Yesterday my friend Ron Holloway -- Gil Scott-Heron's longtime bandmate -- uploaded an excellent Gil Scott-Heron & The Amnesia Express one-hour concert from German TV. Gil was a favorite of ours. He passed in 2011.
That got me thinking about documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge's fine 1982 documentary about Gil: Black Wax. Shot in great part at the old National Wax Museum, it's a winner. Marti and I never visited while it was still a wax museum. By the time we got down there it had been transformed into a cool nightclub called -- of course -- the Wax Museum. We saw everyone from pre-'80s comeback Tina Turner, John Kay (Steppenwolf) and Wilson Pickett to King Sunny Ade there. The astronaut featured in this doc to illustrate Gil's poem, "Whitey on the Moon" was floating over the bar.
I searched late last night and once again YouTube came through. With Black Wax in its entirety:
I searched late last night and once again YouTube came through. With Black Wax in its entirety:
i remember seeing Rickie Lee Jones at the Wax Museum. And I mean really seeing Rickie. My friend Hap and I were in the front row, and Rickie was squatting down as she sang. Hap and I turned to each other and said: "I don't believe she's wearing anything under that skirt."
ReplyDeleteYeah, we saw her in a tiny club here after her Italian dates had been cancelled. She still prides herself in being "street" and kind of a diva. A couple of gay fans from London had come over for the gigs and were dancing up near the stage. She was put out by that; refused to play a second night. I mean, they were just dancing. Put on your fucking "pro" pants, since apparently you're not wearing any.
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