Thanks for this, DF. I really like the passage that makes Ike sound like the Hunter S. Thompson of the Chitlin' Circuit:
"...He may have determined that, with the Hound so close and all, he'd better at least have his ducks in a row. Chaos had to be fended off, and the ends justified the means."
Among the many great musicians that Ike helped along the way was Little Milton. I spoke with them both when I was doing a piece on Milton for a blues mag in 1999...Ike was sober, smart, proud of his accomplishments, and highly complimentary of Milton.
I asked Little Milton if he thought Ike had any ulterior motives in promoting him, and he went off on a rant about how Ike got a raw deal, he was basically a good guy trying to get ahead in a nasty profession, and all that Hollywood bullshit was just that. Milton certainly swayed me with his argument, and that's why it pained me to see the wife-beater jokes that accompanied Ike's passing.
Let's not deny the reality, lets just keep it in perspective and consider the totality of the man's existence.
So...yeah. Here's hoping the sacred crowd does Ike up right.
