La lista de ciegos geniales de la música es larga (Lemon Jefferson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, …), y Willie McTell ayuda a confirmar la teoría de que la atrofia de un sentido agudiza otros. Su voz es TAN personal y profunda que incluso Bob Dylan llegó a decir, en su famosa canción homónima de nuestro personaje de hoy, que nadie puede cantar el blues como él lo hacía. En esta canción, posiblemente mi preferida de Dylan, hasta su voz me parece a la altura de la de los grandes. De la letra, ¿qué se puede decir?:
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem.”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, I heard the hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
(And) see the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
(I can) hear the undertaker’s bell
(Yeah), nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, God is in heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Como todo músico antiguo de blues, la vida de Willie McTell no estuvo exenta de dramas y anécdotas. Al igual que Robert Johnson (o en su máxima expresión Elvis) su muerte estuvo envuelta en un aura de misterio; lo que, al producirse el boom del folk en los 60, provocó que mucha gente asegurase haberlo visto en los más diversos sitios de los Estados Unidos. Lo más curioso de su biografía es que cada vez que entraba en un estudio de grabación tenía que usar un seudónimo diferente (Blind Sammie, Georgia Bill, Hot Shot Willie, …). Eran otros tiempos …
Os dejo con una canción suya, “Statesboro Blues”, que dos grandes grupos de los 60 versionaron de manera excelente, dos grupos que ya han aparecido previamente por estas páginas: los Allman Brothers y Taj Mahal. Lástima que en youtube no salga la última:
Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low
Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low
Have you got the nerve to drive papa McTell from your door
My mother died and left me reckless, my daddy died and left me wild, wild, wild
Mother died and left me reckless, daddy died and left me wild, wild, wild
No, I’m not good lookin’, I’m some sweet woman’s angel child
You’re a mighty mean woman, to do me this a-way
You’re a mighty mean woman, to do me this a-way
Going to leave this town, pretty mama, going away to stay
I once loved a woman, better than I ever seen
I once loved a woman, better than I ever seen
Treat me like I was a king and she was a doggone queen
Sister, tell your brother, brother tell your auntie, auntie, tell your uncle, uncle tell my cousin, cousin tell my friend
Goin’ up the country, mama, don’t you want to go?
May take me a fair brown, may take me one or two more
Big Eighty1 left Savannah, Lord, and did not stop
You ought to saw that colored fireman when he got that boiler hot
Reach over in the corner, hand me my travelin’ shoes
You know by that, I got them Statesboro blues
Sister got ‘em, daddy got ‘em
Brother got ‘em, mama got ‘em
Woke up this morning, we had them Statesboro blues
I looked over in the corner, grandpa and grandma had ‘em too
Willie McTell:
Allman Brothers:
