Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Stumpin' in the Crates: Lester Maddox




I never took a trip on drugs and got turned on for crime, anarchy, alcohol, drugs and immorality because I took a trip down the aisle of my church in 1932 and got turned on for God.

-Lester Maddox, quoted on the back cover of God, Family & Country

I remember the first time I laid eyes on him. It was the summer of 1974, and Lester was on the campaign trail once again, preaching the gospel of states' rights and peddling a bicycle backward around the Jones County courthouse. It was the closest thing to a circus I had seen come through the little town of Gray, Georgia, and I was enthralled. I couldn't understand why my parents despised this little man. He wasn't a a threat, he was a clown, a flop-shoed circus sideshow performer. I begged my father to let me buy one of the little wooden souvenir axe handles he was selling.

-John T. Edge, Southern Belly

We kick off this new series with a record bought at a Georgia flea market, showcasing the talents of Lester Maddox, the segregationist governor of Georgia. There's a pretty extensive biography of the man on the back cover, laying out his philosophy and beliefs, but there's no mention of the issue of segregation (or even the euphamism "states' rights"), the issue which precipitated his entry into politics (when those big city yankees tried to tell him he had to let niggers eat in his restaurant), which won him the governor's seat, and with which he will forever be associated. The back cover bears the title "Lester Maddox Sings, Whistles, Speaks and Plays Harmonica." True enough, and the whistling is especially impressive on "Count Your Blessings." Here's the whole thing, in a .rar file:

Lester Maddox - God, Family & Country

2 Comments:

Blogger Muff Diver said...

Hey, Chris, I looked for a way to get ahold of you but I can't find an email addy. Not even in your profile.

Anyways, I have an interest in this Lester Maddox recording but like before, I'm not having any luck with the link.

Rather than clutter up your comments section I wanted to suggest an idea to you via email.

Let me know if you're interested. Cheers!

1/13/2012 3:17 AM  
Blogger Chris Oliver said...

You can contact me at laflizard at yahoo dot com. I'm trying to find these files, but I don't seem to have them. Maybe I decided that I was never going to use them, and that I could just get my own downloads if I ever needed them, and so deleted the files without saving them? I'm not sure. I don't have my digitizing set up right now, but maybe I can set it up again and redo these files (maybe put them on Mediafire or something). Anyway, drop me a line, I'll keep working on it.

1/13/2012 11:09 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home