There's a great yarn I heard about Foote and his buddy Walker Percy driving up to William Faulkner's manse in Oxford from Greenville back when they were in high school. Percy lost his nerve and stayed in the car, while Foote ambled up to the big house door and rang the bell. None other than Old Count Nocount hisself answers it and invites young Shelby in for a grand old Delta parlor chat. As somebody who's always been given to looking backward, I'll miss the old boy too. He and the late John Chancellor, two utterly dissimilar voices but equally warm and rich, made that Ken Burns series in my estimation.
I asked you about Stax earlier, and then jsut noticed while reading the liner notes of my Rhino issued "Best of Booker T and the MG's" that this October will mark the 30th anniversary of the tragic murder of Al Jackson Jr. Both great losses for the city of Memphis and American culture for that matter. It's be sweetly ironic to think old Shleby's antisociety inclinations may have been rooted in a preference for languid evenings at home with Kentucky Bourbon and Green Onions of the Hi-Fi variety.
That's a good story, Cap'n. BTW, I just read in the local paper where they are raising the fee to tour Rowan Oak, Lord Corncob's Oxford estate.
I regret to say I've never visited it. In fact, I've only been to Oxford a couple of times, but I thought it was a lovely place.
I'll have more on Foote soon.
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