From: Cathi Norton Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 13:22:15 -0500 Subject: Bell interview (long!)
Hello harpers....
Here's an interview with Carey Bell -- mighty long -- so delete now if you can't stand it! Love you...
Cathi N.
Follow that Mule
By Cathi Norton
There's no treat quite like talking with a blues old-timer. I confess all thoughts of finding out exactly what gear or technique is used flees in the face of the opportunity to share time -- which is always at a premium after they have found some measure of hard-won success. And so it was when I spoke with Carey Bell during the Memphis-in-May Beale St. Festival. Freshly returned from Hong Kong, Bell delivered a driving show with his backup band, and met with me afterwards -- clearly excited by the crowd's obvious appreciation of his music.
Carey Bell, born Carey Bell Harrington, on November 14, 1936 in Macon, MS., worked on a farm and taught himself harp at age eight before running away from home at 14 to play country and western music in Meridian, MS. After relocating to Chicago with his "stepfather" Lovey Lee in the mid-'50s, he has since worked steadily as a mainstay of harmonica blues. Building a solid reputation as an innovative player with a style all his own, Carey has performed with just about everybody who crossed his path (Little and Big Walter, Johnny Young, Eddie Taylor, Earl Hooker, John Lee Hooker, Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, etc. etc.) A generous, unassuming man, seemingly in great health and spirits, Carey graciously showed me to a quiet, cool room (gosh it was hot in Memphis that day!) for an interview.
Cathi:
It's good to see you.
Carey:
You saw me before!?!??
Cathi:
Yeah! Back in Chicago. Long time ago.
Carey:
No kiddin'!? I didn't see YOU!
Cathi:
Well, you did, but you don't remember me, see, cause I was good lookin' then (laughs).
Carey:
Oh (looks at me)...you better lookin' now!
Cathi: (Laughs)...well thanks sweetheart.
Carey:
'Cause you older...older you get the better lookin' you get...
Cathi:
I think that's true (laughter).
Carey:
Yeah,...I bet you know more too!
Cathi:
I bet you're right.
Carey:
(Cackles)
Cathi:
I was reading that when you were coming up you played with Lovey Lee. Did you go up to Chicago with him? Lovey Lee was your stepfather?
Carey:
Yeah, when I was a kid....we came to Chicago....Yeah...actually we went as a...he wasn't really my stepfather -- he took me in when I run away from home. So we just started a-callin' "Dad" and "Son" you know.
Cathi:
I reading that you've played bass, drums, and guitar as well as harp.
Carey:
Used to.
Cathi:
Used to? Did you do that when you were comin' up? But you started harp when you were real young though?
Carey:
I was eight years old. That was my first instrument.
Cathi:
And you played with a gospel group?
Carey;
No...I played Western and Country. But I played with a gospel group, playing guitar for about six months in Chicago. I couldn't get the guitar to work right like I wanted and I quit. And I picked up the bass...and that worked it right -- pretty good.
Cathi:
I see. Well, then you worked at the Club Zanzibar with Little Walter?
Carey:
OH! Yeah, that's the first time I met Little Walter.
Cathi:
Tell me about him a little bit.
Carey:
Oh I say I knowed that...I knowed we'd talk about him (laughter)...It was okay...it was neat; we had a lot of fun together.
Cathi:
Well, what'd you do when you played with him? Play bass?
Carey:
No..played harp.
Cathi:
You played harp and so did he?
Carey:
No he sung.
Cathi:
(Laughs) Oh! You played harp and he sang?!?
Carey:
He did the song and I played 'em. Well, he played harp, but ah...see when he would let me sit in, I was under his thumb...he'd say "I'm 'onna sing"...and he called me "Junior." He's say "Well, you play the harp, Junior, you know more songs." I used to play identical like Walter.
Cathi:
I heard that Luther Allison played harp too. And I wondered how everybody worked that -- when there was a bunch of harps in the same group. You took turns?
Carey:
That's easy.... No you don't take turns. It's like when Luther was the guitar player, well, Luther wouldn't play his harp--he had to play his guitar while Walter'd do his thing, you know. He wasn't hired as a harp player; he was hired as a guitar player for Walter. Well, Walter hired him...you know...that's what he hired him...to play guitar, not harp (laughs).
Cathi:
(Laughter) You came up with just about everybody, like Eddie Taylor -- you played with him in '66.
