| Crossroad Cousin Leroy 2004-04-07 WED. | あの Crossroad をどのよーに編曲、はたまた歪曲したところで、かならず「あの」面影ってのが残っているものでございます。 しかるに、この Crossroad は、これまた、なんとしたこと。最初なんて例の ･･･I was a catfish･･･ってえ一節に凄い似てるじゃあありませんか。モチロン歌詞はちゃいます。 悪魔との出会い、やりとり、ギターを仲立ちにした悪魔との取引など、もうモロ Crossroad の伝説を歌ったものなのでございます。でも、ベースとなっているのは Rolling Stoneですが。 ただ、この録音は戦前じゃあなく、1957年の 8月です。もはやそんな伝説なんて信じてる人間も減ってきてる頃、しかも大都会 New York での吹き込みですからねえ。 Cousin Leroy のヴォーカルにも「さほどの」緊迫感が見られないような気がするのは、そのような「近代（？）」の合理精神が黒人社会でも次第に浸透して来ていたせいである、なんて言うのはランボー過ぎるでしょか。 バックのミュージシャンには Jack Dupree（ピアノ）に Sonny Terry（ハープ）もクレジットされてはおりますが、聞こえてる？ま、ハープは遥かかなた（まるで隣のスタジオででも吹いてるみたいな？）もの凄～い遠くで鳴ってるような「気もする」んですが、ピアノはどしたって聞こえないぞう。それどころか、最初、ソフトなトーンのギターにトレモロ・エフェクトかけてる？と思った音が、これって、ハモンドじゃねえの？っつー疑いが･･･ ソロのとこじゃ確かにギターが二本聞こえてますから Larry Dale のギターってのと、Gene Brooks のドラムは「当確」。でもねえ、明らかにベースも入ってるんですが、そのクレジットはありません。 全体にさすが New York っつー、ややモダーンなテイストが感じられるよな気がいたしますが、それってワタシだけ？ただ、この唄い方、どっかで聴いたことあるなあ、っちゅうクセ、考えてみたら Johnny Guitar Watson だ！ この Cousin Leroy、本名 Leroy Rozier ですが、例の Indiana 州 Richmond の Starr Piano Company による Gennett レーベルに、この Crossroad をはじめ、Match Box、Highway 41、Catfish の 4曲など（など、なんて歯切れ悪いけど、それがゼンブかどうか確認がとれてないので、断言できませんのじゃ）を吹き込んでおります。 後記；一部の資料ではまた別なレコード・レーベルからリリースされた、として以下のリストが掲載されていました。 Goin' Back Home / Catfish: GROOVE 0123: 1955 Highway 41 / Will A Matchbox Hold My Clothes: EMBER 1016: 1957 I'm Lonesome / Up the River: EMBER 1023: 1957 Waitin' At The Station / Crossroads: 1960 Lists by http://www.wangdangdula.com/ Wikipedia のレコード・レーベルの項目で見る Gennett は、1948年以降、その活動はきわめて「低調」になった、という記載がありますので、録音はしたものの、そのソースを他社に提供したものか、あるいは、この頃の Gennett では、他社からのプレス業務だけを請け負っていた、とする資料もありますから、そのような縁で（？）流されたものかもしれません。 どっちにしろ、そのへんの資料は（ Gennett についての資料は「皆無ではない」のですが、その場合でも、以下に述べる他のスターたちに埋没し、Cousin Leroy の名前が出てくることはありません･･･）いまだハッケンできていないのでなんとも言えませんが。 ついでなんで、この Gennett に吹き込んだ他の方々も紹介いたしますってえと、先日の Pee Wee もPoppa Stoppa、Dedicating the Blues、California Woman、Huckleboogie、Crayton Special をはじめ、Bo Diddley、Little Walter、John Brim、Johnny Shines、J.B.Hutto、Otis Span、Billy Boy Arnold、Lowell Fulson、Roscoe Gordon･･･などなど、ケッコウ凄い顔ぶれでしょ？ この Cousin Leroy、どうやら、まったく資料が見当たらず、その出身地すら判りません。 しかし、とある New York のニュース・コラムにこんな記事を発見いたしました。 For Homeless, No Bed of Roses January 21, 2004 7:00 PM By Ray Sanchez Even in the grinding poverty of his native Georgia, Leroy Rozier enjoyed a roof over his head. And throughout his more than 50 years as a super in the Bronx, Rozier always had his own place. Then, suddenly, on a cold November night in the 88th year of his life, he was sleeping on the subway. "It feels kind of funny and strange," Rozier was saying yesterday in the dining concourse at Grand Central Terminal. "Nobody wants to help you." It was nearly 1 a.m., the restaurants were closed and there was nothing to eat in the concourse. Workers feverishly polished the marble floors of the 91-year-old landmark, which would spring back to life within hours. Homeless men and women rushed to the restrooms. The most desperate stood before mirrors washing their bedraggled hands and faces. "I have all this age on me," Rozier said. "Where do I go?" Yesterday morning, 38,657 New Yorkers woke up in city shelters, the highest number since records were started two decades ago. Of them, 8,859 were homeless single adults, the highest count since 1991. There were 16,493 children in the shelters, twice as many as the average daily census for much of the 1990s. But Rozier is among the uncounted homeless who live in the streets, subways and vacant buildings. Despite efforts by both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to erase them from the city, their