- Benny Hambush
Second, I found a great "random books in stacks" second hand bookshop next to Naturally Negros (home of amazing deaf made Guihuingan honey and spicy atchara). I picked up a 190? copy of Thackeray's Pendennis for 150 pesos––inscribed in beautiful, India ink cursive: "Dorothy Davison, Spingholme, Stockton-on-Jees 24/12/08."
I did not purchase this $3 find on impulse, but after a week carefully scouting out whether I had it in my heart to separate it from its bookseller.**
The best thing about the book (have yet to get to the words beyond a slightly well-worn Chapter One) is tucked in the back. A full color thick-stock portrait of a woman sexier than any early 2000s hipster starlet, accompanied by a poem teaser by P.T.O. "It Might Have Been" (Her Joy was Duty, And Love was Law).
This is the beautiful thing about having no camera. I cannot post a picture, I must find words for this interesting find.
Paradise Regained, balance restored, just around #independentbookstoreday.
Lacking the interplay of other ace musicians, the beginning noodle it is only a quarter as interesting, but striking nonetheless. What really strikes me is Hendrix playing little slow blues progressions and Curtis Mayfield trills to the template that "a cat named Dylan" set down. Beautiful.
Now, Jimi is singing the words with real conviction––one forgets that he was only a couple years from starving on the street. Greenwich Village scrounging days, "revenge best served cold" yada yada.
This is all before Herbie Rich makes his presence known on bluesy, haunting Hammond B-3 organ. Seriously waxing it down. And Jimi signals his appreciation by laying out and performing some of the most amazing mid-1960s Stax soul runs ever. Bone-chilling Curtis vibrations.
Then it is on to aggressive back-to-the-races "super climax" Hendrix, which I find to be his weak point. Then again, I am not 23 any longer.
**Authenticity trumps greed.
***Photo is from an Allan Tannenbaum gallery at SohoBlues.
#endurancewriter (aka Nomad Regneb Nelush).