This insight is of such importance that American Heritage magazine (December 1994) selected the Chess brothers as among the 10 most important agents of change in America since 1950 with the following comment:
- "The Chess brothers made records that helped transport African-American culture, especially its language and music, to its central place in American culture...The Chess brothers' story is one in which greed and inspiration swirled together in a characteristically American pot where the ingredients did not so much melt as alloy in a metallurgical sense: steel guitar, electricity, and vinyl transmuted into a wholly new cultural substance."
In his autobiography I Am the Blues, Willie Dixon tends to minimize Leonard's contributions as a producer, indicating that his main contribution was to rile up the musicians in the studio with a string of friendly curses and then leave them to take out their frustrations on the music (Leonard was notoriously crude, answering the phone with a "Hello, Motherfucker").
However, an ability to bring out the best from musicians is one of the very definitions of producer. Also, it was in Dixon's interest to play down Leonard's input in that Dixon was also a producer and writer with the company, and felt rather unappreciated by the Chesses, especially financially.
Perhaps inadvertently, the Chesses contributed to the perception that they were exploiters of black music by downplaying their personal interest in that music. They both claimed to be "just businessmen." Perhaps this attitude stemmed from some vestigial Old World notions of hierarchy, division of labor, or even the unseemliness of the music that they produced. Perhaps downplaying an affinity for the music helped the Chesses maintain emotional distance from their artists - many of whom they clearly took advantage of financially with recording, publishing and personal appearance contracts that screamed of inequity, but were standard for the time.
This is what Marshall should have said.
And, for good or for ill, the Chesses were clearly paternalistic: they "took care" of their most important artists. Muddy Waters worked with them for 20 years without a contract; they paid for the funeral of a destitute Little Walter; Howlin' Wolf grumbled but stuck around, and the like.
The fact that the director Levin doesn't pin Chess down on any of this, or even give the other side ANY creedence, leaves a huge hole in history and dooms his film to failure.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
interesting E, leaving the historical holes out of it...my favorite part really was the reunion segment of the Electric Mud band and the hip-hop thing.
oh well, to each his own.
2 - Eric Olsen
I like the music the band played both in the reunion and on the original Electric Mud record, but it didn't mesh with Muddy on the original, and it really sounded cobbled together to me on the new recording. the process was interesting, even fascinating, but the result didn't work for me. Perhaps more "bluesy" rappers than Chuck and Common would have made a difference.