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FAREWELL TO THE QUEEN. KOKO TAYLOR DEAD AT 80.

posted on June 4th, 2009

It was with a bit of sadness that the FB3 sat down to rehearse last night because Lorrie announced that she had just heard on the NBC News that Koko Taylor had died. Her loss was a blow. She was the undisputed Queen of the Blues and a true blues legend. Flat Broke had a chance to open a show for her twice over the years, (once in Chicago and once here at Northern Michigan University in Marquette) and never has a more gracious and happy blues belter walked the earth. She was like a firecracker of a teenager onstage and like an ever-loving blues grandma off-stage. We will miss her deeply!

A FEW FLAT BROKE MEMORIES:

I remember the first time we opened for her at a show outside of Chicago, Illinois in 1996 or so. At the time, it was probably the biggest show Flat Broke had ever played, and it certainly was the most financially lucrative that we had ever done. My longtime friend and Flat Broke bassist Mark Johnson went up to meet Koko and he was a nervous wreck. After he came back, he was cool and calm. He told me that she took his hand and saw he was nervous and just talked to him while holding his hand like a grandma would and that was all it took. He was cool as a cucumber!

And I will never forget when she took the stage at that show and yelled out in her gritty southern drawl, 'How about a big round of applaw (she never said 'applause') fo dat FLAT BROKE BAND!' She may have not gotten the name exactly right, but the Queen had just thanked her loyal disciples! WOW!!

The other memory I have of her is when we opened a show for her at NMU about a year later or so. She put on one heck of a banging show and brought the house down with her high-energy stage show and undeniable presence. Over two solid hours of the 'get down'! Afterwards, she was in her dressing room with her foot all iced up and bandaged. Turns out her foot and ankle were all swollen up from a ripping case of the gout! You never would have guessed from the show she just put on! She was a CLASS-A trooper!

Rest In Peace, Koko!

-Walt Lindala

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