Page 45 - Akae Beka

on WLAC 1510 AM in Gallatin, TN. During the day, it had from Cleveland ran the nightclubs in the most corrupt and
a local area following, but at night it switched to a huge brazenly hedonistic little city in America.
50,000-watt directional signal. This meant you could hear As we’ve seen in numerous documentaries and books,
it all the way from Key West to Canada. Although it was environmental factors often play a huge role in changing
aimed at a Black audience, this jumpin’ and jiving post-war popular culture. When Muddy Waters, Elmore James and
R&B drove teenagers of all colors completely insane, and the rest of the Mississippi players relocated to Chicago, they
Mr. Nathan took notice. Beginning with the jump blues of the realized that (among other reasons) the sheer noise level of
’40s, through the group era of the ‘50s, all the way to the the city necessitated plugging in their instruments to be heard
birth of soul in the ’60s, King Records sold millions of records of above the din. The result: Chicago blues.
to a waiting audience all over the world. When Nathan first Likewise, in Newport around 1947, the casinos, brothels
began, there were several other independent record labels and “dance” clubs all needed music that fit. The patrons of the
recording this new music, but the store’s location played a Newport casinos were almost all vets and working-class Whites
big part, especially in the early days. and Blacks from the South. They liked their music loud, fast and
Had King Records been in New York or Los Angeles, unrelenting; “Moonlight Serenade” just didn’t cut it in Sodom
the legacy might have been far different, and Cincinnati and Gomorrah. There was no need, nor time, for music to “get
itself was a pretty conservative Midwestern city, but just acquainted” – you weren’t there to fall in love, you were there
over the bridge… to kill pain, kick some ass and engage in back-booth trysts
you’d tell the boys about at the VFW 50 years later.
My Old Kentucky Whorehouse It was a land of screaming tenor players, with names
Newport, KY, was known as “Sin City, U.S.A.” The like “Big Jay,” “Red” and “Thin Man,” the designated Pied
small town across the river from the Queen City, had three Pipers of Pleasure. It was walking 50-foot oak-topped bars,
main industries: sex, whiskey and gambling. Mobsters wailing “Flyin’ Home” for 20 minutes at a time, playing

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