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Piano Red:
Memories of Dr. Feelgood
by Murray Silver Jr. and Isaac Abbott

"The Doctor is here, folks. I'm tellin' you - I get it from the universe, and as the Old Man sent it down to me tonight, I'm gonna send it right out there. And I'm gonna tell you somethin': Music is medicine. I take care of more people than any doctor in the world. I use music to do it. And I'm gonna fix you up tonight where you will be feelin' good for three weeks after I'm gone."

- Piano Red, introduction to his live broadcast on WAOK, 1954-68

In May 1982, following the publication of Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis, Atlanta author Murray Silver Jr. began compiling notes for a college text on the history of popular music in America. Using the scores of interviews he had conducted over the past six years for a variety of magazines as his foundation, he concentrated on finding the last remaining blues artists to perfect the record before they got away. Willie "Piano Red" Perryman was the first name on Silver's list.

Perryman had fallen on hard times. His steady gig as house pianist at Muhlenbrink's Saloon in Underground Atlanta had ended two years before, and he had a hard time finding work. His health was on the decline, and he worried about finding enough money to pay the bills on his small house on Winthrop Drive in Southeast Atlanta that he shared with his son and a parade of homeless kids. He hoped Silver could find merit enough in the story of Piano Red to warrant writing a book and make a few dollars. Silver set about the task only to discover that Perryman's recollections would not amount to a book-length manuscript, and the notes from their conversations were set aside.

Perryman died on July 25, 1985. Since then, Arhoolie has reissued the best of his recordings (Atlanta Bounce) and his work has stood the test of time. However, biographical notes are sketchy and interviews with Perryman are non-existent. In an effort to preserve his story, Isaac Abbott has transcribed Piano Red's testimony exactly as it was related to Murray Silver 20 years ago in the living room of Perryman's residence.

THE FACTS

I remember when we first moved from Hampton, Ga. I was 6 years old [1917]. I was born in Hampton. It was about 32 miles from Atlanta.

I wanna get back to the facts: For years my daddy was a farmer and he had a large family. There was four of us boys, four girls, mama, and papa. That made around 10 people, you see.

We lived on a plantation owned by Mr. Davidson. Back in them days, men grabbed tree limbs to whip lazy workers. One day Mr. Davidson come up to my daddy and said, "Henry, where is that gal?"

My daddy said, "If you talkin' 'bout my daughter Sally, she's there in the house. I don't know about that gal you talkin' about."

Mr. Davidson said, "Tell her to come out here. I'm gonna give her the whippin' of her life."

My daddy said, "Naw, I don't think you gonna whip that chile o' mine. You may have some Negro chillun, but you ain't got any over here. Nobody whup no chile o' mine but me or they mother."

Mr. Davidson stepped toward the porch. My daddy picked up his six-shooter shotgun that he kept inside the front door - it was a .38 Smith and Wesson long-barrel pistol - and cocked it. "Make another step an' I cut you in half." Negroes didn't talk to white folks like that unless they meant it, and my daddy meant it.

(continue to part 2)

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