|
Books by C. Liegh McInnis
Scripts: Sketches and Tales of Urban Mississippi /
Da Black Book of Linguistic Liberation
Confessions: Brainstormin' from
Midnite 'til Dawn /
Matters of reality: Body, mind & soul
Prose: Essays and Personal Letters
/
Searchin' for Psychedelica
The Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a Creative,
Musical Poet, Philosopher, and Storyteller
*
* * * *
War Poems
By
C. Liegh McInnis
|
War Haiku
By
C. Liegh McInnis
Hands soiled with war blood,
but cheap gas clouds our eyes while
full tanks drown
conscience
* * * * *
War Poem
By C.
Liegh McInnis
We be boxes coming home in the belly of the
night
sneaking home like Satanic Santas,
but we bring gifts of soiled patriotism
that’s been
wiped on the moldy ideals of flag waving
fanatics
who believe cheap gas to carry more currency
than live bodies
that are constantly crushed to the ground
by the chapped, ashy, and sandpaper heels of
plastic fear and polyester hate
all served on a corporation platter
as Halliburton’s belly continues to bloat
with the spoils and booty of
dreams plucked from praying fields
to feed well-oiled machines of modern day
cotton gins
‘cause war is king, and we are all
invertebrate orphans
hoping to be adopted by parents with green
palms
rather than being trees that refused to be
moved from
the rock solid ground of our conscience.
We be acid tears of mothers who use flags
to wipe themselves free of the anvil
emptiness of
a child wiped from the canvass before his
colors could dry.
We be stone cemented in the faces of fathers
whose smiles have been chiseled from their
hearts by
ice-cold pickax of Presidents, diplomats
who only want to dip their dipsticks
into the profiting waters of war
regardless of how many constituents they
drown and infect
with their swine-flu kisses because their
mouths
are filled with the maggots of slimy lies
that are cooked
and pretzelized to appease and weave epic
fiction
into National fantasy of John Wayne,
Achilles, and Sun-Tzu
riding on white horses to save the diluted
damsels in distress,
but the tiny fonted footnotes of this play
reveal that it’s all just shadows on Plato’s
cave that captures our attention
while the Presidents, Generals, and National
Scribes all trying to be the next Virgil
playin’ three card monte to see which
eighteen year old
gets to take a nap in
the next available casket. |
* * * * *
“So, are you
experienced? Have you ever been experienced?”—Jimi
Hendrix
Hell Hound Lullaby
By C. Liegh
McInnis
The salty soot on
my forehead and the ash in my pockets cause me to feel
like Virgil has been leading me on a tour of Dante’s old
hood, where the block is always hot, dodging hell
hounds, drinking what I thought was Purple Rain but
turned out to be the liquid wages of my sin.
Thankfully, after taxes, the wages of sin are reduced to
a slight headache, but the Wall Street Journal keeps
tryin’ to kick dirt on my not yet filled grave, hoping
to bury my dreams of being a human whose branches bear
fruit that’s not rotten and hollow from the snakes of my
past that slither through my malfunctioning memory
‘cause Pharaoh Tarharka’s warning can’t be heard for the
pounding of phallic fantasies of Mandingo rap videos and
critics who give undeserved passing grades as a way to
purchase street cred. . . . Now, “Who’s bad?” asked the
Devil as he buried another black boy who didn’t
understand that his power came from the sun baked skin
that he wore like a rash of Cain’s children while Robert
Johnson put another log on the fire so that we could all
howl at the moon.
So, on the Devil’s
Down-Home Demography Form, I’ll just check “somewhere
between Adam’s first bite and the moment where red drops
begin to infect a blue sky” while the fall issue of
Black Magnolias tries to make the rounds to the
appropriate mailboxes with the price of the postage
pouring from its pocket like sand from a broken hour
glass. Thanks for asking . . . and you?
 |
C.
Liegh McInnis is an instructor of
English at Jackson State University, the
publisher and editor of Black Magnolias
Literary Journal, and the author of seven
books, including four collections of poetry,
one collection of short fiction (Scripts:
Sketches and Tales of Urban Mississippi),
and one work of literary criticism (The
Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a
Creative, Musical Poet, Philosopher, and
Storyteller). He has presented papers
at national conferences, such as College
Language Association and the Neo-Griot
Conference, and his work has appeared in
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam,
Sable, New Delta Review, The
Black World Today, In Motion Magazine,
MultiCultural Review, A Deeper
Shade, New Laurel Review,
ChickenBones, and the Oxford American.
|
In January of 2009,
C. Liegh, along with eight other poets, was invited to
read poetry in Washington, DC by the NAACP for their
Inaugural Poetry Reading celebrating the election of
President Barack Obama. He has also been invited by
colleges and libraries all over the country to read his
poetry and fiction and to lecture on various topics,
such creative writing and various aspects of African
American literature, music, and history.McInnis is
editor of
Black Magnolias Literary Journal.—PsychedelicLiterature
*
* * * *
|
Are You Experienced?—The Jimi Hendrix
Experience
Are You Experienced?
