• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

What smoking music are you listening to? (2024)

I got to Memphis in the first week of October 1975. One of the first people I met was Sgt. Pratt who helped me unload my car. As I mentioned in my last story he was from Memphis and knew the town fairly well or knew people that did. While he wasn't too impressed with hauling the five 65lb boxes that comprised my record collection at the time, he was a bit surprised that this northern white boy would have any blues records let alone the 25-30 I had.

Pratt and I lived like kings considering we were in the Corps. The Navy was going from sprawling 2 story barracks complex to high rise complete with elevators. Unheard of for us. They also decided that having some senior enlisted stay in the empty complex would be a good idea so they put 2 Marine Sergeants in 2 of the 4 barracks and 2 First Class Sailors in each of the other two. By locking the double doors leading to the common area and the door to the one stairway we effectively made an apartment that was 30x70' of what would have been an open squad bay, had a bathroom with 10 sinks 5 toilets, 5 urinals and a 15 head shower room plus there was a 20x30 deck above what used to be the admin offices. I took a while but we got some rugs, furniture, a fridge, a toaster oven, hot plate and a quad audio system set up. We even got a grill and some outdoor furniture for the deck. All we had to do was check that all the outside doors were locked once in the morning and once at night and sign off on the security sheet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. While Pratt and I were building our kingdom he mentioned he was going to go to the Tennessee International Blues Festival and wondered if I wanted to go along with him, his brother and another friend. Sure I said. I don't know how the came up with the name of "The Tennessee International Blues Festival" since there were no internationals and it was only about 6 hours long. Tickets were $6 (about $32 today). So Saturday November 8th comes around and we both pile in his Galaxy 500 to go pick up his brother and friend. Chuck hadn't told them I was white and there was some tension in the car until I joined in about Richard Pryor & Moms Mabley and they decided I wasn't a complete cracker.

We got there about 3 and there was some local band who was replaced with another seemingly every 30 minutes until about 6:45 when there started to be some activity on the main stage. The place was pretty full, probably sold out for the configuration or about 12 of the 15,000 it would hold Bobby "Blue" Bland came out first and while I knew of him I hadn't heard him sing. Bobby had recorded with the next act - Albert King who is much bigger than I thought. You could see the cords on the back of his hand not only holding the chord he wanted but bending the neck of the guitar at times like he was forcing it to play what he wanted. Bobby sat in and sang a few songs with Albert as he did with the headliner B.B. King. BB started with Let The Good Times Roll and the crowd was in the palm of his hand. A master showman he talked about the dives and Juke Joints he played in Memphis years before. Why I sing the Blues and How Blue Can You Get were in the set - I recognized them fom the records I owned. By 10 it was over and we went to a chicken shack they knew and fed this boy some of the best shredded BBQ chicken he ever had.

From the actual show

 
Last edited:
AVB said:
I got to Memphis in the first week of October 1975. One of the first people I met was Sgt. Pratt who helped me unload my car. As I mentioned in my last story he was from Memphis and knew the town fairly well or knew people that did. While he wasn't too impressed with hauling the five 65lb boxes that comprised my record collection at the time, he was a bit surprised that this northern white boy would have any blues records let alone the 25-30 I had.

Pratt and I lived like kings considering we were in the Corps. The Navy was going from sprawling 2 story barracks complex to high rise complete with elevators. Unheard of for us. They also decided that having some senior enlisted stay in the empty complex would be a good idea so they put 2 Marine Sergeants in 2 of the 4 barracks and 2 First Class Sailors in each of the other two. By locking the double doors leading to the common area and the door to the one stairway we effectively made an apartment that was 30x70' of what would have been an open squad bay, had a bathroom with 10 sinks 5 toilets, 5 urinals and a 15 head shower room plus there was a 20x30 deck above what used to be the admin offices. I took a while but we got some rugs, furniture, a fridge, a toaster oven, hot plate and a quad audio system set up. We even got a grill and some outdoor furniture for the deck. All we had to do was check that all the outside doors were locked once in the morning and once at night and sign off on the security sheet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. While Pratt and I were building our kingdom he mentioned he was going to go to the Tennessee International Blues Festival and wondered if I wanted to go along with him, his brother and another friend. Sure I said. I don't know how the came up with the name of "The Tennessee International Blues Festival" since there were no internationals and it was only about 6 hours long. Tickets were $6 (about $32 today). So Saturday November 8th comes around and we both pile in his Galaxy 500 to go pick up his brother and friend. Chuck hadn't told them I was white and there was some tension in the car until I joined in about Richard Pryor & Moms Mabley and they decided I wasn't a complete cracker.

