Mike Bloomfield in East St. Louis

In honor of the 4th of July, here's a brief segment from an article
by blues/American music great Mike Bloomfield (not sure what mag it's
from..someone gave me a copy). As a kid, I always read Bloomfield's
writings with great interest...he was extremely articulate, and was
conversant with a wide range of musical subjects, including
microtonality...in fact, I think he was the first rock/pop musician I
ever saw mention microtones. He also played quite microtonally in his
solo in the tune "East-West," on the Butterfield album of the same name.
He hung out with a lot of colorful characters, and his recollections
here of a 4th of July weekend in East St. Louis with Big Joe Williams
(who wrote "Baby Please Don't Go") are worth a few yuks, I think...here
goes...

"I woke up on a bed the next morning to find Joe standing over me.
He had stayed up all night drinking and he was more than drunk...he was
on a bender. His nostrils were flared and his eyes were red and runny. A
barbeque fork was in his hand and on it was a pig nose, and hot grease
from the nose was dripping on my chest. He opened his mouth and his
schnapps breath hit me in a wave. "Snoots, snoots," he shouted, "I
promised you fine barbeque and snoots is what we got!" My head was
throbbing and my stomach still queasy, and when I looked up and saw this
horribly fat and greasy pig nose an inch from my face, I lurched out of
bed and threw up again. Joe began to curse me; "Man, you done puked all
the damn night and into the mornin', and now you pukin up again! Can't
you hold that stomach down?!" And I slunk out the house with George, who
wasn't on top of the world himself, to try to find something to settle
my stomach. Joe stood roaring at us as we left. "Where do you think you
is, you think you home in Chicago now? You ain't home in Chicago now,
and those niggers out there'll kill ya!" But my head and stomach were
already killing me, so I took my chances on the street. And it was the
funkiest street I'd ever seen. I thought I'd seen funk when I'd gone out
to Jazz Gillum's in Chicago, with the sealed house and blazing
fire...bit this section of St. Louis we were in made Gillum's shanty
look like a penthouse apartment on Lakeshore Drive..."

I got to jam in East St. Louis once... it was/is, indeed, a very
funky place. Happy 4th...Hstick