Lyrics by Jimi Hendrix
If you can just get your mind together
Then come on across to me
We'll hold hands and then we'll watch the
sunrise
From the bottom of the sea
But first, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have
I know, I know you probably scream and cry
That your little world won't let you go
But who in your measly little world
Are you trying to prove that
You're made out of gold and, eh, can't be
sold
So, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have
Let me prove you . . .
Trumpets and violins I can hear in distance
I think they're calling our names
Maybe now you can't hear them, but you will
If you just take hold of my hand
Oh, but are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful . . .
from Jimi's 1967 album Are You
Experienced |
* * * * *
|
Are You Experienced
By Jimi Hendrix
Widely recognized as one
of the most creative and influential
musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix
pioneered the explosive possibilities of the
electric guitar. Hendrix's innovative style
of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled
distortion created a new musical form.
Because he was unable to read or write
music, it is nothing short of remarkable
that Jimi Hendrix's meteoric rise in the
music took place in just four short years.
His musical language continues to influence
a host of modern musicians, from George
Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to
Jonny Lang.
Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny
Allen Hendrix at 10:15 a.m. on November 27,
1942, at Seattle's King County Hospital, was
later renamed James Marshall by his father,
James "Al" Hendrix. Young Jimmy (as he was
referred to at the time) took an interest in
music, drawing influence from virtually
every major artist at the time, including
B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy
Holly, and Robert Johnson. |
 |
Entirely self-taught, Jimmy's
inability to read music made him concentrate even harder
on the music he heard.
Al took notice of
Jimmy's interest in the guitar, recalling, "I used to
have Jimmy clean up the bedroom all the time while I was
gone, and when I would come home I would find a lot of
broom straws around the foot of the bed. I'd say to him,
`Well didn't you sweep up the floor?' and he'd say, `Oh
yeah,' he did. But I'd find out later that he used to be
sitting at the end of the bed there and strumming the
broom like he was playing a guitar." Al found an old
one-string ukulele, which he gave to Jimmy to play a
huge improvement over the broom.
By the summer of
1958, Al had purchased Jimmy a five-dollar, second-hand
acoustic guitar from one of his friends. Shortly
thereafter, Jimmy joined his first band, The Velvetones.
After a three-month stint with the group, Jimmy left to
pursue his own interests. The following summer, Al
purchased Jimmy his first electric guitar, a Supro Ozark
1560S; Jimmy used it when he joined The Rocking Kings.
In 1961, Jimmy left
home to enlist in the United States Army and in November
1962 earned the right to wear the "Screaming Eagles"
patch for the paratroop division. While stationed at
Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Jimmy formed The King Casuals
with bassist Billy Cox.
 |
After
being discharged due to an injury he
received during a parachute jump, Jimmy
began working as a session guitarist under
the name Jimmy James. By the end of 1965,
Jimmy had played with several marquee acts,
including Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke,
the Isley Brothers, and Little Richard.
Jimmy parted ways with Little Richard to
form his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue
Flames, shedding the role of back-line
guitarist for the spotlight of lead guitar.
Throughout the latter half of 1965, and into
the first part of 1966, Jimmy played the
rounds of smaller venues throughout
Greenwich Village, catching up with Animals'
bassist Chas Chandler during a July
performance at Cafe Wha? Chandler was
impressed with Jimmy's performance and
returned again in September 1966 to sign
Hendrix to an agreement that would have him
move to London to form a new band.
Switching gears
from bass player to manager, Chandler's first task was
to change Hendrix's name to "Jimi." Featuring drummer
Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, the newly
formed Jimi Hendrix Experience quickly became the talk
of London in the fall of 1966. |
The Experience's
first single, "Hey Joe," spent ten weeks on the UK
charts, topping out at spot No. 6 in early 1967. The
debut single was quickly followed by the release of a
full-length album
Are You Experienced, a psychedelic musical
compilation featuring anthems of a generation.
Are You Experienced has remained one of the most
popular rock albums of all time, featuring tracks like "Purple
Haze," "The
Wind Cries Mary," "Foxey
Lady," "Fire,"
and "Are
You Experienced?"
Although Hendrix
experienced overwhelming success in Britain, it wasn't
until he returned to America in June 1967 that he
ignited the crowd at the Monterey International Pop
Festival with his incendiary performance of "Wild
Thing." Literally overnight, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
became one of most popular and highest grossing touring
acts in the world.