We got there about 3 and there was some local band who was replaced with another seemingly every 30 minutes until about 6:45 when there started to be some activity on the main stage. The place was pretty full, probably sold out for the configuration or about 12 of the 15,000 it would hold Bobby "Blue" Bland came out first and while I knew of him I hadn't heard him sing. Bobby had recorded with the next act - Albert King who is much bigger than I thought. You could see the cords on the back of his hand not only holding the chord he wanted but bending the neck of the guitar at times like he was forcing it to play what he wanted. Bobby sat in and sang a few songs with Albert as he did with the headliner B.B. King. BB started with Let The Good Times Roll and the crowd was in the palm of his hand. A master showman he talked about the dives and Juke Joints he played in Memphis years before. Why I sing the Blues and How Blue Can You Get were in the set - I recognized them fom the records I owned. By 10 it was over and we went to a chicken shack they knew and fed this boy some of the best shredded BBQ chicken he ever had.

From the actual show

Click to expand...
Great story, Albert King was amazing! This is one of my favorites… @AVB you got any insight on this session? I have watched this thing a dozen times over the years.
 
AVB said:
I got to Memphis in the first week of October 1975. One of the first people I met was Sgt. Pratt who helped me unload my car. As I mentioned in my last story he was from Memphis and knew the town fairly well or knew people that did. While he wasn't too impressed with hauling the five 65lb boxes that comprised my record collection at the time, he was a bit surprised that this northern white boy would have any blues records let alone the 25-30 I had.

Pratt and I lived like kings considering we were in the Corps. The Navy was going from sprawling 2 story barracks complex to high rise complete with elevators. Unheard of for us. They also decided that having some senior enlisted stay in the empty complex would be a good idea so they put 2 Marine Sergeants in 2 of the 4 barracks and 2 First Class Sailors in each of the other two. By locking the double doors leading to the common area and the door to the one stairway we effectively made an apartment that was 30x70' of what would have been an open squad bay, had a bathroom with 10 sinks 5 toilets, 5 urinals and a 15 head shower room plus there was a 20x30 deck above what used to be the admin offices. I took a while but we got some rugs, furniture, a fridge, a toaster oven, hot plate and a quad audio system set up. We even got a grill and some outdoor furniture for the deck. All we had to do was check that all the outside doors were locked once in the morning and once at night and sign off on the security sheet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. While Pratt and I were building our kingdom he mentioned he was going to go to the Tennessee International Blues Festival and wondered if I wanted to go along with him, his brother and another friend. Sure I said. I don't know how the came up with the name of "The Tennessee International Blues Festival" since there were no internationals and it was only about 6 hours long. Tickets were $6 (about $32 today). So Saturday November 8th comes around and we both pile in his Galaxy 500 to go pick up his brother and friend. Chuck hadn't told them I was white and there was some tension in the car until I joined in about Richard Pryor & Moms Mabley and they decided I wasn't a complete cracker.

We got there about 3 and there was some local band who was replaced with another seemingly every 30 minutes until about 6:45 when there started to be some activity on the main stage. The place was pretty full, probably sold out for the configuration or about 12 of the 15,000 it would hold Bobby "Blue" Bland came out first and while I knew of him I hadn't heard him sing. Bobby had recorded with the next act - Albert King who is much bigger than I thought. You could see the cords on the back of his hand not only holding the chord he wanted but bending the neck of the guitar at times like he was forcing it to play what he wanted. Bobby sat in and sang a few songs with Albert as he did with the headliner B.B. King. BB started with Let The Good Times Roll and the crowd was in the palm of his hand. A master showman he talked about the dives and Juke Joints he played in Memphis years before. Why I sing the Blues and How Blue Can You Get were in the set - I recognized them fom the records I owned. By 10 it was over and we went to a chicken shack they knew and fed this boy some of the best shredded BBQ chicken he ever had.

From the actual show

Click to expand...

Great story. He even had a pipe, which ties in great here!
 
TexasTraveler said:
Great story, Albert King was amazing! This is one of my favorites… @AVB you got any insight on this session? I have watched this thing a dozen times over the years.
Click to expand...
I got nothing that hasn't been published already. I one I like is that Albert wasn't really thrilled about this and not at all impressed with Stevie's "showboating" style until one point in the rehearsals where Albert was heard to say, "That boy understands" or so the stoy goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top