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TRAVELLER WITH REPORT/ INTERVIEW WITH JOHN SINCLAIR 2 of 5 |
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The guy who was different that I remember seeing
on TV was Jackie Wilson. Oh, yeah! I saw Jackie Wilson live, man, when Lonely Teardrops was out. Jackie Wilson was the most exciting act I have ever, ever seen in my life. I can see the show I saw in 1958 in my head just like I was there last night. He was the greatest entertainer I ever known. He was the greatest from Detroit! Ernine D. would bring him down to Flint. He was playing the hell out of his records. So he'd make him come down and do a show at the Flint Armory or the Flint IMA Auditorium. I think I heard a tape of him performing--I think it was around here in New Bedford or Brockton, Mass-not long before he had his stroke on stage. It sounded like he was in top form even though it was just about over. He did? Wow. Well that's the ultimate show business story. Fabulous man. I can see some of the moves he had. He used to rip his shirt off. When I saw him he used to let them rip the shirt off. When you'd go to a Jackie Wilson show at the IMA Auditorium in Flint, Michigan in 1958 -- I was 16 -- first off, it would be like what they call now festival seating. Open floor. And pressed to the stage 20 or 30 deep were the finest black women you ever could possibly imagine seeing in your life all dressed up in the most fantastic finery, beautifully made up hair, beautifully done, and they were just pressed in trying to get close to Jackie Wilson. Twenty deep across the hall probably 400, 500 women. Oooooh man, I'm 16-years-old watching this and my mind is aflame. He had jackets I learned that were tear-away. And he went let them rip his clothes off, his jacket and shirt. He'd be singing a ballad, like Too Be Loved, or something like that. He'd be on his knees on the lip of the stage, he'd be singing this song, and the beautiful process. And he'd be singing this song and these women would just be clawing at him, and tearing his clothes to shreads. And he wouldn't pay the slightest bit of attention to them. Where I came from nothing like that could ever happen. It was just way beyond the cultural matrix I grew up in. Everything about this music really was just so far beyond that. It seemed to me so much more intelligent and colorful, and full of energy and thought and feelings … |
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