Mister Satan's Apprentice

429 Pages·2016·16.63 MB·English

by  Adam Gussow

MISTER SATAN'S APPRENTICE
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MISTER SATAN'S
APPRENTICE
A B L U ES M E M O IR
ADAM GUSSOW
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS
LONDON
Originally published in 1998 by Pantheon Books
First University of Minnesota Press edition, 2009
Copyright 1998 Adam Gussow
Preface to the New Edition copyright 2009 Adam Gussow
Photographs are from the author's collection unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gussow, Adam.
Mister Satan's apprentice : a blues memoir / Adam Gussow. —
1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Pantheon Books, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8166-6775-8 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Gussow, Adam. 2. Blues musicians—United States—Biography.
3. Mister Satan, 1936- I. Title.
ML419.G83A3 2009
781.643092—dc22
[B]
2009029423
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my father, Alan Gussow (1931-1997)
Earth-friend
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C O N T E N TS
Preface to the New Edition • ix
Prologue: 1969 • 3
P A RT O N E: N EW L I FE
1. If That Don't Bring Her Back • 9
2. Everybody in Harlem Knows Satan • 29
3. Young Man with a Horn • 44
4. No Bad Fella • 59
5. White Boys • 69
P A RT T W O: P R E T TY G I R LS
6. Roaming • 97
7. Downhearted Blues • 119
8. "La Belle Dame sans Merci" • 138
9. Sweet Harlem Summer • 161
P A RT T H R E E: B IG R I V ER
10. Labor Day • 187
11. Going Someplace • 203
12. Catfish on the Raft • 221
13. A Gentle, Fumbling Thing • 236
14. Ball of Fire • 247
15. Back Down Yonder • 275
P A RT F O U R: H OT T O WN
16. Do the Right Thing • 293
17. Billed Out • 310
18. Angel Sound • 327
P A RT F I V E: H A R L EM B L U ES
19. The Same Old Mess • 355
20. What We've Been Trying For, All These Years • 368
Epilogue: April 1998 • 393
Thanks • 397
Permissions Acknowledgments • 399
PREFACE TOPREFACE TO
T HE N EW E D I T I ON
wHEN i SAT DOWN in the fall of 1995 to write the
memoir that would become Mister Satan's Apprentice, I
felt the pressures of what journalists were fond of calling
"America's racial divisions" weighing on me like a clear and present
danger. O. J. Simpson had just been acquitted in the killing of his
ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. Many African Ameri-
cans responded with glee, viewing O.J. as a latter-day Staggolee
who beat the (white) system at its own game thanks to the brilliant
forensics of his black lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran, and the overt
racism of Los Angeles cop Mark Fuhrman. Most white Americans
viewed the same acquittal with incredulity and rage. Not guilty? Were
blacks crazy? Or were whites simply beginning to taste the crest-
fallen disillusionment in a "justice system" that black folk had known
for far too long? Newsweek proclaimed, "Whites v. Blacks: Were We
Watching the Same Trial? After the Verdict, the Two Communities
Talked Past Each Other, with Passionate Misunderstanding."
I was a second-year English graduate student at Princeton Uni-
versity when the verdict came in. Less than an hour after it arrived,
ix