{"id":29838,"date":"2015-12-18T13:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=29838"},"modified":"2015-12-17T17:17:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T22:17:47","slug":"little-willie-john-blue-fever-in-search-of-the-silver-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/little-willie-john-blue-fever-in-search-of-the-silver-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Willie John: Blue Fever in Search of the Silver Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSugarman done fly away, Sugarman done gone \u2026\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0– Toni Morrison, <\/span>Song of Solomon<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The confounding and brilliant novel <\/span>Song of Solomon<\/b><\/i><\/span> <\/i>by <\/span>Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison<\/b><\/span> bounces between\u00a0the American south and a\u00a0big, unnamed city in <\/span>Michigan<\/b><\/span> believed to be <\/span>Detroit<\/b><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Winner of the 1977 National Book Award, <\/span>Solomon’s<\/i><\/span>\u00a0primary protagonist – <\/span>Macon (Milkman) Dead<\/b><\/span>, son of a wealthy property owner\u00a0– was born in 1931, the\u00a0perfect age to appreciate the music of an <\/span>Arkansas<\/b><\/span> native who made his home in Motown — <\/span>Little Willie John<\/b><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By the time Milkman (an arrogant young man of\u00a0rare African-American\u00a0privilege) turned 25, he very likely\u00a0would have been playing Little Willie’s 1956 smash hit “<\/span>Fever<\/b><\/span>” on a fancy stereo in the home of his money-obsessed\u00a0father. Unless they were dropping nickels in a juke box, others had to make do with a\u00a0simple record player.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Written by <\/span>Eddie Cooley<\/b><\/span> and <\/span>Otis Blackwell<\/b><\/span> (who took a pseudonym on the gig and wrote \u201c<\/span>Return to Sender<\/b><\/span>\u201d for <\/span>Elvis<\/b><\/span>), “Fever”\u00a0was made most famous by <\/span>Peggy Lee<\/b><\/span> in a 1958\u00a0crossover\u00a0cover for <\/span>Capitol<\/b><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The song has been covered by everyone from the <\/span>King of Rock and Roll<\/b><\/span> to <\/span>Madonna<\/b><\/span> t0 the <\/span>McCoys<\/b><\/span> (of \u201c<\/span>Hang On, Sloopy<\/b><\/span>\u201d bubblegum fame) but those who know where the bodies are buried have no doubt who owns the tune. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it’s all about the rawness of the vocal on Little Willie John’s version,\u201d said <\/span>Ron Sheehan<\/b><\/span>, 50, a guitarist and bass player living in <\/span>Charlotte, North Carolina<\/b><\/span> and a former <\/span>Hyde Park<\/b><\/span>, <\/span>New York<\/b><\/span> DJ [WHVW-FM] who often played LWJ\u2019s version of \u201cFever\u201d on the King label. \"LWJ<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeggy Lee\u2019s take was \u2018flirty,\u2019\u201d said Sheehan, stopping short of dumping Lee in the <\/span>Pat Boone<\/b><\/span> bin, \u201cbut Little Willie John’s was a true \u2018cautionary\u2019 tale of the relationship between a man and woman.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And ain\u2019t that the blues?<\/span><\/p>\n

-o- <\/span><\/p>\n

The blues that Little Willie\u2019s son – <\/span>Kevin John<\/b><\/span> of suburban Detroit – has been singing accompany the struggle to have his father\u2019s short and dramatic life brought to the big screen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2011, Kevin assisted Detroit journalist and former <\/span>CREEM<\/b><\/i><\/span> magazine<\/b><\/span> editor <\/span>Susan Whitall<\/b><\/span> with an authorized biography titled <\/span>Fever: Little Willie John\u2019s Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul<\/b><\/i><\/span>.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Willie John\u2019s fast and often angry life lasted 30 years until his death in 1968 at a penitentiary in <\/span>Walla Walla, Washington<\/b><\/span> where he was serving a sentence for manslaughter. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The mystery surrounding his death pivots on whether he succumbed to pneumonia, a heart attack or something more odious.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the deep-throated soul he sang (thus described in his 1996 induction into the <\/span>Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/b><\/span>) came out of the harsh blue birth canals of his native Arkansas before mixing with the horns and smoother R&B vocals of the industrial north.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Early in his career, the Godfather of Soul \u2013 <\/span>James Brown<\/b><\/span>, Soul Brother Number One \u2013 opened some shows for Little Willie John. The same year as his friend\u2019s death, Brown released a tribute album called <\/span>Thinking about Little Willie John… and a Few Nice Things<\/b><\/i><\/span> <\/i>on King, the same label that had released LWJ\u2019s 45 rpm of \u201cFever.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And perhaps Ms. Morrison listened to that album (she was 37 in 1968, I have no clue to her listening habits) just as Milkman Dead very likely grooved to Little Willie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good novels, Morrison has said, should <\/span>“clarify the roles that have become obscured . . . and they ought to give nourishment.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A major motion picture about Little Willie John \u2013 nourished with the good, the bad, deep blue notes and ringing joy \u2013 could clarify the life of a haunted man long obscured by greater fame others achieved in his own backyard. \"The<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Rafael Alvarez is the author of <\/b><\/i><\/span>Crabtown, USA<\/b><\/span>, a collection of essays. He can be reached via orlo.leini@gmail.com<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSugarman done fly away, Sugarman done gone \u2026\u201d \u00a0– Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon The confounding and brilliant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":29839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[7343,7484,7487,3642,4003,7477,3819,5584,7488,7485,7486],"class_list":["post-29838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-writing","tag-blues-music","tag-creem-magazine","tag-eddie-cooley","tag-fever","tag-james-brown","tag-little-willie-john","tag-rafael-alvarez","tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","tag-song-of-solomon","tag-susan-whitall","tag-toni-morrison"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-17-AlvarezLittleWillieJohn.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}