I'd Rather Be the Devil Skip James and the Blues

by Calt, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781556527463
• ISBN10: 1556527462
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Summary

Skip James (19021969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.

Author Biography

Stephen Calt is the author of King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton and the coauthor of R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country.

Table of Contents

The Blues Singer	p. 3
The Researcher	p. 7
The Quarry	p. 15
Looking Back	p. 17
Woodbine	p. 23
The Birth Of The Blues	p. 34
The Buck Rabbit	p. 47
The Young Sport	p. 56
The Bootlegger	p. 75
The Musician	p. 87
The Performer	p. 97
The Devil Woman	p. 107
The Songwriter	p. 111
The Murderous Music Cat	p. 122
Recording	p. 133
Greatness At Grafton	p. 138
Releasin's	p. 158
The Convert	p. 165
Devil Got Religion	p. 168
The Prodigal Son	p. 184
Limbo	p. 191
Resumption	p. 206
Recognition	p. 214
The Delta	p. 224
The Prospectors	p. 239
The Folk Movement	p. 252
The Fan	p. 260
Newport	p. 267
Washington	p. 274
The Sick Man	p. 281
Air Puddings	p. 286
The Age of Aquarius	p. 313
The Impostor	p. 332
The Barrel Of Crabs	p. 338
Scorpions	p. 344
The Funeral	p. 347
The Burying Ground	p. 352
The Man Nobody Knew	p. 355
Afterword	p. 365
Transcription: Devil Got My Woman	p. 367
Idioms	p. 369
Subject Index	p. 377
Song Index	p. 383
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