If only I'd known.

December 27, 2008 6:26 AM

So in 1977 I was 13 and I moved away from my moms house in Seattle to my dads house in Monroe. When I moved back in 1978 my mom had rented a room to this guy. He was old and black and had dentures and played music. JB Hutto was who lived in my old (unheated) room.

He used an old beat-up bottle neck as a slide, he would sit on the radiator with my cat Shasta. My cat liked it, you could tell because she would close her eyes.
I was a stoner dude. Listening to BOC and Rush.
He cooked sometimes, offering me swimp and cone-beef, both Dead-Sea salty.
For some reason me and my friends referred to him as HB. He was a nice man here is some of his music....

posted by vapidave (10 comments total)

He was only in his early 50s, bud.

That's no old.
posted by the cuban at 6:36 AM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wonderful anecdote and superb blues. Thanks vapidave for the education about JB Hutto.

Adding to the wishing I knew who they were anecdote theme: in 1962, '63, '64' I lived across the hallway from Charles Mingus and had no idea who he was, just listened to his music through the front door as we played with his baby daughter in the public hallway, spinning tops on the mosaic floor. Years later lived across the hall from Hawkwind in London 1973, just thought they were cool looking rowdy rockers.

the cuban, when you're in your teens or 20's, anybody over 30 seems ancient. Even though I'm 55 now, that sometimes still seems true.
posted by nickyskye at 6:39 AM on December 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

i love how dirty and good sounding his slide playing is. it's a monster.
posted by es_de_bah at 6:45 AM on December 27, 2008

Thanks for this.
posted by Severian at 6:50 AM on December 27, 2008

He was only in his early 50s, bud.

That's no old.

In Blues Years? Yeah, that can be really old.
posted by VicNebulous at 7:01 AM on December 27, 2008

I hope he spent all his money on loose women and booze, because having to rent a room from someone when you're in your fifties and your best years as a blues legend are all behind you, well, that'll give you the blues for sure...

(No slight intended to your mom's accomodation, vapidave. It's the of financial autonomy that seems so depressing.)

Even though I'm 55 now, that sometimes still seems true.

True to me too, nickyskye. I see people my age and think 'who is that old fucker?' Though I've been doing it for about twenty years now...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:11 AM on December 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

ick. lack of financial autonomy, obv.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:12 AM on December 27, 2008

When you're 13, 30 is old.
posted by chlorus at 8:01 AM on December 27, 2008

So in 1977 I was 13...

That's an interesting anecdote, but otherwise this post is just a Wikipedia link and a Youtube search. You should write it up properly as a real blog post somewhere with all the details you can remember (blues historians would thank you) and then have a buddy post a link to your blog from here.
posted by pracowity at 9:32 AM on December 27, 2008

pracowity is right, vapidave. I didn't have the heart to tell you before because your anecdote is meaningful in a number of ways, not least historically about bluesman, JB's, life. But in MetaFilter, on a front page post (called here an FPP) the link to the website is supposed to be the star of the post, not the member's story.

As a suggestion, just an idea in general, an alternative you might have done a post like this:

If only I'd known.

This is some rare footage of JB Hutto taken from a classic movie from either the late 60s or early 70s about the then dying Chicago Blues scene.

--------------------------------------[more inside]

More about the artist.

So in 1977 I was 13 and I moved away from my mom's house in Seattle to my dad's house in Monroe. When I moved back in 1978 my mom had rented a room to this guy. He was old and black and had dentures and played music. JB Hutto was who lived in my old (unheated) room.

He used an old beat-up bottle neck as a slide, he would sit on the radiator with my cat, Shasta. My cat liked it, you could tell because she would close her eyes. I was a stoner dude. Listening to BOC and Rush.

He cooked sometimes, offering me swimp and cone-beef, both Dead-Sea salty.
For some reason me and my friends referred to him as HB. He was a nice man here is some of his music....

---------------------------------------

PS. What the hell are swimp and cone-beef? Are they shrimp and corn beef? It's sad it was an unheated room. Touching to think of JB the cool cat and Shasta the cat both warming themselves on your radiator. Glad that Shasta, at least, was a good audience at the time for JB.
posted by nickyskye at 10:09 AM on December 27, 2008