Saturday Soundtrack: Boom Boom Boom

It is a strange thing how certain sounds and smells evoke memories. For example, there isn't a rainy morning that doesn't make me think of an M-16. Why? Because almost every time I went to the range to for my semi-annual qualification it was raining. (the one time it wasn't raining it was snowing.) Another gun memory I have is brought to the fore every time I hear John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom Boon".

John Lee Hooker was not a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but back in the mid-1990s, because I used to work at SF Weekly, his doorman used to let me in to his "Boom Boom Room" in the Fillmore without paying. Back then I never went out at night without I was always wearing a double breasted jacket with peak lapels and Star model S .380 ACP. I didn't feel invincible, but several people told me I looked scary. I think 11 years, 20 lbs of (more) fat, and hair on my head makes me look much nicer than I looked then. Sometimes a woman would feel the gun and ask if I was a cop. I would, of course, say no, but I didn't volunteer that I was an advertising salesman, either.

I only drew that pistol one time, when a crazy man tried to hit me with a cane. (this was about 3 a.m. on Eddy street in the Tenderloin.) I didn't even have to take the safety off or point it at him. As soon as he saw the pistol he fell all over himself to get away.

Anyway, here is the song. I still hear it in my head every time I walk in the Fillmore or the Tenderloin.