num_pages: 384
description: Skip James (1902-1969) was one of the greatest Mississippi bluesmen, and a creative and idiosyncratic blues musician. His 1931 performances of "Devil Got My Woman", "I'm So Glad" and "22-20 Blues" transcend the genre. "I'd Rather Be The Devil" is a biography of James - and one of the few accounts of the dangerous and disreputable life of a professional blues musician. Based largely on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt paints a portrait of a man troubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of greatness in a life haunted by failure. And, in doing so, Calt offers insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.
language: English
title: I'd Rather Be The Devil
titlecomplete: I'd Rather Be The Devil
genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 143
publisher: Da Capo Press