Koko Taylor, September 28, 1928 - June 3, 2009

by: Blue Girl

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 01:30:00 AM CDT

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Brit taking that job turned out to be one of those things that worked out awesome for me.  Because Brit had that job, I did the job for a couple of years in my late 30s that I should have done in my 20s, but better late than never.  

I had just brought teh kiddles to Kansas City so they could have a contiguous and shared high-school experience, and one or two afternoons a week, I would pop in and say hi to Brit.  I hadn't lived here and didn't know that many people, and the way schedules worked out, if I wanted adult conversation I went to see her at the bar during the day (I was working weekend option, nights, back then, so I had my weekdays free.)  Sometimes while I was hanging out with her, Roger Naber, who owned the joint back then, would come in while I was there.  I am still not exactly sure how it happened, but somehow I ended up working there for a couple of years doing whatever needed to be done, basically working as a personal assistant to Roger.  I think he noticed I was drinking club soda most of the time and started asking me to do him favors because I was sober.  It really did just evolve from there, but I know exactly when it occurred to me that I was working in the bar.  I found myself standing in the middle of the dance floor one afternoon with Roger talking to me in one ear on my cell phone, Rick from Southern Culture on the Skids talking in my other ear on the bar cordless, and that night's act in front of me and pissed off that they are at the Days Inn by KU Med instead of the Plaza Seville Best Western, and apparently I am what is wrong with this fucking business, or so I was told over and over by bands when they found out what hotel Roger had me put them in.

Anyway, I did everything from hang handbills on light poles to serve drinks when bartenders or waitresses missed a shift for whatever reason, to negotiating a discount rate for a whole bunch of rooms at the Days Inn when Polyphonic Spree comes to town and all sorts of things in between, including playing Marcia Ball's piano for a sound check, walking off the stage and getting busy handling the accommodations for then-Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius who was attending that nights show.

One of the people I was fortunate enough to meet and share some laughs with, because my friend Brit went to work at the GE, was Koko Taylor.  She was wise and sassy and classy and sharp and fabulous, and I am so glad I had the chance to meet her.  By the time she and I crossed paths, I was over being awed by Roger and realizing why he was so damned successful...he's a prick.  Not an insufferable prick, just enough of a prick to get by in the music business - which makes him what qualifies as 'one of the good guys' in that bidness.   Koko knew Roger was a prick, too.  I remember the first time I met her like it was yesterday.  I think I was listening to Roger tell me to do a bunch of stuff I had already done or had in the works and I was probably rolling my eyes.  Roger was giving his speech about how things are different when a big name was playing, which by this point I knew was bullshit.  I listened for a minute then I interrupted him and said "What's different Roger?  Will the bathrooms be cleaned?"  I heard a deep laugh behind me, and when I turned around, there stood Koko Taylor, with a mischievous look on her face.  We hit it off instantly.

The last time I saw her was nearly four years ago.  Koko played the Rhythm & Ribs Festival at 18th and Vine on Fathers Day weekend 2005, and I covered it for one of the music magazines published here in town.  Roger had sold the GE to the folks who own the Beaumont Club a year before.  The place was no longer open during the day so musicians no longer hang out in the dark of the bar while the sun is up.  The eight-songs-for-a-buck jukebox full of old 45's is gone, and so are Harry and Gunfighter Bob.  It's lost the juke-joint feel.  It's been remodeled and made into a nightclub and you can stand to inhale in the vicinity of the mens room.  

It totally sucks.  

Koko and I commiserated about the demise of the Grand Emporium from it's former glory as a dive with great music to just another fucking nightclub.  I told her about branching out into political blogging, and asked her what she thought of that young fellow from Chicago who had knocked my socks off with his speech at the nominating convention in 2004.  She laughed and told me to 'keep an eye on that one' because he was gonna go far.  

I'm so glad that she got to see exactly how far he made it - that she got to see him not just elected and sworn in, but doing such a terrific job and enjoying such overwhelming popularity.  When I saw her in 2005, the conversation moved to race and generational attitudes after we talked about the man who would be elected president just over three years later.  I told her that it really, truly doesn't matter to the generation of kids the age of my children, and she said "Lord, I hope you're right Cupcake."

Thanks for the memories Koko.  I'll miss you.  When I heard you were gone, I cried like a baby...

*No, you may not start calling me Cupcake now.  When you win a Grammy, we'll talk about it.  Until then, stick with BG.