ranks are growing at an alarming rate. The number of homeless families has increased by 108 percent in the past five years, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. "You're safer on the street than in a shelter," said Rozier, echoing a complaint common among the homeless. As temperatures dipped below freezing early yesterday, the subway became a sprawling dormitory of lost souls. Around midnight, several homeless men kept warm taking the short shuttle、lower East Side ride between Times Square and Grand Central. They went back and forth the whole night. About 2:30 a.m. on a subway platform beneath the Lower East Side, four homeless men, bundled in layers, slept on a wood bench. Another man, carrying plastic bags and muttering incoherently, videotaped them. At 3:18 a.m., an A train pulled into the last stop at 207th Street in Inwood carrying 18 homeless men and women sleeping in the different cars. The doors opened, the conductor announced the final stop and the homeless just sat there awaiting the next leg of their journey. A little over a year ago, the city had sought to criminalize homelessness. High housing costs, low-paying jobs and the economic impact of the 2001 terrorist attacks drove record numbers of people into the streets. The NYPD increased the number of officers who worked with the homeless and shifted its policy of assisting the homeless into shelters and offering them social services to arresting them. Many were jailed overnight. A cop named Eduardo Delacruz, a 10-year veteran, became an unwitting symbol of the new policy when he refused an order to arrest a homeless man in November 2002. "I won't arrest an undomiciled person," said Delacruz, who was first suspended without pay and, later, banished to desk duty in East New York. In April, the city agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the police department of deliberately singling out homeless people for arrest. The suit had been filed by the advocacy group Picture the Homeless Inc. and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The suit cited sharp increases in the number of arrests of homeless people. As part of the settlement, the department sent out new directives offering guidance on how officers should carry out their duties. The practice of arresting the homeless merely for being homeless was halted. In November, when Rozier lost the single room he rented in Harlem, he packed a bag and moved to the subway. He isn't your typical wanderer. "I don't drink, don't smoke, and I don't do drugs," he said. He eats where he can and collects a modest Social Security check that arrives at a post office box each month. "I don't sleep at night," he said, adding that he spends nights riding the No. 6 train or resting on a bench at the Grand Central subway station. "I sleep in the day." Rozier said he was awaiting word from the city on an application for subsidized housing. "I just hope everything is going to be all right for me," he said. His only family is a daughter in Macon, Georgia, where he was born in 1915. "I got no people here," he said. Asked if he considered himself homeless, Rozier said no with a smile. "I just can't get a bed to go to," he said. なんだかいまひとつ、ナニが言いたいんだか判らない短いセンテンスしか発掘できなかったのがザンネンですが、この Leroy Rozier さん、ってのが Cousin Leroy だとすっと（だってブロンクスで 50年以上も、ってのも符合するし･･･）、Georgia 州の出身、っつうことになりますねえ。しかもいまやリッパな（？）ホームレスとして寒空の下、眠る場所にも不自由しておられるのでしょうか？ ま、もちろん、この Rozier さんがその Rozier さんとカンゼンに同一人物だ、っちゅーショーコはナニひとつございません。 |
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