Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t have any hits we were working. We’ve been on the road for three hundred and twenty days out of a year. Sometimes three hundred and fifty.
We worked the South a lot. My mother always told us that we could do anything. She has seven children, all of them boys. You ever heard of Ricky Bell? He is a top college football player, and he is my brother.”
    At a quarter to one, McDougal, who had been busy all this time taking pictures, announced that it was time to make the first stop. The first stop was an autographing session at the record store Disc-O-Mat, which was a few blocks away from the hotel, and for the next nine hours this is what Archie Bell and the Drells did: At Disc-O-Mat, they autographed fifty records and about twice that number of publicity stills, and Archie Bell also autographed pictures of Ricky Bell. At a quarter past two, they went to Leviticus for rehearsal. At four o‘clock, they left Leviticus and taxied up to the midtown offices of Cash Box, the music trade magazine, for an interview with a young reporter, who asked them questions like “Do your producers make you feel comfortable in the studio?” and “I’ll confess that I’m a little ignorant about what you guys have been up to, so how about if we kind of clear this up?” On their way out, they met Steve Ostrow, the man who compiles the weekly album charts for Cash Box, and he told them that their new album had just débuted on the charts at No. 183. At five o’clock, the Drells took a taxi to their hotel, and Archie Bell went off to a Nunn Bush shoe store to buy a pair of shoes. At half past six, they were back at Leviticus for the party, wearing the same clothes they had been wearing earlier. There were lots of black people at Leviticus. There were even some easily recognizable black people there. We picked out
Lou Rawls, the singer; David Ruffin, the former lead singer of the Temptations; Don Covay, the important R. & B. singer from the sixties; and Harold Melvin, of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. At eight o‘clock, Archie Bell and the Drells disappeared into the dressing rooms at Leviticus to change into their show clothes. At half past eight—show time—they reappeared, and they were quite incredible to see. They were wearing identical white skin-tight jumpsuits that had gold studs and brown bells running down the sides, and tight-fitting white bolero jackets over the jumpsuits, and white platform shoes. They sang most of the songs from their new album, plus “Tighten Up” and “I Can’t Stop Dancing.” The audience was very pleased, and cheered and danced. Archie Bell was very pleased. He said to us,”I could do this all day, all night.”
    â€” February 9 , 1976

Lunchtime
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    As the weather around here becomes more unbearable, little ways to divert yourself can become important. Nighttime is not a problem. You can take care of that by accepting every invitation that comes your way. Midday is another matter. What to do about lunch? So far, we have tried having it with different sets of people; we have tried having it with the same set of people; we have tried having it alone; we have tried not having it at all. Just the other day, we tried having our lunch while watching a Theatre at Noon production of Maria Irene Fornes’ play Dr. Kheal at St. Peter’s Church, which is on East Fifty-sixth Street, and this new way of having lunch was far better than anything else we had tried.
    There are two shows put on every weekday—one at a quarter past twelve and the other at a quarter past one. We took the early show. We got to St. Peter’s at noon sharp, taking our lunch along, as we had been given to understand we should do. At the door, we learned that there was no admission
charge but that donations were invited. We made our donation, walked in with a sandwich (ham salad) and a soft drink (ginger beer), and hoped for a good time. We