Old Detroit Bars

[softailrider]

Okay, here's a dumb question. How do you pronounce "Sabbs"? Is it like sobbing, crying, or is it like Sabbs like Dad's?

I always heard it pronounced like the car " Saab" Of course, that doesn't mean it's correct.

[RickBeall]

Okay, so sob like in crying. . That was my first guess. ;-)

[dookie joe]

Okay, here's a dumb question. How do you pronounce "Sabbs"? Is it like sobbing, crying, or is it like Sabbs like Dad's?

We always called it Sabbs, as in "Dad's" -- not "sob's."

And, btw, we always pronounced the Golden Ducat Bar as "doo-cat," not "duh-ket." Why, I don't know. Probably because we was stoopid.

[RickBeall]

Dookie Joe has a Ph.D in Cass Corridor lore. So Sabbs like "Dads" and "doo-cat" it is!

[dookie joe]

Dookie Joe has a Ph.D in Cass Corridor lore. So Sabbs like "Dads" and "doo-cat" it is!

Nah, no PhD here. I flunked because I spent too much time sniffing glue in Brainard Park instead of going to class.

[Bodybagging]

Dookies pronunciations of Sabbs and the Ducat, are how we always said it.
LOL Dookie at Brainard Park, I once had a gang of older girls, hold me down in the large wood playscape thing and play with my nono parts... they then sent me home smeared in lipstick....
I think I was 7 or 8.......

[RickBeall]

Ha ha ha. ... smeared in lipstick.

[Bodybagging]

Sure now its funny, but you try explaining it to your 70 year old grandparents...., add in the fact that I had skipped sunday school to be there....

[RickBeall]

And I can imagine how a 7 year old boy would feel with "GIRLS" lipstick all over him. A little skinny boy madder than a wet cat. Ha ha ha. Ooops, did I laugh again? ;-)

[dookie joe]

Dookies pronunciations of Sabbs and the Ducat, are how we always said it.
LOL Dookie at Brainard Park, I once had a gang of older girls, hold me down in the large wood playscape thing and play with my nono parts... they then sent me home smeared in lipstick....
I think I was 7 or 8.......

That's hilarious. You know, tricks would pay good money to have that done to them!

I, too, was jumped by a gang of girls. It was 6th grade at Pelham Middle School, and a bunch of girls chased me to the bus, hitting me with their book bags, most of which had Master Locks attached to the end. Those things hurt! I don't recall exactly why they were chasing me, but I vividly remember the chase itself!

Ah, girls. Don'tcha just love 'em?

[RickBeall]

So you were hit with Master Locks by Goldie Locks! Lucky you were not pelted with oranges man, it might have ruined you for life. ;-)

[dookie joe]

The Hastings Street song was kind of a slice of life song, describing what you would see if you knew everyone, as you walked up Hastings Street. I could write a talking blues, imagining I am walking up 3rd street. It would be good to have a list of businesses/activies and people associated with them. I could mention your Mom multiple times since she worked in so many places. Colorful characters, colorful events, names and nick names. Judges, hobos, sports stars, ladies of the night.

I remember reading on a different thread in Detroit Yes, that the Old Miami was a pretty rough place before new management took over in [[I'm guessing the early 1970s). The waitresses would turn tricks in the back room. [[I can jump around a bit in the song.)

The song about Hastings Street remains long after the street and its life is gone.

All this talk about the Corridor prompted me to write a song about growing up there in the 70s. I wrote it a few weeks ago, and have been tweaking it until now.

It's written from the perspective of sitting on the front porch on Cass, watching the neighborhood pass me by. Because it's set back in the 70s, I tried to give the song what my friend called a "Fat Albert" feel. Hope you like it.

