break, Skip would steal time on his 311 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: bench and bang down with a fury, his take on 312 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,320 Speaker 1: whatever blue song he could remember, or that he could 313 00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: make up on the spot. Bessie Smith's tunes always went 314 00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: overwhel Skip learned from a man named Crabtree. Crabtree could 315 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,239 Speaker 1: command an audience. Crabtree made the house swing. Crabtree made 316 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,199 Speaker 1: the women swoon. Crabtree didn't have to pay for it. 317 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: In fact, before long, Skip realized that not only was 318 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,359 Speaker 1: Crabtree getting paid for playing music and getting it for 319 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 1: free from the ladies, but Crabtree was also running the ladies. 320 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,720 Speaker 1: Crabtree was a musician and a juke joint pimp. A 321 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:24,160 Speaker 1: light went off and Skipped James's head. Music pimping, or 322 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:27,520 Speaker 1: sporting as it was called them, twin professions to relieve 323 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,399 Speaker 1: drunken juke patrons of their hard earned cash. It was 324 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,679 Speaker 1: the side hustle to beat all side hustles. In fact, 325 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 1: with enough time in the jukes at night, Skip James 326 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: could eventually work his way out of his days in 327 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: the sawmill camps. It was a crooked path, sure, his 328 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,679 Speaker 1: preacher father, no doubt, would disapprove, but at least it 329 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,080 Speaker 1: was a path, a way out. But something funny happened 330 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 1: along the way from the sawmill to the sporting man's life. 331 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:55,600 Speaker 1: Skip James realized he was one hell of a beach musician. 332 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:14,919 Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're were were. The 333 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,639 Speaker 1: warmth from the vinyl wrapped itself around young John Faye 334 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:22,280 Speaker 1: and focused his attention. He was nearly twenty years old 335 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,439 Speaker 1: and almost immediately brought to tears by the sound of 336 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:29,760 Speaker 1: the man's voice that followed the record's opening crackle, Charlie Patton, 337 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,320 Speaker 1: the father of the Delta Blues. Charlie sounded unlike anything 338 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:37,719 Speaker 1: Faye had ever heard before, unlike anything most people had 339 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 1: ever heard before. Faye reckoned. Nothing the young man had 340 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,920 Speaker 1: heard previously had been so compelling. Fayie packed up a 341 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,040 Speaker 1: suitcase and his recorder and headed south to find Charlie 342 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,879 Speaker 1: Patten to introduce him to the world. Why not others 343 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:55,679 Speaker 1: have done it? Dick Spotswood and Tom Hoskins discovered Mississippi, 344 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: John Hurt, Why not Faye? Why not Charlie Patton? For 345 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 1: Faye's efforts, though he discovered nothing, Charlie Patton was dead. 346 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: The Fay he made another discovery. There was talk of 347 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: another unknown at least to white audiences, another undiscovered Delta bluesman, 348 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:21,280 Speaker 1: and his name was Skip James. The sporting life looked 349 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: good on Skip James. There wasn't a finer looking gentleman 350 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,639 Speaker 1: in any Mississippi duke. Sporting or being a sport was 351 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 1: another way of saying pimping or being a pimp, and 352 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:36,240 Speaker 1: Skip James was all about that big pimpin' shine flourshemed shoes, 353 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: neatly pressed, highwaisted pants, a proper jacket, a gold watch, 354 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,399 Speaker 1: and his stetson hat pimp sheet by way of the 355 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: Southern outlaw. Skip James looked the part, and he walked 356 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,600 Speaker 1: the walk with his pistol at his side and switchblade 357 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:53,280 Speaker 1: in his pocket. Skip needed that switchblade too, and the pistol. 358 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,720 Speaker 1: He ran a girl named Buno Mary who was nothing 359 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:00,320 Speaker 1: but bad. Buno Mary trick, which he husted of men 360 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: blind and was rumored just as Skip James was to 361 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:06,280 Speaker 1: have killed a man. Mary carried a bowie knife between 362 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,160 Speaker 1: her breasts. Mary gave Skip long looks, not the kind 363 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,400 Speaker 1: he wanted, the kind that kept them up at night. 