Pops

We had one television and it was in my parents room, a big Black & White floor model , coat hanger for an antenna with tin-foil wrapped around the end. I was only allowed to watch one hour a day, Sesame Street then The Electric Company on channel 13.
One Saturday my Pops caught me watching one of those Elvis Presley films on channel 11 and shut it off. “But Daaaaaaaaad, it’s ELVIS!” I protested. He didn’t say much (My Dad never said much) but a little later that month he told me to get ready, that we were going out after dinner, just me and him. We took the subway into Manhattan and walked to one of those little clubs down by Bleeker St. I think it was the Village Gate or the Village Vanguard or something like that. I was the only little kid in the place, and I had no idea why I was there in this tiny, smoke filled, standing room only bar with a buncha grown-ups but I was excited to be out past bedtime.
Then this ancient old lady came out on a stage no bigger than some peoples dining room table and started singing her ass off. When she went into a version of “Hound Dog” I excitedly told my pops “SHE’S SINGING ELVIS’ SONG!” he leaned down and whispered in my ear “Nope, Elvis was singing HER song.” 
I immediately thought he must be bullshitting me, I mean come on… if this old lady wrote Elvis’s biggest hit, shouldn’t she be retired and chilling on a beach somewhere? Or at least playing to big concert halls not this crummy lil stale beer smelling joint.
Gradually it hit me and I was real quiet the whole train ride back to Hoyt Schermehorn. My Pops let me draw my own conclusions. That was his style, he didn’t tell me… he showed me. True Story.

Big Mama

1965

1971

Last Concert
Another evening that stands out in my mind, my Pops took me to the old Thalia movie theatre uptown. Again it was just me and him, I’m not sure why, but looking back it was probably cause I was going through something. Anyway the Thalia was like an art house, they would show foreign films, oldies, stuff you couldn’t see at the Lowes. They had a double bill, which for a ten year-old is like six hours sitting still, but I was enrapt. The double bill was “Black Orpheus” and “The Harder They Come”… blew my little mind.

Orfeu Negro

The Harder they Come, 1973?
Happy Fathers Day.

Love you.