Honeydripper
From Emerging Pictures, coming autumn: Honeydripper, a movie about a juke joint in 1950’s Alabama. Danny Glover plays owner Ty, desperately trying to keep his business going, haunted by the ancient bluesman Possum’s cunning laugh and mournful guitar-picking.
I found this by a mere accident while searching for the lyrics of Cab Calloway’s “Honey Dripper” song. I was instantly hooked by the music theme - this independent production depicts the transition from pre-war blues to rock’n'roll on the local level, from the grassroots perspective.
I especially like some of the location shots with blue-toned flashbacks to the 1930’s (Ty’s dark past?).
There’s also a great film clip available on YouTube where Possum sings “Stagger Lee”.
There’s nothing quite like men in hats. Well, maybe women in hats. People should wear more hats, that’s all I’m saying.
A few days ago I also checked out the website of Black Snake Moan, another blues-themed movie in a contemporary setting, with Samuel L. Jackson. Now that sounds cool, of course, but I don’t really like the weird exploitative attitude towards Christina Ricci’s character, a wayward and sexually provocative girl who is “tamed” by Jackson’s depressed divorcee character. A lot of the publicity revolves around a scene where she is chained to the heater in his house, or he pulls her around on the chain out in his yard. It is a very strong image, and I understand the urge to deal with “taboo” themes in US society such as the historically traumatic relationship between white women (presumed victim) and black men (default perpetrator), but for me it only reinforces another set of stereotypes. If the purpose is to depict black men as strong of character and able to help themselves and others in meaningful ways, why does it have to happen along the old cliché of “older man teaches young woman the error of her ways in titillating situations”? We don’t need to deal with racial stereotypes by replacing them with gender clichés. Of course, the movie ends with both ending up with appropriate spouse candidates, so the audience never really has to worry about miscegenation or love across generations. I’m also reminded of the old erroneous belief that it is a helpful thing to slap a hysterical person in the face. It is NOT helpful and it might make matters worse for the panicked person. The same principle ought to cover chaining people up to heaters etc. That’s why I get an annoyed feeling of “exploitation” - seeing a girl in chains just makes me feel funny that way.
Now, I haven’t seen the movie, but the way it has been advertised certainly does not speak to me. On the other hand… there’s Mr Jackson’s version of Black Snake Moan. Who am I to tell the master what to do, but he would look - and sound! - fine in a prewar blues movie of any kind.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:54 am
Ha ha, the screencaps of Samuel L. Jackson as an old grandpa yanking that chain seem almost involuntarily funny …
I assume there is supposed to be a lot of sexual undertones (I mean, “BLACK SNAKE moan”?), but with an old grandpa dominating a young girl, that’s just … I don’t know. It’s bizarre, at least the impression I get from the promotional materials.
But Jackson’s blues is not so bad. From the Bible quote in Pulp Fiction we knew he had potential.
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hmm, there might also be the ‘traumatic historical motif’ of black slaves in chains and white masters with the keys, and how the roles are ‘reversed’ in this movie. (But, of course, it would make much more sense if the roles were not an older, strong black man and a young, confused white girl, in which relationship there is a considerable power imbalance anyway.)
I almost want to see it just to find out if it’s really as silly as the website makes it out to be …
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 pm
One would think Mr Jackson has had enough of snakes after that Snakes In A Plane madness…
Anyway, about sexual undertones in classic blues… The original lyrics of That Black Snake Moan sung by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926 go something like this:
//Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin’ in my room//
Some pretty mama better come and get this black snake soon
And:
Mmm, mmm, what’s the matter now?
Mmm, mmm, honey what’s the matter now?
Sugar, what’s the matter, don’t like no black snake no how
//Mmm, mmm, wonder where my black snake gone?//
Black snake mama done run my darlin’ home
It would be easy to guess that the black snake is a masculine sexual symbol, but sometimes it sounds like the snake is the sexual encounter, not the man himself. A bit like the infamous “jelly roll”, which is sometimes offered by women and sometimes by men.
Compare John Lee Hooker’s Crawling Kingsnake from the 1950’s…
You know I’m gon’ crawl up to your window baby,
wanna crawl up to your door, you got anything I want baby,
wanna crawl up on your floor
Because I’m a crawlin’ king snake baby, and I rules my den
…with Memphis Minnie’s lovely Stinging Snake Blues, where the snakes first seem like nightmares or worries bothering her in her sleep, and then the “stinging snake” takes on a completely different character.
//This house is full of stinging snakes, crawling all in my bed//
I can’t rest at night from them crawling all under my head
//I got up this morning, one stung me on my leg//
I can’t sleep at night because they keeps me awake
//Hmmmmmm, wonder where my stinging snake gone?//
I can’t see no peace since my stinging snake left me home
//I got a stinging snake, I love sometimes better than I do myself//
If the Lord has to take him, I won’t be stung by nobody else
Oddly, Guy B. Johnson’s article “Double Meaning in the Popular Negro Blues” in The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. XXII, No. 1, 1927, claims that “Symbols for the male organs are more difficult to find and it is doubtful [...] if there is a clear-cut example of male symbolism in the blues.” Somebody wasn’t paying attention… It’s a pretty hilarious article, judging by the synopsis.