364 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,119 Speaker 1: Mary was scheming. Skip worried about where the knife might 365 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,719 Speaker 1: end up, what it might end up taking off of him, 366 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,639 Speaker 1: So Skip took off in the dead of knight, left Bruno, 367 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: Mary and her bowie knife and pimp him behind. But 368 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,080 Speaker 1: once again, his instincts told him it was only a 369 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:31,199 Speaker 1: matter of time. Hustling women was over. Hustling music was 370 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 1: to be his new gig. After Bruno Mary, Skip washed 371 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:38,960 Speaker 1: up out of the Delta into Memphis, Tennessee, had found 372 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: work in Hernando Street horror House. As an entertainer. Skip's 373 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,600 Speaker 1: job was to quote unquote hold the floor for two 374 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:47,960 Speaker 1: to three hours. He played whatever music he could muster 375 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,480 Speaker 1: on piano and guitar, and did his best to work 376 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: the place into a good time. Frenzy dance songs, traditional 377 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: blues like heel to Toe, the Shimmy, sheet Wobble, foxtrot, 378 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,640 Speaker 1: follow the Log, and drinking tunes. Men gambled, women worked 379 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:06,399 Speaker 1: the room and eventually the upstairs bedrooms. Skip James's craft 380 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,680 Speaker 1: blossomed as a blues musician. Skip was wholly unique because 381 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: he began learning his craft on piano and eventually moved 382 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,240 Speaker 1: to guitar. It meant that his approach was completely different 383 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,680 Speaker 1: from contemporaries like John Hurt, or even his predecessors like 384 00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: Charlie Patton or Blind Lemon Jefferson. Skip James's fingers flew 385 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,959 Speaker 1: over his guitar neck and his hands furiously sped across 386 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: his piano's keyboard. He saw both as instruments to be 387 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,920 Speaker 1: man handled, violently, bent into submission like a sawmill oxen yoke. 388 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: Skip applied an open minor key tuning to his guitar playing, 389 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,879 Speaker 1: and it was darkness and carnate, and the character of 390 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: his songs because of the world he inhabited, a world 391 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,359 Speaker 1: of violent, hard labor, gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging, was darker 392 00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: than most of his blues contemporaries. Skip James's music was 393 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 1: as nasty as the men and women he surrounded himself with. 394 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: Skip James's music was haunted because Skip James was haunted, 395 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:08,719 Speaker 1: and eventually Skipp's haunted talent was discovered by H. C. Styer, 396 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,160 Speaker 1: who owned a music store in Jackson, Mississippi. A recording 397 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,239 Speaker 1: engagement was set at a studio all the way up 398 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 1: in Grafton, Wisconsin. In February nineteen thirty one. Skip James 399 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,879 Speaker 1: entered the studio and recorded twenty six songs by his count, 400 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 1: eighteen of which would see release on the Paramount Records label. 401 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: And the songs tell a bleak story of low down women, 402 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:31,679 Speaker 1: men messed up in the head, and an almost complete 403 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,480 Speaker 1: lack of hope, with a couple of half hearted gospel 404 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: hymns thrown in for good measure. He's on a drunken spree, 405 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,480 Speaker 1: as one of the song titles explains, He's on the 406 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,119 Speaker 1: hard time killing floor. He's got the twenty two to 407 00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:47,520 Speaker 1: twenty blues. Skip James got the inspiration for his best 408 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,560 Speaker 1: known song, Devil Got My Woman from her short lived 409 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 1: marriage to the sixteen year old daughter of a minister. 410 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,040 Speaker 1: She left him for a friend, and that gave the 411 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,480 Speaker 1: finish version of the song its bitter potency. I'd rather 412 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: be the than to be that woman's man, he moaned, seriously, 413 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,920 Speaker 1: fuck them both. He'd go his own way, consequences being 414 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: damned When Skip James emerged from the studio. What he 415 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,280 Speaker 1: put down on the record was one of the most 416 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,560 Speaker 1: significant recordings ever captured in the blues at him, but 417 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 1: it didn't matter. No one cared. Skip James's music completely 418 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,400 Speaker 1: failed to catch on. He knew what his preacher father 419 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:28,200 Speaker 1: would say, for we live by faith, not by sight. 