CareY;
Yeah...we had a band together.
Cathi:
In Chicago in those days the economics were pretty hard and people were scramblin'...
Carey:
I found a day job, and you know I quit playing for awhile too. That was in the '60s...'61 to '65. Naw...I came to Chicago in 1956 and I was too young to go into the bars; I wasn't but 17 then. And it was hard for me to go in places to play 'cause I wasn't old enough. And that's when I got hired by Little Walter. I went to Zanzibar and they wouldn't let me in. Honeyboy Edwards took me there, and Little Walter come out and he got me in the bar. And the owner/manager told Little Walter -- said "You got to sit him back there in the back with you."
But anyway, back at that time I had a job -- I found a job washing cars then just two days a week -- Saturdays and Sundays. And during that time I had a kitchenette -- it wasn't but $14 a week. And I could make $40-50 or more at the car wash with tips...so I was cool with that.
Cathi:
(Laughs) You were makin' out! Makin' any money on the weekends?
Carey:
Yeah...1969 the first good job I had was in San Francisco with Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield and we played at the Fillmore -- that was GREAT! Came back and stayed 'bout a week and then went to Paris with Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker -- as a bass player -- and Lowell Fulson....and that was great. And so I came back and still found another day job. I actually worked at a day job up until 'round '75 I believe it was. You know what? I knowed there was something in this world better for me than a day job.
This IS a job, but I don't punch no clock. I set my time - -- sometime -- sometime I don't set my time: they set my time, when they hirin'. But you know, like now it's hot; it's hot; but I love it -- I love what I'm doin'.
I didn't like plyin' that mule. See, I'm from Mississippi. I lived on a farm; I had two mules and I got tired of walkin' 'round with them mules. Them mules were doin' something awful!
Cathi:
(Laughs)
Carey:
...and I had to...ack (lifts his feet as if to shake something off) -- if you know what I mean! (Laughs) And I said "Now I know I gotta do something but this here!" Peoples was drivin' down the highways, 100 in the shade...peoples was blowin' their horn and wavin' at us. And I prayed to the good Lord would it rain...Oh God... It would cloud up (heaves a hearty sigh)...and God..."please let it rain!" Send the rain down (laughter).
Cathi:
(Laughter) Well, at least the car wash was cleaner huh?
Carey:
Yeah (laughs).
Cathi:
So you went over to Europe with John Lee and Hound Dog Taylor in '69?
Carey:
Yeah...first time I went. Oh yeah..Hound Dog. Me and Hound Dog -- we started -- we used to do everything together...besides getting drunk. We used to get drunk every Sunday...
Cathi:
(Laughs) After work was done?
Carey:
No...before work (laughter)...
Cathi:
And then Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars -- I loved Willie Dixon!
Carey:
Yeah, I loved him so much I married his daughter. (Laughs)
Cathi:
(Laughter) Then I bet you REALLY loved him!
Carey:
Wellllllll...yes, 'til I lost my mind!
Cathi:
You lost your mind?!?
Carey:
Yes,...we'd been married two years -- got married on Easter Sunday...this Easter Sunday was two years, and I ain't found my mind yet!
Cathi:
(Laughter) Does she like that -- a crazy man?
Carey:
Well, she like anything...you know that Muddy Water's recording "I got a rich man's woman livin' on a poor man's pay?" That where she at....that where she at. (Laughs)
Cathi:
So were you inspired to play music just because you were looking for something that was fun to do?
Carey:
No..no-no-no...when I first got my harmonica I wasn't lookin' to make a career out of it; I just wanted to play it. And 'round '49 or '50 or something like that there was a guy at school who played, and I wanted to play one. I used to take my lunch money and give it to him -- give him my lunch money to teach me how to play. And I would go to the grocery store -- my peoples had an account -- and I would take food, like baloney and stuff like lunchmeat and put it on their bill!
Cathi:
(Laughs)
Carey:
Yeah, but then my peoples caught up with it -- that I was doing this -- gettin' stuff and puttin' it on their bill. And that was all right. Yeah, I didn't care. But I got a whuppin' though! I got a whuppin'!
Cathi:
(laughter) Well.....I guess that was worth it huh?
Carey;
And then, you know, it was funny. At lunch time he played harp...you know, playing around with the kids, and there were some trees where they had cut the trees down -- wasn't nothing left but stumps. Then he would sit on that stump and be blowin' his harps. And have all the little girls 'round him.