Hendrix followed
Are You Experienced with
Axis: Bold As Love. By 1968, Hendrix had taken
greater control over the direction of his music; he
spent considerable time working the consoles in the
studio, with each turn of a knob or flick of the switch
bringing clarity to his vision.
Back in America,
Jimi Hendrix built his own recording studio, Electric
Lady Studios in New York City. The name of this project
became the basis for his most demanding musical release,
a two LP collection,
Electric Ladyland. Throughout 1968, the demands
of touring and studio work took its toll on the group
and in 1969 the Experience disbanded.
The summer of 1969
brought emotional and musical growth to Jimi Hendrix. In
playing the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in August 1969,
Jimi joined forces with an eclectic ensemble called
Gypsy Sun & Rainbows featuring Jimi Hendrix, Mitch
Mitchell, Billy Cox, Juma Sultan, and Jerry Velez. The
Woodstock performance was highlighted by the renegade
version of "Star Spangled Banner," which brought the
mud-soaked audience to a frenzy.
|
Nineteen sixty-nine
also brought about a new and defining collaboration
featuring Jimi Hendrix on guitar, bassist Billy Cox and
Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. Performing as the
Band of Gypsys, this trio launched a series of four
New Year's performances on December 31, 1969 and January
1, 1970. Highlights from these performances were
compiled and later released on the quintessential
Band of Gypsys album in early-1970 and the
expanded
Hendrix: Live At The Fillmore East in 1999. As 1970 progressed, Jimi
brought back drummer Mitch Mitchell to the
group and together with Billy Cox on bass,
this new trio once again formed The Jimi
Hendrix Experience. In the studio, the group
recorded several tracks for another two LP
set, tentatively titled First Rays of the
New Rising Sun. Unfortunately, Hendrix was
unable to see this musical vision through to
completion due to his hectic worldwide
touring schedules, then tragic death on
September 18, 1970. Fortunately, the
recordings Hendrix slated for release on the
album were finally issued through the
support of his family and original studio
engineer Eddie Kramer on the 1997 release
First Rays of the New Rising Sun.
From demo recordings to finished masters,
Jimi Hendrix generated an amazing collection
of songs over the course of his short
career. The music of Jimi Hendrix embraced
the influences of blues, ballads, rock, R&B,
and jazz a collection of styles that
continue to make Hendrix one of the most
popular figures in the history of rock
music. |
 |
Source:
Amazon.com
* * * * *
 |
Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience
By
Janie Hendrix and John McDermott
The electric, bodacious, extraordinary life
of Jimi Hendrix as told through text, rare
photographs, removable documents,
reproductions of memorabilia, and a
70-minute audio CD.
Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience
illuminates the life of the musical icon who
pioneered a new generation in rock and roll
with his explosive electric style. With
exclusive access to the private family
archives, co-authors Janie Hendrix and John
McDermott tell the vibrant and unique story
of Jimi's life, from his formative years in
hardscrabble Seattle through his short-lived
days in the eye of a fanatic and dedicated
public, to the aftermath of his sudden death
and the wake of his legacy. |
An indispensable addition to any
music lover's library, the book is a truly interactive
experience, featuring reproductions of drawings from
Jimi's childhood, his rare handwritten song lyrics, and
never-before-seen archival photographs. In addition to
30 interactive features, the book includes a 70-minute
audio CD with interviews and commercially unreleased
recordings of live concert music and a Record Plant jam
session. While listening to Jimi work out musical riffs,
while holding pieces of the ephemera that chronicle his
life, you will experience Jimi Hendrix the way you were
meant to: in full color.
* * * * *
|
Fire
Lyrics by Jimi Hendrix
Alright!
Now dig this baby!
You don't care for me,
I don't care about that.
You got a new fool,
Hah, I like him like that.
I have only one burning desire,
Let me stand next to your fire.
[Let me stand next to your fire] Hey, let me
stand next to your fire
[Let me stand next to your fire] Oh, let me
stand baby
[Let me stand next to your fire] Let me
stand
[Let me stand next to your fire] Yeah baby
Listen here baby,
Stop acting so crazy!
You say your mom ain't home,
It ain't my concern.
Just don't play with me,
and you won't get burned.
I have only one itching desire,
Let me stand next to your fire
[Let me stand next to your fire] Yeah, let
me stand next to your fire
[Let me stand next to your fire] Let me
stand
[Let me stand next to your fire] Oh, Let me
stand
[Let me stand next to your fire] Oh
Oh, move over Rover,
And let Jimi take over.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about
Yeah!
Get on with it baby!
That's what I'm talking about.
Now dig this!
Ha!
Now listen baby!
You try to give me your money,
You better save it babe.
Save it for your rainy day.
I have only one burning desire,
let me stand next to your fire.