420 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:32,639 Speaker 1: Skip James had no faith, and he couldn't see much 421 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,920 Speaker 1: of any future. Skip James was nowhere after all that, 422 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: after tracking it up all the way to Wisconsin, after 423 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,359 Speaker 1: suffering the indignity of bearing his greatest failure, losing his 424 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,280 Speaker 1: woman on to record, after trying and failing to make 425 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:51,440 Speaker 1: something of himself, and for what For nothing? He'd thrown 426 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: away each of his previous lives, as a bootlegger, as 427 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 1: a sawmill laborer, as a sport, each just another stepping 428 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,200 Speaker 1: stone down the crooked path, and they all let him. 429 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,800 Speaker 1: Hear nowhere without options, still under the thumb of Jim Crow, 430 00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,080 Speaker 1: the work camp, saw mills, and worse, the sharecroppers. They 431 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:11,479 Speaker 1: all waited for him in the not so distant future. 432 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: Skip thought herd. He couldn't believe where his mind went. 433 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: He heard his preacher father's voice. It was Sosa one 434 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 1: one blessed is the one who does not walk in 435 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,320 Speaker 1: step with the wicked. The crooked path was a dead end. 436 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,919 Speaker 1: Again his father's voice. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, 437 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out, his 438 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,280 Speaker 1: old man preacher, that was it. As a father has 439 00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,439 Speaker 1: compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on 440 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: those who fear him. And the elder's voice boomed in 441 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,480 Speaker 1: his son's heart. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, 442 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,920 Speaker 1: Do not resent his rebuke. Because the Lord disciplines those 443 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,440 Speaker 1: he loves as a father, the son he delights in. 444 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,439 Speaker 1: And there would be no more sporting, for all have 445 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,280 Speaker 1: sinned and falls short of the glory of God. No 446 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,440 Speaker 1: more gambling. If we confess our sins, He is faithful 447 00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 1: and just and will forgive us our sins and purify 448 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,160 Speaker 1: us from all unrighteousness. No more killing. Put to the death. 449 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,639 Speaker 1: Whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual and morality, impurity, lust, 450 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: evil desires, greed in the path of the righteous was pure, 451 00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:22,440 Speaker 1: direct my footsteps according to your word. Let no sin 452 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: rule over me. Skip James abandon any thoughts of life 453 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: as a blues musician and headed out to Texas to 454 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: find his father, and when he did, Skip pledged to 455 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 1: him and to his Lord his life, first in his 456 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:40,719 Speaker 1: father's congregation, then in his father's seminary. Skip James, it seemed, 457 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:46,280 Speaker 1: had finally found his way. Skip James went gun religion. 458 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,080 Speaker 1: Skip James reconnected with his father, a Baptist pastor. At 459 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: the end of nineteen thirty one. Music had proved to 460 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,960 Speaker 1: be a crooked road to nowhere, a sinful dead end. 461 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 1: His father, Reverend E. D. James, welcomed Skip into the seminary. 462 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,280 Speaker 1: He found it. Skip renounced the blues and embraced the 463 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: Good Lord. He also embraced the many fine females who 464 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,800 Speaker 1: filled out the pews of his father's congregation. Skip never 465 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: quite gave up completely on his past life. Some things 466 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: were harder than others to put down. Despite the fact 467 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: that Skip's God, like his father, was angry, wrathful, mean. 468 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 1: The turn toward religion lasted long enough for Skip to 469 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,040 Speaker 1: settle into some sort of security, But it wasn't long 470 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 1: before that crooked road found its path to Skip James's 471 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: front door. Baptist Fundamentalism was a strict religious discipline, one 472 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: that Skip, in the end couldn't truck with, especially when 473 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: his vanity was stoked. When one of his father's female 474 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:11,160 Speaker 1: congregation members recognized Skip for the blues man he was. 475 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,160 Speaker 1: Skip eagerly turned his back on God for the arms 476 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:19,000 Speaker 1: of a new woman. Temptation was too strong. Soon Skip 477 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,720 Speaker 1: was back in the jukes. If not playing music, then 478 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,960 Speaker 1: listening to it, vibing on it, drinking the devil's juice, 479 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:29,360 Speaker 1: and frolickings whichever women would have him. Religion didn't take. 480 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: God wasn't the answer. Skip James would rather be the devil. 