Tales from Rochacha

Tales from Rochacha

As a kid approaching 15, Rochester New York felt like a trap as it always had been but now that the hormones raged, it felt like a metal coffin. One day that all changed seemingly in an instant. From that claustrophobic , suffocating dullness, I was now in the velvet underground. Maybe Lou Reed utilized that name but for me and many others including Lou it was a landscape like no other.

At 15 I had pretty much left home and was crashing at friends , sleeping in cars, spending the occasional night in a doorway, but through that journey I started meeting an entirely different universe. One of my friends lived just on the outskirts of the “Corn Hill “ district of Rochester. This place was well known to many as the home at one time to William Cody, other wise known as “Buffalo Bill”….yeh… that guy. By ’64 it was mainly if not all a black neighborhood . The day I was  changed forever  I was walking down a street in the Corn Hill district with my friend . This was a place two fifteen year olds could walk into a little store and buy beer with no questions. That was our mission that day. The sun was out and it seemed like the entire world was smiling on us. Our plan was to walk to the Clarissa street bridge and drink. As we walked along Grieg street we saw an older black man on a stoop, stretched out looking very relaxed..He was impossible to avoid, his weathered face showing many years of hardship and yet seemed so at ease and relaxed.. I’ll never forget his face. We stopped and offered him a beer which he gladly accepted . So we shared this tiny slice of time in small talk and left. That was the day I met Eddie “ Son” House Jr.  

For those not familiar with who Son House was, He was probably the most influential Blues Artist there ever was and that was before there was the name Blues. Son House influenced Robert Johnson as well as Muddy Waters. Muddy has said Son House was the king. So think about that for a minute, For me as a kid of 15 I had just met and had a beer with God. Son House had migrated up north to Rochester from the Mississippi Delta and disappeared from the music scene completely. He got a job on the railroad and nobody knew where he was..I took our meeting as a sign, as if I was struck by the Holy Light.

Son House was rediscovered that year by a guy named Waterman and that summer Son House played the Newport Folk festival. I was fortunate enough to see him play at Nazareth College in Rochester. In 1968 my band opened up for Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy. I was now connected somehow . I told Muddy of my encounter with Son House, he looked at me with that smile he had and just nodded his head. Hearing Muddy and Son House play were the biggest events of my life. I’ve thought about this a lot lately. I had worked on a documentary film as a producer and fixer  with Don Letts directing called “ Punk Attitude “ in 2005. It dug in to the beginnings of Punk Rock, which we opined  started with Elvis & Chuck Berry. I regret now not including Muddy Waters and Son House, because They had it, totally. Their attitude and musical approach was pure and unadulterated Punk.

By 1972 Son House had moved on from Rochester and once again had vanished somewhere in Detroit. For this kid Rochester had turned into a much different and a lot more colorful place to explore.

Eddie “ Son “ House JR. 1964