I first heard John Lee Hooker live at the Newport Jazz Festival in the late 1960's. I've been a huge fan ever since.


Satin on The Low Strings

In the beginning were the chords
Seven days of rataplan;
The kind of week that John Lee Hooker
Dreamed in blue and 4/4 time,

Newport on a 90's binge.
Palinodes on saxophone lips
Refusing to look back on Memphis,
Chilling out to Tupelo time.

Spin him a lyric Lady Music,
Camber a tone to smoky heights.
Walk the blues round Jim Beam shores
And drown them in N'Orleans nights.

Riff the waves to inner ear
Like satin on the low strings:
From frets on legacies
Feel the descant fade away.




Poetry by Brian Oarr
Read 695 times
Written on 2010-01-30 at 07:26

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Purple Phoenix
Jim Beam and John Lee Hooker, what more could anyone want? ;-)
2010-01-30