In 2003, in the immediate aftermath of America's 'Shock and Awe' bombing campaign in Baghdad, Kristina and I made our way from Jordan into Baghdad and delivered the only gift we had: we carried my oud and we sang Iraqi love songs on the streets of the burning, smoky city... We wanted to be the Americans who came with love instead of weapons... And I had been learning to sing Iraqi love songs for many years already...
What led us there? I think it all began a long long time ago... in Missouri...
But by the time I was twelve, big changes were happening. My father was working in France to develop their nuclear power industry. He fell in love with another woman in Paris. He returned one day to our house in Missouri and something was not right. I sat with him and my mom in a car in our driveway. My mom was crying and my dad seemed cold and distant. I remember telling him, “Dad, just tell her you love her and everything will be fine!”
But he did not respond and remained silent. Soon he was gone. My mother could be seen crying in the kitchen. A friend found her in the garage with the car running. She had been hoping that the exhaust fumes would end her life. Soon she was living in a mental hospital in St. Louis.
I moved in with one of my school friends, Steve Black. I became the youngest of four boys in that family. Steve’s mom was loving and tried to help me from time to time with my homework. Steve’s Dad, whose job was to help make Budweiser beer, snored every night in front of his TV set.
Soon I was struggling to keep up with schoolwork, social life and the expectations of team sports. It didn’t help that I was still the youngest one in my class. I had done well on some silly IQ test when I was four years old and, largely based on the enthusiasm of my proudly intellectual father, it was decided that I should skip kindergarten and enter first grade a year ahead of schedule. Now, as all my classmates charged forward into full-fledged puberty, I was apparently still more like a little kid. But I was a kid with curiosity.
I created some new habits around school. Steve’s older brother would drop us off in front of the school every morning. I would go in and deposit my books in my locker and slip back out the door, walk down the hill to the bus stop and head into downtown St. Louis. I would be back in time to be picked up and driven back home to Steve’s house late in the afternoon, but in the meantime I had had time to explore the city.
I wore a leather jacket and soon learned that cool kids like me walked with shoulders hunched forward so that our heart chakras were closed and protected. I hung out and played pool and snooker and billiards with old men who could spit handily into the brass spittoons.
I became a fan of Virginia ‘ding dong’ Bell and Evelyn West with her ‘million dollar treasure chest’. They both performed regularly in the ‘Grand’ and the ‘World’ burlesque houses. I was mildly interested in their bodies and in their dances which were performed to live music. I can still replay the drums and saxophones in my memory! I wondered about their lifestyles… what did they do when not playing their music? And I kept hoping that the sleazy old comedians would someday actually get funny. They never did but it was still more interesting than school had been.
I learned how to shoplift and soon had a collection of guns, switchblade knives, black leather jackets and automobile-mechanic tools pilfered from the pawn shops.
Ike and Tina Turner were emerging in the music scene. Now that was real dance music. I've never been confused about that again. They weren't called Ike and Tina Turner back then. The band was called “Kings of Rhythm: Ike Turner and the Ikettes.” Tina, whose real name was Anna Mae Bullock was introduced as “Little Ann…” She was in love with the Saxophone player at the time… Had her first baby with him… The two of them did sexy things on stage that were amazing to see. They rocked the house.
I was frequently one of the few white folks in the audience and my body and soul sucked in that amazing energy. That music was so sexy it launched me into a whole brand new world. I was forming my lifelong musical tastes by soaking up this incredible blues-evolving-into-rock energy. I was ready to explore the world looking for whatever might feel good.
Now free by night I made use of the 1949 Ford which my Dad had bought for me for $50 from a junkyard and which I had learned to drive in Kirkwood at the age of twelve. I would park my Ford in Wellston and head for the Lindy Ballroom where Ike Turner was playing and let myself soak it all in. Soon I had a healthy curiosity for discovering more secrets of what the night life could bring.