Here's the url:

http://lordza.zftp.com/brick_in_my_pocket.mp3


"Brick in my Pocket"

All day sitting / lonely watching
the blurry faces / and the hollowed-out eyes
Don't think I need to walk a mile to knock it
I'd rather sit here / with a brick in my pocket

Muggy days and the slow-moving cars
Driven by people keeping up with their Jones
Laugh aloud then they roll up and lock it
They don't know / I got a brick in my pocket

Ooh yeah, I gotta wait another day
Watch the sky from a south side alleyway

Cass Avenue / Superfly do it
Run it down on folks who don't give a damn
Roll over every time they rock it
I'm looking on / with a brick in my pocket
Something tells me/ there's trouble brewing
Snake eyes / just a gunshot away
You want love, baby, we don't stock it
All I can give you / is this brick in my pocket

Oh, no, I'm stuck another day/
Looking out from a south side alleyway

All night, sitting / lonely, watching
Showing your business / in your black kinky shoes
Play the game, baby / don't talk it
Say hello to the brick in your pocket
I got a likely story / I went to school for it
You don't believe me now what else can I do?
Hang your curve and / I'll sock it
Rounding Third / with a brick in my pocket

[RickBeall]

That is excellent! Dookie Joe I didn't know you were a musician. Very funky! The vocals are great. Excellent! Do you play the funky keyboards? Or is a MIDI file? It's so hard to tell nowadays.

Man, you make me embarrassed about when I finally trot out my song. Your song is much more polished than mine will be. My songs also tend to be a little rhymically challenged.

[Bodybagging]

Dookie! One word for your song, AWESOME!
Wow hell of a job.

My car windows have met their fair share of bricks from someones back pocket...

[RickBeall]

Call me dumb!
Okay, so tell me, what is this thing about a brick in the back pocket anyway?

A real brick would not fit in a back pocket. A brick of marijuana would not fit. Is it a "poor mans" defence against the indignaties of the world, the biggest stone that will fit in a back pocket to defend yourself with, that you might throw or bludgeon someone with?

[dookie joe]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the kind words. Rick, none of that's MIDI-fied. Everything on there is me playing/singing, other than the drums, which are loops. The "kazoo" sound is me making that sound with my mouth and then running it through a sawtooth distortion.

As far as what the title means..."brick in my pocket" in the first reference means something weighing me down. Growing up poor white trash in the Corridor gives you a bit of a chip on your shoulder as well as an inferiority complex. That manifests itself into a "me against the world" feeling, which is what the "brick" is in the second reference: The suburbanites are driving past me in their slow-moving cars looking for dope or a hooker, and yet they're also looking down on me for being poor Corridor trash. Well, guess what? They don't know I've got a brick in my pocket, and I'll smash their fooking windows out!!!

The brick in other areas means dope, a boner, or just something that's weighing you down.

I can't wait to hear your song....don't be "embarrassed" if it isn't "polished." I love anything, music, writing, painting or whatever, as long as it comes from the heart. To me that's way more important than polish. Hell, anyone with money can buy a $100,000 mixing board and spend another 20 grand on recording software and a fart into a microphone will sound polished! But it definitely won't have come from the heart!

[RickBeall]

Wow, and the keyboards were great too!

Dookie, have you played in any local bands? Your mixing and subtle use of effects makes it sound like you have been a musician for a long time.

Meanwhile, I better watch out for that brick in the pocket!

The title for my song is going to be "The Fast Talking Cass Corridor Blues". I think.

[usa1]

Remember the Adams Palms, Danny's Gin Mill, Brass Rail?

[dookie joe]

Wow, and the keyboards were great too!

Dookie, have you played in any local bands? Your mixing and subtle use of effects makes it sound like you have been a musician for a long time.

Thanks...yeah, I've been at it awhile. Mostly recording at home, but I've farted around in a few bands since the 1980s. Most recently I was the lead singer/keyboardist for the Lords of Delray, an original band that lasted from about 2001-2007.

In 2003 we put on The Isle of Zug Pop Festival in Delray. It was a blast. Our guitar player lived in Delray at the time, and we figured all the festivals [[Shop Your Block, etc.) were in the other part of SW Detroit, and Delray, which really needed some festivities, always got neglected. It was great. We got McDonald's, Motz hamburgers and Dearborn Sausage to donate food, which we passed out for free to the residents. I came out of my pocket to pay for a portable basketball hoop and we had a shoot-off [[most consecutive free throws won the hoop). Our buddies from the Fire Department Delray station came out with their truck and the little kids got to play on it. And of course, we had several local bands and rap acts. It was a blast...plus the name [[which my guitar player came up with) was great: The Isle of Zug Pop Festival. We were going to do it every year and get T-Shirts drawn up, etc. But we figured the one time went so perfectly, so why ruin the memory?

