Customer Reviews

Complete Works, Vol. 7

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Though savants like Martin Gardner assure us that statistical "clumping" gives rise to coincidences such as a 19th century novel being written about an "unsinkable" steamship named the Titan striking an iceburg and disappearing into the freezing waters with many of the passengers and crew because of an inadequate number of life-boats, still, it's hard to shake that old Rod Serling feeling and turn down the volume on the Twilight Zone twang when one notes the many parallels between the Titan's end and the 1912 Titanic disaster. Well, imagine a smokey blues joint c. 1940-41, and our man Peetie Wheatstraw the High Sheriff of Hell and the Devil's Son-in-law tinkling the ivories and belting out his distinctive, tobacco-tinged, lyrical growls, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by a trumpet player and a strange guy on the harmonica. Yes, this is the fellow who was rumored to have SOLD HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL down at the cross-roads in order to become the distinctive bluesman that he was. But tonight he starts out with an even more unsettling series of performances than usual. This is his new stuff and it's all about suicide, death, and going away. He ends the night with some very disturbing lyrics from his song "Bring Me Flowers While I'm Living":

Bring me flowers while I'm living, please don't bring them when I'm dead (2x)
And bring icebags to my bedside, ooh, well, well, to cool my aching head.

It's not a bad tune, as are all the songs on this platter. Not as happy as "Mr. Livingood" or as cool as "Gangster Blues" or as philosophical as "The Good Lawd's Children," but it still leaves you and your girl wondering what kind of drinks this fellow's been putting away.

You clap at the end of the set, and while Peetie Wheatstraw bows with a studied irony to the applause, that old Twilight Zone twang suddenly sounds from hidden speakers, and Rod Serling steps out on stage to announce that:

"On Sunday morning, December 2nd, 1941, the car that Peetie Wheatstraw was riding in missed a curve and slammed into a standing freight car down at a cross roads in the valley district of East Saint Louis, a block away from his residence. Peetie was sitting in the back seat and his head was crushed in the accident. He was pronounced dead four hours later in the hospital, and was shipped to Arkansas to be buried in an un-marked grave." Doo Doo Doo Dah, Doo Doo Doo Dah, Doo Doo Doo Dah....

For more on this fascinating character, his music, and his strange end, we recommend Paul Garon's excellent book on the subject.