Crossbones WSA Sunday Performance 2-24-13

My Brush With the Spinners, Old Skool R&B Hitmakers

The Spinners and I go back a long way. Yep, back to the days when they were really hot. Before we used the word "hot" like that. Back when we used cool phrases like "right on" or "sho ya right." Okay, I'm old. But I first saw the Spinners when I was in high school. On a Saturday night at the Coliseum, I pushed my way to the front row when the lights went out. I sang along with every song, word for word. When they got to the part in Rubberband Man where the "short fat guy" danced and threw his oversized rubberband into the audience, I wrestled a boy down for it and won. I thought he was a girl at first, but a closer look revealed a man/girl. I kept that rubberband for many years.

I saw the Spinners many times later in more intimate settings. Two of these stands out...In the late 1990s they came to the Hilton Hotel on Countyline, and this time I was with Ron. The lead singer, who had taken Philippè Soul Wynne's place-- the one who still had the Jheri curl-- well, he kept eyeing me. I mean it. For real. So much so that Ron pointed it out saying, "You see, you're so beautiful, he can't keep his eyes off of you." I jokingly replied that I must look like his wife. But then he made the "come here" jester with his pointer finger, asking me to come up on the stage. What? I nearly fainted. He wanted me to come up there and sing with him! Ron was trying to push me up there, but I kept saying no, no! I won out. I was not going up there!!! He soon gave up, but he kept an eye on me the entire show. I don't know what that was about.

         
The last time I saw the Spinner was around 2002 at the county fair. They put on a great show, but the short fat guy had to have oxygen after the show. Ron and I watched as they took him on a golf cart back to their tour bus. Last year, I saw the Spinners on the TV One series, Unsung, and I learned that many of them are dead now. After sharing his breathtaking falsetto in songs like Mighty Love, Sadie, and Ghetto Child, Philippè Soul Wynne left the band in 1977, and in 1984 collapsed on stage while performing at a night club in Oakland, California, succumbing to a heart attack on my birthday (July 15) at age 43. The bass singer, Pervis Jackson, a heavy smoker (well known for his standout bass lines in Games People Play) died of a heart attack in 2008; the short fat guy, Billy Henderson, who had diabetes and heart problems, died in 2004. Are you wondering what happened to my boyfriend with the Jheri curl? Unfortunately, John Edwards suffered a stroke in 2000 and is now in a wheel chair. He still sports a curl, though.

My Brush With Barack Obama, President of the United States

From Across the Room (a blog series about my brush with interesting people)

Who'd a thought the light-skinned young man I was looking at while sitting in that restaurant owned by Issac Byrd (a well-known, local lawyer) a few years ago would one day be the president of the United States? I guess they knew (the people who brought him to Mississippi), but I didn't. All I knew was that he was a charismatic, important, young, black, up-and-coming politician with a funny name from Chicago who wanted to be an Illinois U.S. Senator. That was huge, even for us here in Mississippi. So, I wanted to attend the breakfast and donate a little money to his campaign. I listened carefully to what Mr. Obama had to say that morning. Low and behold, the man was breath-taking! I am not kidding you. I know something special when I see it and this man had it.  So much so that I reached deep into my pocket book and donated $200 I did not have and another $100 given to me from Mom Potter (who was visiting from Illinois). I do not have to tell you the rest of the story because you already know it. It's American History....which I witnessed just last month with my own eyes in Washington, D.C when Mr. Obama was sworn in for a second term (it was amazing just to be there and see his tiny ant face again...that's how far back I was).  One last thing, though.... you all know about that gad-fly of a smoking habit that our president has, right? Well, I saw it with my own eyes. I stuck around outside long enough to see him get into his limo, light a cigarette and take a  quick puff. He sped off in haste, calming his worked-up nerves, I'm sure.

From Across the Room, a blog series about my brush with interesting people

Just for the fun of it I will be writing a blog series about my brush with people of interest. I am going to call it "From Across the Room." I was thinking the other day how we value deep stuff so much. Well, I was also thinking how much I talk about the little things and how light-hearted things like spotting interesting people often rise to the top of our conversation. As I was thinking about this, many names came to mind. These people often enter my conversations and make me and others smile, think, imagine, and dream. I've brushed spaces with quite a few interesting people. In this series you will hear about my special tiny moments with Barack Obama, Denzel Washington, Jessie Jackson, the Jackson 5, Bill Clinton, James Meredith, Arsenio Hall, Stephanie Mills, Thelma Hopkins, Walter Hawkins, the Spinners, Fred Hammond and Commissioned, John Louis,Tom Skinner, and yes, Byron De La Beckwith, the man who killed Medgar Evers. What an interesting list. I'll tell you all about it in short, easy to read essays.