Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (111 page)

27
“singing around [different] places”: Margurite Belafonte, “Eye to Eye with Sam Cook,”
Amsterdam News,
December 21, 1957.

28
“He didn’t bother about playing ball”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with Reverend Charles Cook, 1995.

28
Then one day in the spring of 1947: In addition to my interview with Creadell Copeland, Barbara Cooke interview with Lee Richard, ca. 1984-1985.

“THE TEEN AGE HIGHWAY QUE CEES, RADIO AND CONCERT ARTISTS”

34
the “first all-Negro spiritual gospel concert”:
Chicago Defender,
October 14, 1950.

35
“The competition was
very
strong”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with J.W. Alexander, 1995.

35
an organization conceived as a kind of clearinghouse: Background on the formation of the National Quartet Convention (which is alternately referred to as either the National Quartet Union or Association) is derived primarily from my interview with R.H. Harris and Opal Louis Nations’ interview with Abraham Battle as well as Kip Lornell’s
“Happy in the Service of the Lord”: Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis,
pp. 84-85 in particular.

36
a focal point for the teenage gospel movement: Everyone recalls 3838 South State, and the hard-fought gospel “battles,” but specifics on the day of the week, the size of the room, and the price of admission differ widely. For such a well-known venue, 3838 elicits a host of conflicting descriptions.

36
J.W. Alexander would always recall the first time he saw Sam singing: The one point of confusion here is whether or not this was a program that the Pilgrim Travelers headlined. J.W. recalled that it was, but more likely it was a drop-by situation, since both the Soul Stirrers and the Pilgrim Travelers had their own money-making programs to publicize. Gus Treadwell of the QCs remembered meeting J.W. at 3838, and J.W., whose recollections were almost invariably, and uncannily, accurate, believed that that first meeting came relatively early in Sam’s tenure with the QCs, before R.B. Robinson started coaching them. In a ca. 1973 interview with
Blues & Soul
124, he recalled a second meeting at a radio station broadcast some two years later, once again in passing. The Travelers appeared on the Soul Stirrers’ radio show on WIND whenever they were in Chicago for a program, and by 1950 the QCs had a show of their own immediately following the Stirrers on the same station.

43
the all-star musicale at Holiness Community Temple in May:
Chicago Defender,
May 1, 1948. Gus Treadwell is listed as a guest artist, presumably to pad the bill. There is extensive background on the Gay Sisters in Opal Louis Nations, “The Gay Sisters,”
Blues Gazette,
summer 1996.

45
“I just sat there, and I was spellbound”: Daniel Wolff with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum,
You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke,
p. 52.

45
“He approached us at a church program”: Which program this was remains a subject of speculation. Louis Tate simply told gospel researcher Ray Funk that it was “one of the major programs in Chicago.” L.C. Cooke and Marvin Jones both recalled the occasion as a church program in Gary. Creadell Copeland spoke of playing Gary frequently prior to meeting Tate. Daniel Wolff, in his book
You Send Me,
posited that the meeting took place at the Soul Stirrers’ September 26, 1948, program at DuSable, with the Flying Clouds and the Fairfield Four on the bill. The QCs were not advertised on that program, but that doesn’t altogether rule out the possibility.

46
“He’d eat it, sleep it, walked it, talked it”: Ray Funk interview with Louis Tate. This, and the Wolff interview quoted below, conducted by David Tenenbaum, are virtually identical in subject and language.

46
“He’d wake up at twelve [midnight], one o’clock, two o’clock”: Wolff,
You Send Me,
pp. 60-61.

46
“he’d did his thing long enough”: Wolff,
You Send Me,
p. 59.

47
its first state program of 1949:
Indianapolis Recorder,
May 14, 1949.