481 00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:36,680 Speaker 1: The devil had a better go of it, better hooch, 482 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 1: better women, a better life, dangerous, but better, more exciting. 483 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 1: After his stint at his father's church in Dallas, Skip 484 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: rambled over to Birmingham, Alabama, where he made a new 485 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: living again with hard labor. As a quote unquote surface 486 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,320 Speaker 1: man loading timber and steel. Skip had resigned himself to 487 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,120 Speaker 1: the working man's life. He put down the blues, he 488 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: put down religon, He took a wife. He was for 489 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 1: him anyway, settled, no more sporting, no more violence, or 490 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,720 Speaker 1: so he hoped. It may now have been the nineteen forties, 491 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 1: but the work environment was hardly any less dangerous than 492 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,880 Speaker 1: it was when Skip was working the sawmills back in 493 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 1: the twenties. Skip felt that danger in the air. Walking 494 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,080 Speaker 1: home from work, he could hear the two men coming 495 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,320 Speaker 1: up on them from behind, talking loud, dipping into the 496 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,680 Speaker 1: dozens to get his attention. Skip knew where this was headed. 497 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: It was because the situations like these that Skip continued 498 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: to carry his gun, this one a post war p. 499 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: Thirty eight. The men were drawing near, Skip didn't give 500 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 1: them the opportunity to take them down from behind. He 501 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,400 Speaker 1: turned quick, drew his firearm and fired two shots over 502 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,600 Speaker 1: their heads. It was a civilized thing to do. A 503 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:49,800 Speaker 1: younger man would have blown them away, but Skip James 504 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:54,400 Speaker 1: was no longer a younger man. He'd grown matured, given 505 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,840 Speaker 1: up the baptism of fire that was the holy ghost. 506 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: Life was now about taking it easy. He had that agency. 507 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:04,640 Speaker 1: He'd earn that choice. He'd be damned. Two hotheads in 508 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: a back alley were going to take it away from him. 509 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: But women, women were another story. Try as he did, 510 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:15,200 Speaker 1: Skip James couldn't leave the women alone. Despite his advanced age. 511 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: His wife was none the wiser. But that little local girl, 512 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: the one in the delta where By the early nineteen sixties, 513 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 1: Skip and his wife had settled that young girl wouldn't 514 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,040 Speaker 1: keep from coming around his back door. She was wise 515 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: beyond her years, and Skip was caught up in her web. 516 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:33,000 Speaker 1: After they met and had their fun, Skip trod moving on, 517 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,440 Speaker 1: but the young girl wouldn't have any of it. She 518 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 1: told Skip if he left her, she'd see to it 519 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: that that big stick of his would never bring him 520 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 1: any more pleasure. She'd fix them so that he'd never 521 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,840 Speaker 1: be able to fix himself. She'd fix them with a 522 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:51,800 Speaker 1: hex that would have forever changed Skip James. John Faye 523 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: he found his man. Despite the fact that Mississippi locals 524 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,760 Speaker 1: didn't want Skip James around, and despite the fact that 525 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,480 Speaker 1: Skip James didn't want to be found, the fact that 526 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,800 Speaker 1: Skip James hadn't played music in years, John Faye found him, 527 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,440 Speaker 1: and John Faye he brought his discovery with a guitar 528 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: in his hand, Norse to show him off at the 529 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,200 Speaker 1: only place in the world where Skip James would be 530 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: given the proper reception that an authentic bluesman of his 531 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:20,000 Speaker 1: stature warranted, the nineteen sixty four Newport Folk Festival. Skip 532 00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,200 Speaker 1: could not believe the turn his life had taken after 533 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: all those years under the white man's thought. It was 534 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:28,080 Speaker 1: another white man who pushed him out onto the stage 535 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,720 Speaker 1: in front of a sea of white faces, all thumbstruck 536 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:35,040 Speaker 1: by his talent. Skip hadn't played in years. His form 537 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:39,520 Speaker 1: was rough and ragged, but as always true, authentic, heartfelt, 538 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: and wholly unique. He ripped through a short, powerful set, 539 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 1: as was usually the case that the many Jukes Skip 540 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 1: performed at in his past life and on record, his 541 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,840 Speaker 1: song Devil Got My Woman. Whether it's impossible to ignore 542 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: a lyric I'd rather be the Devil was the highlight. 