Cathi:
Oooooh!
Carey:
And I wanted THAT too!
Cathi:
(Laughter)
Carey:
I got to learn how to play this harp where I can teach them girls!!!
Cathi:
(Laughter) There's lots of folks who learned for girls huh?
Carey:
Yeah! I know what you mean. Well...you don't know 'bout that! You don't know 'bout the boys....well, you DO know 'bout the boys, but you know....
Cathi:
(Laughter)
Carey:
...you be amazin' at how little boys lookin' at you when you was a kid going to school.
Cathi:
Well, I've heard stories of this!
Carey:
(Laughter) YEAH! Anyway...I would be in class and hold my hand up like this (raises hand)..."Could I be excused to go to the bathroom?" I wouldn't go to the bathroom -- I would go to the bathroom and stand behind it...it was one of those outer bathrooms -- didn't have 'em like now. And I would stand behind it and be playin' my harp. And the kids would come out and "Ah...Carey back out there -- behind the toilet...blowin' harp" -- yeah! (Laughs)
Cathi:
Did you get whipped?
Carey:
That was when they whupped kids. And the principal said "This is awful; I gotta spank you!" See then it wasn't no spankin' -- it was a whuppin'!
Cathi:
So did you play juke joints in the south....?
Carey:
Oh yeah, that's all they had! They didn't have nothin' else. It was just called one of them Saturday night fish fries you know?
Cathi:
Rent parties?
Carey:
Oh yeah, you'd go out to somebody's house and play. We'd play at schools and sometimes actually a club, but that was it.
Cathi:
I was going to ask you what it was like to play in a hillbilly band. You didn't have any trouble playing with them?
Carey:
Oh that was great! I made more money than they did. I was the only black dude down there going in the front door. And I was playing with them and peoples would throw money on the stage. And the band leader'd say: "That's your money buddy; pick it up." And at the end of the night I'd have more money than they did!
Cathi:
(Laughs). What about Maxwell St. (in Chicago)? You played down there I know. Down there with the bargains (laughs).
Carey:
It's what you call it! If you wanted to find somebody, you go over to Maxwell on Sundays. Just hang around -- somebody will show up! If you haven't seen 'em in years and years -- but if they lived in Chicago, just hang out on Sunday, you'll see 'em.
Cathi:
Last time I was down there some guy came up to me and said "Would you like a watch? I can't take 'em back!" He had a pile of watches all up and down his arms!
Carey:
Oh...let me tell you what I did.... I bought some rings and thought I had something. He said "Look man...give me $15 for these here -- go put 'em somewhere -- go hide 'em." I gits a cab and go all the way home -- think I got something. And I think my wife wore 'em one day or two days, washed dishes with 'em and the set fell out! (Laughs) I think the hot water with the dishes melted the glue!
Cathi:
Well, you know you played down there at the Peanut Barrel in Bloomington (Indiana) -- do you remember that? You might not, but this band called The Cooler Kings played in front of you and they had a harp player ...
CareY;
What was the harp player's name you know?
Cathi:
Stuart Norton...He's my husband.
Carey:
You kiddin'!! Where he at?!?
Cathi:
He wanted me to be sure and tell you hello. He wanted me to tell you that he was jammin' with you after the gig -- and he said "Well, me and Carey got into this head-cuttin' contest...."
Carey:
HA!!!! (Laughs)
Cathi:
"...and Carey kicked my ass." He said "I was blowin' pretty good but then Carey did this thing and I just said 'forget it -- you win'!" (Laughter)
Carey:
(Laughter) I want to send him something (fishes promo picture out of case & signs it).
Cathi:
(sees Carey's autograph and laughs)....Now that's good -- now I'm going to have to get him to frame that "You've got a good wife." That'll be up in the livingroom! Thank you.
Carey:
(Laughs) You welcome....now tell your husband that I'm ready for another jam session with him!
Cathi:
I will! What have you been doing lately, Carey -- recording?
Carey;
I'm due to go in the studio any day -- as soon as I get the numbers to go. Soon as I get time; I'm so booked up -- soon as I get a little chance. I'm always playing....
Cathi:
So playing, for you has been a matter of keeping working? - -- playing whatever side thing you needed to, to....
Carey;
I played with everybody where I could make some money! It didn't matter...if it'd been a MULE, I'd a played behind HIM (Laughs)