Now, the big annal party in the 'hood is RuboFest, which is held in a backyard right behind that big round blue house Leo Gillis [[Jack White's brother) used to own. Leo resembles his famous brother, and we used to mess with other bands and tell them it was Jack White! They'd do a little extra jumping around during their sets, thinking they might get signed!

The title for my song is going to be "The Fast Talking Cass Corridor Blues". I think.

That sounds cool...can't wait to hear it. There was a dude in the Corridor my brother and I nicknamed "Fast-Talkin' Juice" because he talked so fast; he'd stumble over his words talking so fast, and nobody knew what the hell he was was talking about!

[dookie joe]

Remember the Adams Palms, Danny's Gin Mill, Brass Rail?

That's going back awhile, although all three ring a bell. Where were those bars located?

[RickBeall]

The "Lords of Delray". What a great name! "The Isle of Zug Pop Festival ". Ha ha ha. Another great name. The "Isle of Zug" has kind of a cross between science fiction/Polish ring to it.

The "RuboFest", that sounds like a fun, off the wall festival, maybe I'll try and attend next July.

[woooof]

i played at ducat -had a band called the Lords

[dookie joe]

i played at ducat -had a band called the Lords

Wow, when was this? I don't remember bands being there, so it must've been some time ago.

I lived right across the alley from the Old/New Miami, and I remember bands being there. I was a kid, 7-8 years old, so the loud music got on my nerves! I think that was back when Mitch Ryder used to play there.

But I don't recall the Ducat having bands. I'm 44 years old, and it seems my Corridor experience as a young kid during the '70s was different than what a lot of older people experienced there.

More than anything, we used to laugh at the pimps, and throw things at their cars. Pat Dorn, the guy with the long, long beard who is a Corridor icon and a lifelong friend of my family, once saved my life after I'd been caught by a pimp whose car had gotten scratched by a crushed can my brothers and I threw at his yellow car. The pimp caught me in the alley and his ho jumped out and said, "ooh, look at what he did to your car." There was a scratch on the door. The pimp started walking toward me menacingly, fists balled, and Pat yelled out "what's going on there?" He pretended he was my dad and dragged me away before the pimp could do anything to me.

Sorry to go off on a tangent...there are just so many stories to tell about that crazy old neighborhood.

p.s. Pat Dorn could also be a viable candidate for "Mayor of the Cass Corridor."

[dookie joe]

The "Lords of Delray". What a great name! "The Isle of Zug Pop Festival ". Ha ha ha. Another great name. The "Isle of Zug" has kind of a cross between science fiction/Polish ring to it.

The "RuboFest", that sounds like a fun, off the wall festival, maybe I'll try and attend next July.

It's open to anybody who doesn't act a fool. It's an absolute blast. SW Detroit has some of the best musicians anywhere....after the Rubofest in '03, I wrote this song called "Vernor Highway," in honor of the cool vibe at that year's party. That was a Lords of Delray song -- John Tully's on guitar, Dennis Sullins on bass, the drums are loops; I'm singing lead, John and Dennis backup. Hope you likes it:


http://lordza.zftp.com/vernorhighway.mp3


Another day and the / sun is shining on me
My song is playing so I / turn up the radio and
My window's down and I'm / moving slow 'cause
Something cool come blowing my way
Pretty girls on Vernor Highway

Just say the word and the / party gets goin' and the
People come flowin' when the / vibe's a'glowin and ya
Ride out the day and you / rule on the night 'cause
They're gonna leave when you beg 'em to stay
That's how it goes on Vernor Highway

It's gettting late but everybody's hangin'
'Cause they don't wanna stop the party when the
Music is swingin' so we
Keep on jammin' till the po-lice turn us off and
Bring an end to another fine day
Another day on Vernor Highway

[Bodybagging]

Hey Dookie, The Ducat had live bands, the only reason I remember this is that one of brothers was supposed to babysit me when I was about 5, and we ended up at the ducat after 9pm with him dancing with Whores as he told me. For whatever reason the Band stood out in my memory thru-out the years.Being my moms kid had a few kickbacks. She later came in and all hell broke loose for him having me out.