Honeydripper Page #2

You working on a train? Yeah,

Kansas City to New Orleans.

What did you get off here for?

I got people here. How about you?

Got tired of sleeping in a boxcar.

Is there a place to stay

around here?

Shed right over there got a cot.

And don't mind the rats.

Not unless you've got food on you.

I see you and a good meal have

been strangers for some time.

Get into town tomorrow, find you need

something, tell them Shack Thomas sent you.

They'll know who you're

talking about. Thanks.

Name like that sounds like

a good place for a musician.

Only night I ever been in jail

was a town called Liberty.

The sun come up,

you'll see where you landed.

You'd best be out that shed

by first light.

Just a weekday night.

The chicken man or the ice man

At least you don't owe

the electric company.

Yeah, that's a big relief.

You thinking about closing down?

What do you think? The biggest

act in New Orleans.

Got him a hit on the radio.

He's playing here Saturday night.

I'm thinking I wait till Bertha Mae

was gone and I put him up.

Here?

You mean like in this room here?

You know the Tomcat Club

in Texicana?

Big Jim Jameson's place?

It just went out of business.

Damn. Since Sam is getting sway over

But you ain't never had no guitar...

I'm having one now.

You just worry about getting these

hung everywhere in the county tomorrow.

Payday Saturday, he's gonna draw all them

cotton pickers and soldier boys in here.

Get us back in the black.

They're gonna take me down,

it won't be without a fight.

Guitar Sam at the Honeydripper!

Mm-hm!

Man, this joint is gonna jump!

BELL TINKLES:

GUITAR STRUMMING

Somebody slipped

in the railroad yard.

You all can play that thing.

Yeah, been doing it nearby for ever.

What side of the tracks am I on?

The wrong side.

For you.

What you doing here, then?

Oh, white folks

look right through me.

Besides, how much mischief is an old,

blind spook like me gonna get up to anyhow?

Lot of people go for music

around here?

There's a couple of places just

outside of town, at the crossroads.

A long walk? Are you in a hurry?

How old is that box you're playing,

Second one ever made.

The devil got the first one.

How about yours?

Brand new. Made it myself.

Ooh, brand new! Made it hisself!

Hot dog! It's right.

So, these clubs?

Old Toussaint,

he runs the Ace of Spades.

They don't have no live music

in there.

Pine Top Purvis, he runs

the Honeydripper Lounge.

He don't care nothing

about no guitar.

He won't allow one under his roof.

That don't make sense.

Well, when a musician

put his hand to murder,

nine times out of ten

a drummer done it.

But Pine Top, he a piano man.

He killed somebody? That's the story.

But if you meet the man, you damn

well don't be asking him about it.

HONKING:

Ain't seen no mule in a long time!

I knew this was Alabama,

but that's the Stone Ages, man!

Where you from, boy?

Memphis.

Down on your vacation?

Got in a piece of trouble up there

with the white folks.

Need to bide my time for a spell.

Biding your time

with them pills, man,

boss man gonna fire your ass.

Don't worry about that.

I'm a cotton-picking fool!

You a fool all right.

Where you from, brother bear?

Mississippi.

Hoo! This here

is a real step-up for you!

Folks around here have discovered

fire and whatnot!

That trouble you in,

have anything to do

with running your mouth?

It had to do with somebody getting on

my nerves and I had to deal with him.

Must have been somebody kinda puny.

As I recall, he was about your size.

What's this place we at?

Nearest town's Harmony.

This is Mr Silas Tugwell's place.

You better get to picking.

Cotton ain't going nowhere.

The more you get first thing

when the dew's still on it,

the more it weighs

when it tip that scale.

You live here too?

You got my sympathies.

Hot damn!

What's the matter? I got a shock.

I thought you used to work

for the power company.

I drove the supply truck.

Guitar Sam ain't gonna be playing

by no candlelight.

I smell bacon.

You must have burned your porky ass

with that electricity!

Breakfast's ready!

Where your mama? She already

over to the mayor's.

She told me to make sure you eat

something before you start running 'round.

That is a sweet woman you got.

You got one waiting for you

if you want her. Who, Nadine?

She come in here every night

making them cow eyes at you.

She seem like a kind

who could smother a man.

She makes all her own clothes.

Darlin', that's not

the kind of thing

a man cares about from a woman.

MUSIC BLARES:

Hey, I fixed it! You ain't done

no such thing.

It just decided to come back on.

Decided? Yeah.

Just like it decided

to switch off last night.

You ain't even in the conversation!

This Nadine makes some good money,

too, sewing for people.

That woman scares me.

Last ol' boy to give her a tumble,

Napier Carpenter,

she cooked for him.

Fixed him up all kinds

of nice, new clothes...

I don't see no problem with that!

Come four, five months,

a man starts to...

Sorry, China Doll,

but this is just the way it is.

A man gots needs.

Looks like Nadine could

take care of those, too.

You eat chicken every morning,

noon and night for five months,

you get a taste

for a different kind of meat.

Maybe I shouldn't be talking

about this in front of China Doll.

You ain't gonna say something

I haven't heard worse.

Well, Napier goes out and has him

a pork chop or two, let's say.

Comes back one night

from Toussaint's place,

feeling no pain and smelling...

...Like pork chops,

the way a man will.

He falls out on Nadine's couch

and commenced to snore.

Wake up next morning, find she had taken

all his clothes off without him knowing.

The man was dog drunk!

Miss Nadine come back

with a skillet in her hand,

hot grits bubbling in it.

Says, "Baby, I got your breakfast".

"Oh, not this morning, Nadine",

he says, sitting up.

"Don't think I could eat a thing."

"Well then", she says, "we can't

let this go to waste, can we?"

and she dumped

that whole hot bubbling mess

right in that man's lap.

Ouch!

Then she got busy

with that hot iron on his head.

If screams didn't bring

the neighbours in,

she'd have killed that man.

You've got to admit it though,

the woman is an artist when

it comes to that Singer machine.

Excuse me.

Which one of you is Mr Pine Top?

We ain't hiring.

I can play anything.

I already got me a professional.

Guitar Sam really comin'

all the way down here?

That so surprising?

No, no.

Mr Shack Thomas told me...

You know Shack?

We... travelled together.

When was the last time

you ate solid food, young man?

Take him back and fix him something,

China Doll.

Standing there all hungry-eyed,

puts me off my breakfast.

That's real kind of you.

Must've come in

on the north-bound last night.

Looks like he got the cooties too.

Straw in them box cars, full of 'em.

Never cared to travel that way.

I was out there riding them rails

between the wars.

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