(L'Homme Tranquille)
Whether you see him as a heavenly body, in which case he would be an eclipse, or whether you recognise in him a classical figure, lost out of sight during a long Odyssey in the land of show-business, one thing is certain, the past twenty years have certainly been a punitive expedition for him.
At the end of the '60's he was entitled to the big motions in France and he was enjoying the good old days of broadcasting, in the time referred to as 'pop', which generously comprised all music with a more or less Anglo-Saxon sound. At the beginning of the '70's, he was worshiped by travellers on slippers, who through his songs could see a lazy America, shattered by sunlight and crammed with feeling. Crossed by a large river, whose muddy waters were full of drift-ice fertily silting up under names such as Tony Joe, J.J. Cale, Dr John and of course Muddy Waters. In this land of Cockaigne, mojo's were sold at every street corner, the gumbo's post became today's special and a sharp child named Annie was reduced to eating "Polk Salad", while her mother smashed stones wearing a ball and chain around her ankle in the neighbourhood jail. It was a country were poor people retained their dignity, were people helped each other regardless the colours of their skins and at dusk the guitars had difficulty to overcome the noise made by unchained threshing-machines. The days were spend idling, with long drifts in mouldered proa along benumbed streams in which only an artistic line needed to be set up in order to enjoy a vesperal and aromatic banquet. In the world of Tony Joe White, Huck Finn and his friend Jim, the escaped slave, watched the "Proud Mary" of John Fogerty sail whilst dreaming of Tina and her Ikettes who turned this song into their hobby-horse: wandering ministers withdrawing some pocket money from the good people and the woods hiding strong creatures that would have been bewitched if the silly records of the Monument period would not have taken away most of their venom. Listening to Tony Joe White, was giving way to an invitation to ??????
(Missing the last part of this article)
Rock Collector No 7
Sep/Oct 1993
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