#514 The Sad Sweet Story of Sugar Lips Shine Hot, The Man
with the Portable Promised Land- Toure
For two months in the summer of 1942 there wasn’t a sax
player around that was as hot as Harlem’s Sugar Lips Shinehot. He blew the roof
off the clubs and couldn’t walk down the street without crowds of fans looking
for a handshake or an autograph.
“Time slid on and men from the record-makin companies came
callin wit contracts and promises bout makin him a big-time star. And Sugar
Lips was bout to sign one ah them contracts when somethin butted in.”
After a night at the club Sugar Lips was beat up by a pair
of drunken sailers looking for trouble. He was beat up so bad, he could no longer play the sax. In his despair the
Reverend Scratch shows up and offers his salvation. So she makes a deal with
this devil and is granted The Portable Promised Land, all white people
everywhere are now invisible to Sugar Lips, he can’t see them, ever.
That’s the true story-- “If I’m lyin, I’m flyin. And I ain’t
seen a feather all day.”
Notable Passage: “When you a negro white folks is like
doors. You got to go through them to get most anywhere…and when there ain’t no
door the door is jus bein built.”
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