1958 summer Sunday afternoon
David’s room
smoking cigarettes
drinking beer
playing records.
Little Richard
Fats Domino
Chuck Berry
doo-wop
folk
We’re competitive.
I played a Josh White LP
David parried with
“Leadbelly Memorial Volume 1”
Side one began with “Goodnight Irene”
ended with “Man going around taking names.”
Side two started with “John Henry.”
When we got to “See See Rider”
the earth stopped.
Thunderous 12-string guitar intro
(Hawaiian slack-key tuning)
amplified by a powerful baritone
See See Rider
see what you done done
(repeat)
you made me love you
now your man done come.
Naive white boys
transported to the land of
da blues.
We played “See See Rider” until
the room billowed with cigarette smoke and
the beer was gone.
We bonded.
Then our lives took different paths:
Bob, child of privilege
left for Stanford and
the corporate world.
David, child of the 99 percent
went to a local college
dropped out
worked as a house painter
drifted into addiction and
despair.
Real-life blues
David passed 18 years ago.
My kindred spirit.