49
That was the summer . . . that they went to Memphis: Primary sources for the QCs’ sojourn in Memphis were interviews with Reverend Gatemouth Moore, Essie Wade, Cornelia (Connie) Berry, Dan Taylor of the Southern Jubilees, and, of course, the QCs themselves. Also Ray Funk’s interview with Louis Tate, Peter Lee, and David Nelson, “From Shoutin’ the Blues to Preachin’ the Word: Bishop Arnold Dwight ‘Gatemouth’ Moore,”
Living Blues,
May/June 1989; Kip Lornell,
“Happy in the Service of the Lord”;
Louis Cantor,
Wheelin’ on Beale: How WDIA-Memphis Became the Nation’s First All-Black Radio Station and Created the Sound that Changed America;
and Doug Seroff’s notes for the album
“Bless My Bones”: Memphis Gospel Radio, The Fifties
(Rounder 2063) along with the album itself.

49
a public conversion onstage: “‘Gatemouth’ Moore,”
Ebony,
December 1949; see also Mike Streissguth, “Gatemouth Moore,”
Goldmine,
July 31, 1998.

49
a revival at the . . . seven-thousand-seat home church, Mason Temple:
Memphis World,
July 29, 1949.

49
“the Memphis boy who skyrocketed to world fame”: “Former Noted Blues Singer Returning to Memphis as Gospel Singer and Preacher,”
Memphis World,
July 29, 1949; see also Nat D. Williams, “Beale Street’s ‘Gate’” in his “Down on Beale” column,
Pittsburgh Courier,
January 21, 1950.

51
a Women’s Day program sponsored by R.H. Harris’ wife:
Chicago Defender,
June 4, 1949.

51
Sam was taken with the singing of Cassietta Baker: Interviews with L.C. Cooke and Marvin Jones.

51
the Reverend Brewster . . . an extraordinary preacher and polymath: Information and quotes about the Reverend Brewster come primarily from Bernice Johnson Reagon, ed.,
We’ll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers,
particularly the section on Reverend Brewster, with contributions by Reagon, Horace Boyer, Anthony Heilbut, and William H. Wiggins Jr.

56
“The Teen Age Highway Que Cees, Radio and Concert Artists”:
Chicago Defender,
March 25, 1950.

56
a “nasty book” that Sam had given to his girlfriend: Charles and L.C. Cooke, Barbara Cooke, Gus Treadwell, Roscoe Robinson, S.R. Crain in Wolff,
You Send Me,
and even Dan Taylor of the Southern Jubilees in Memphis described something of the circumstances of Sam’s arrest, and most described the book itself—sometimes in graphic detail. Since in the end, though, I can’t be sure who actually saw it, I’ve confined myself to the description in the court papers. Also, I’m not sure whether the Doolittle schoolgirl who was named in the complaint against Sam was a girlfriend or the sister of a girlfriend, since no mention is made in the court papers of a sister and at fifteen this young woman was older than Sam’s steady girlfriend, Barbara Campbell. No one that I spoke to remembered the girl specifically. However, a sister kept being mentioned, so I have retained her, whether she is an echo or not.

56
“the obscene and indecent handwritten pamphlet”: This description and all subsequent dates and data are from Municipal Court of Chicago Preliminary and Court Papers, February 23 and March 6, 1950, Case No. 26787.

57
“I get there and—no Sam”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain, 1996.

58
M. L. Itson’s most egregious crime: All of the QCs, and L.C. Cooke, were voluble about Itson’s perfidy, but the
Chicago Defender
in front-page stories on January 13, 1951 (“Rich Widow, 84, Missing, Seek Agent”), and January 20, 1951 (“Police Find Aged Widow in Basement”), specified not only Itson’s crimes but the “rent racket” in general.

59
Harris had quit the Soul Stirrers: R.H. Harris told Lee Hildebrand in a 1984 interview that he left the group on October 16, 1950. He cited the same date to me and said that he introduced Sam onstage at DuSable before taking his leave—but there was no program at DuSable on October 16, though there was one in Meridian, Mississippi, on October 19. The Stirrers program at DuSable closest to that date took place on September 24, which Daniel Wolff cites as the departure date and is certainly plausible. Harris spoke at length in various interviews about taking Sam out on a series of programs in order to introduce him to Stirrers (and Harris) fans—but this almost certainly did not take place. Marvin Jones of the QCs was positive that no public announcement was made—there were simply rumors that Crain and Harris had had a fight—and I think that’s as likely a scenario as any.

