from an interview with Geof Rogers of Blues Chat <fltline@ibm.net> at the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago.
Preface
Bo Diddley was in town for a benefit concert for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. Geof and I talked to Bo the night before at a dinner party. I tossed the idea to Bo of having a Bo Diddley Museum of Blues and Rock and Roll on Maxwell Street. His eyes lit up! He thought it was a great idea. And then he talked a lot about Maxwell Street and how important it was to him. The next day, Geof went to visit Bo at his hotel to catch on tape, for history, some of the conversation we had the night before.
Bo Diddley was a participant-witness during the formative years of Chicago Blues and at the transition from Chicago Blues to Rock n Roll. It's OK for Cleveland to have their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Chicago got the soul and the roots. Bo Diddley deserves to have this proposed new museum named after him because he's got heart and is connected in body and spirit to the people and culture that made this music. - Steve Balkin
I played on Maxwell Street from 1943-44. I was beating and banging around there at 14 years old. I lived at 47th and Langley. We went down there [Maxwell Street] on Sunday mornings and picked us a place and played. For kids, we were doing something…I'd like to see lots of other kids follow in our footsteps…people like me, Earl Hooker. I called him Zebedee.
Zebedee and myself went to school in that area…Foster Vocational School, 720 O'Brien Street, where I learned to make violins and guitars, and basses…stuff like that. I went back to look for the school a few years ago, and they had torn it down. I said to myself, 'Hey, what's goin' on…they tore my old school down. That's a low blow.'
I could see the decline in Maxwell Street. People told me some University had control, or was trying to get control, of the property. I want to know, 'Did the University help feed all these people that make their living from Maxwell Street…the merchants and the consumers that walk up and down the street looking for deals. They have to get deals because they don't have any money.'
It's like this…God made it possible for Maxwell Street to be there…it looks like the Devil is getting involved now.
This will put a lot of people on the streets that aren't able to pay a lot of big prices for certain items and have used Maxwell Street for bargains. Then you have all of the blues musicians…they aren't rich…they've got their hands out on the corners, passing the hat to feed their families. Some of them are so proud they don't want anything from the government…welfare and all this. They'd rather work a few hours down there and make enough money by playing and singing.
People look for them [the street musicians] just like they do me when they go to a concert. If they outlaw concerts then I'm in trouble. I feel like it [the closing of the Maxwell Street Market] is a low blow to the people that work Maxwell Street…it's just bad. I don't care who likes what I'm saying, it's just bad! I don't see nothing but bad here by this movement…you are going to put a lot of people in the streets.
They need rent money. They have been doing this for years. You have people who have been coming down there since Maxwell Street was [formed]. Where do they go now? What do we do with them? I feel like the people with the money are making the rules, but they aren't looking at the whole picture.
I say to Mayor Daley, and whoever else is making decisions here, 'Please look and think about what you are doing. There are new kids on the block, and they won't understand what you are doing. The children aren't going to be happy with you, with you putting their parents in poverty. They are already there, but you are taking them deeper. And they don't want anything from the city. They want to make their own money."
Cats like me, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Minnie, Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter Jacobs, all of us came to Maxwell Street. This is the backbone and the roots of what everyone is listening to today. It started right here. I don't care what anyone says, I was here, and I know about this. Also, the vendors are part of Maxwell Street. People come from all over for a Maxwell Street Polish sausage…the ones that they make and don't tell you what's in them.
I don't like what I ran into when I visited Maxwell Street. It's ridiculous. They are trying to push this on the people. They want to destroy one of Chicago's masterpieces. I don't know any city that has anything like Maxwell Street. People come from all over the world to see Maxwell Street to see what we have going on.
When I am overseas, people ask me about Maxwell Street. What do I tell them now? I just feel like all these people who want land should go out in the country where they grow corn and put up their buildings. Leave Maxwell Street alone! Leave it alone for the sake of people…don't cut their throats!
I'm Bo Diddley…to whom it may concern…you wouldn't want someone to come and buy a house you were renting and put you in the street. Think about it…Think about it…Think about it! Because Bo knows!
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