543 00:33:56,400 --> 00:34:00,960 Speaker 1: Skip James scared the shit out of everyone, and backstage 544 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 1: after his set, Skip was feted even among blues grates 545 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,160 Speaker 1: like Muddy Waters and Sunhouse and youthful contemporary folk and 546 00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: country stars like Bob Dylan, Joe Bias, and Johnny Cash. 547 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,760 Speaker 1: Skip James was the toast of Newport. Skip James's world 548 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,880 Speaker 1: had finally turned towards something resembling a life worth living. 549 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,920 Speaker 1: His talent, his gift was finally recognized and about to 550 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: earn him the living he deserved. Nineteen sixty four, freedom 551 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:32,200 Speaker 1: had finally arrived, and so too did Skip James. The 552 00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:36,759 Speaker 1: spoils of success, money, adoration, respect. Women were all there 553 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: for the taking and Skip the orderies were doing their best, 554 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:48,120 Speaker 1: but the patient kept bucking, screaming in agony. The surgeon 555 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 1: had that postop Manhattan on his mind. It was only natural, 556 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,520 Speaker 1: and the ship wasn't worth it, but it was necessary. 557 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,000 Speaker 1: The penis had to go. If it didn't, the cancer 558 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,080 Speaker 1: it house would spread and kill the patient. The patient 559 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: was sixty two year old Skip James, barely a year 560 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:07,280 Speaker 1: after his debut at Newport. In the subsequent fame that followed, 561 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: Skip James was felled by the anger of a young 562 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,799 Speaker 1: Delta woman's hex. She warned him if he left off 563 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,960 Speaker 1: on some of the road without her, she'd fix him. 564 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,960 Speaker 1: So he couldn't fix himself no more, and that's exactly 565 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:24,239 Speaker 1: what happened. Soon after Skip's Newport debut, he noticed the 566 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,759 Speaker 1: growth on the side of his penis, and in early 567 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, at d C General Hospital, Skip James, 568 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,680 Speaker 1: to his great horror, was castrated four miles from the 569 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:39,439 Speaker 1: Washington Monument. The Washington Monument was built in eighteen fifty four. 570 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:44,520 Speaker 1: Its architecture takes its inspiration from ancient Egypt's Monolithic obelis. 571 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:49,120 Speaker 1: Obelis were large, four sided, narrow tapering monuments, consisting of 572 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:53,200 Speaker 1: a single stone and designed to symbolize strength, power, virility. 573 00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:56,839 Speaker 1: There is no mistaking the phallic symbolism of the obelisk, 574 00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:00,319 Speaker 1: and that was no accident. Obelis, like the one of 575 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: ancient Egypt and the one in our nation's capital, were 576 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: also meant to symbolize freedom. And there is perhaps no 577 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,280 Speaker 1: greater American tribute to freedom than the Washington Monument. Skip James, 578 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:13,960 Speaker 1: a man who sought freedom on his own path his 579 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,600 Speaker 1: entire life, and who finally found it at the age 580 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,680 Speaker 1: of sixty two, lost his freedom under the shadow of 581 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:26,760 Speaker 1: that American tribute. And that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, 582 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:42,320 Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland. 583 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in 584 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,440 Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be 585 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod dot com. 586 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,239 Speaker 2: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank 587 00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,359 Speaker 2: you for supporting the show. We reallyppreciate it, and if not, 588 00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 2: you can become a member right now by going to 589 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 2: disgracelampod dot com Slash membership members can listen to every 590 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,480 Speaker 2: episode of disgracelaan Ad free, Plus you'll get one brand 591 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:17,120 Speaker 2: new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episode, special 592 00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:21,440 Speaker 2: audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. 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