59
the group’s original founding in Trinity: Historical background on the Soul Stirrers comes primarily from Ray Funk, “The Soul Stirrers,”
Rejoice!
1 (1), winter 1987; Funk’s 1981 interview with S.R. Crain; Tony Heilbut,
The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times;
Opal Louis Nations’ liner notes for a forthcoming 2005 Soul Stirrers release on Acrobat; and numerous interviews and monographs, not all of which, it must be noted, agree in every particular. In his interview with Lee Hildebrand, R.H. Harris said that Crain sought him out and got his parents’ permission for him to tour with the group for just two months. They arrived in California in November 1937 and then were stuck there for the next few months by a series of floods, which are documented in various histories of the area.

60
“art almost immune to criticism”: Heilbut,
The Gospel Sound,
p. 82.

60
“as you get more records out on the SPECIALTY label”: Art Rupe to S.R. Crain, June 6, 1950 (this and all subsequent Specialty correspondence comes from the Specialty archive).

61
“Harris really believed in what he was doing”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with J.W. Alexander, 1995.

61
“The moral aspects of the thing just fell into the water”: Heilbut,
The Gospel Sound,
p. 86. Crain contended, however, in his interview with Dred Scott Keyes, that Harris was no more religious than any of the Stirrers, or the average gospel singer, for that matter, and Harris, in fact, joined the Christland Singers, with whom he continued to travel and record, almost immediately after his departure from the Stirrers.

61
Others viewed the matter: Various opinions were expressed by L.C. Cooke, Leroy Crume, Lee Richard (in his interview with Barbara Cooke), J.W. Alexander, and Marvin Jones, along with other
ex post facto
views.

61
politics was at the bottom of it all: J.W. Alexander suggested, “Sometimes friends tell them [lead singers] they are so much better than anyone else in the group. That’s how different religions split up, same principle.”

61
the December 1950 issue of
Ebony
: “Gospel Singers: They Move Millions with Their Ringing Voices,”
Ebony,
December 1950.

62
After trying out Paul Foster as first lead: Ray Funk interview with Paul Foster, 1981.

62
Crain invited Sam to his apartment: The best description of Sam’s tryout comes from Crain in Wolff,
You Send Me,
p. 65, from which Crain’s quotes are taken.

62
a second audition . . . with Reverend Leroy Taylor: Taylor sang baritone on the Stirrers’ December 21, 1948, session for Aladdin and was listed as second tenor on the stationery the Soul Stirrers were using as late as June 1950. In his 1981 interview with Ray Funk, Reverend Taylor said, “I helped train Sam Cook [while] I was going to seminary”—but he made no mention of any tryout of his own. And he was one of the founders of the Christlands, which R.H. Harris would almost immediately join.

62
The next day Sam came back to the house: To show how close the timing was, Itson disappeared on December 2. Crain wrote to Art Rupe on December 6 that the Stirrers and Pilgrim Travelers, who had just sung on the Stirrers’ Tennessee Day program at DuSable, would be going out on tour together in two days. When they did, Sam went with them.

63
“I told him: ‘Anytime you can make a step higher’”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with Reverend Charles Cook, 1995.

SOUL STIRRING

65
“The Soul Stirrers were very well named”: “Salient points from ANR’s [Arthur N. Rupe’s] Talk, from tape,” n.d., Specialty archives.

65
a day or two before the . . . scheduled March 1 recording session: Art Rupe said that it was always his custom to audition the group just before the session and pick out at least four songs for them to concentrate on.

65
the Soul Stirrers had been out on the Coast for the past two and one-half weeks: They played the Embassy Theater in Los Angeles on February 11 with the Christian Travelers of Detroit (this was advertised in the
Los Angeles Sentinel
on January 24), and J.W. Alexander spoke of playing Oakland immediately thereafter. I never thought to ask about additional stops on the tour. The Stirrers had had a program in Chicago on January 14. They were still there on January 21 (Crain signed for a letter), and Art Rupe wrote to them again on January 30 with reference to their forthcoming tour. “I hear you’re coming out next week,” he said, suggesting that this might make it a good time for a session. In some ways, then, it is probably more accurate to see the tour as prompting (and paying the Stirrers’ way to) the session rather than the other way around.