Thursday, September 15, 2011: Koko Taylor - I'd Rather Go Blind

You think you got it bad? You think life's treating you rough?

From the Telegraph's obituary on Koko Taylor, read up on how the Queen Of The Blues came into this world:

"Born Cora Walton on September 28 1928 on a farm near Memphis, she lived with her parents and five brothers and sisters in a "shotgun shack" with neither electricity nor running water. Although never professional singers, her parents used to sing enthusiastically while working the cotton fields, and she began to sing gospel in church. She also soaked up the blues played on local radio, which she and her siblings would surreptitiously perform with improvised home-made instruments, despite their father's opposition. By the time she was 11, both her parents had died and she too was forced to work in the cotton fields."


Muddy Waters said, "I've been in the blues all my life. I'm still delivering 'cause I got a long memory."

So did Ms Taylor.

Here's to long memories. And thank God that we at least got some record of them.