[Let me stand next to your fire] Oh, let me
stand
[Let me stand next to your fire] Let me
stand baby
[Let me stand next to your fire] I ain't
gonna do you no harm
[Let me stand next to your fire] Oh
Yeah!
You better move it baby . . .
I ain't gonna hurt you baby . . . |
* * * * *
|
'Scuse Me While I Kiss the
Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child
By
David Henderson
Most reviews of this book do not understand
what David Henderson is up to. Henderson is
an artist in his own right and his biography
of Hendrix is a great read. Henderson is an
artist forged in the same cultural milieu as
Hendrix. Henderson was an important figure
in the Black Arts Movement and he is working
in the New Journalism tradition (Hunter
Thompson, Thomas Wolf, etc.) so don't expect
generic writing and a presentation of
"facts." This is a poetic biography and it
brings Hendrix to life. If you are put off
by "slang" and are appalled by any deviation
from the New York Times Style Sheet you
should probably skip this book, but if you
want to spend some time digging Jimi, his
triumphs and tragedy you should get this
book. If you were not at Monterey Pop, or
Woodstock, or the Berkley Community Theater
in 1970 when Hendrix dedicated the show to
the Black Panther Party, you should get this
book-- it is the next best thing to being
there.—
Keith , an Amazon reviewer |
 |
The New Journalism began on the Lower East Side in the
mid-sixties when poets and fiction writers became
reporters for The East Village Other, mother of the
Underground Press. David Henderson was one of the
pioneers of the style. He combines his gifts as a poet
and a reporter in
'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, and the result
is a rewarding and unique reading experience. It is part
thriller and part lament for some tragic lives who
enlivened an exciting decade.—Ishmael
Reed
David Henderson's
biography of Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child
of the Aquarian Age—first published in hardcover in
1978—was described by Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone
as "[t]he strongest and most ambitious biography yet
written about any rock and roll performer." The
paperback edition was retitled 'Scuse Me While I Kiss
the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix, and in this
smaller format, extensive interviews from the original
edition were omitted. Nonetheless, all previous editions
sold more than 300,000 copies and created a new standard
for writing about popular artists, especially musicians.
Henderson's
biography helped to rescue Hendrix from an unfair,
erroneous association with drug decadence and recognized
him as a true musical genius. The Hendrix legacy still
thrives, and Henderson has more to reveal and further
insight to offer about the man who remains regarded as
the greatest rock and roll guitarist of all time.
'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo
Child is the newly revised, updated, and
expanded edition of the definitive, most beloved
biography of the man behind the legend. It melds the
original text, which featured Hendrix's voice in
complete interviews, with new material—to the extent
that Hendrix could easily be described as the coauthor
of this work.
Henderson now
offers information that was initially difficult to
obtain in the years immediately following Hendrix's
death. With the passage of time, originally reluctant
informants have come forward, and many of the cover-ups
and legal battles have been resolved. All of this has
shed new light on Hendrix's life, as well as on the
circumstances surrounding his mysterious death. This
edition includes more of Hendrix's personal writings,
and goes more in depth about his romantic life and the
music—its creation, problems, and triumphs—as
scholarship and recognition of his importance have
deepened over time. While revealing essential
information about his untimely death, it reads like a
grand adventure novel but includes salient cultural,
political, and historical background. David Henderson
wrote this biography as the result of a promise he'd
made to Jimi at Ungano's nightclub in Manhattan in 1969
to write something solely about him. The rock legend had
read and liked Henderson's piece in Crawdaddy—one
of Hendrix's favorite magazines—on his concert with Sly
Stone at the Fillmore East. Little did either man know
that they would forever be connected by this timeless
and important biography.—Atria
Publishing
* *
* * *
All Along The Watchtower—Jimi Hendrix
|
All
Along The Watchtower
Lyrics by Bob Dylan
"There must be some way out of here" said
the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion", I can't get no
relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig
my earth
None of them along the line know what any of
it is worth.
"No reason to get excited," the thief he
kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that
life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and
this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is
getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the
view
While all the women came and went, barefoot
servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began
to howl.
album: "John Wesley
Harding" (1967) |
*
* * * *
|
Black Magnolias Literary Journal is
a quarterly that uses poetry, fiction, and
prose to examine and celebrate the social,
political, and aesthetic accomplishments of
African Americans with an emphasis on
Afro-Mississippians and Afro-Southerners. We
welcome pieces on a variety of African
American and Afro-Southern culture,
including history, politics, education,
incidents/events, social life, and
literature. All submissions are to be made
by e-mail as a word attachment to
psychedeliclit@bellsouth.net . Each
issue costs $12.00, and a year’s
subscription is $40.00. |
 |
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
 |
Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
|
* *
* * *
|
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
 |
* *
* * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
posted 8 October 2010
|
