WEBVTT

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So I'm going to read a few--

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There's some poems
in this book that

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are in the voice of
Jack Johnson's shadow.

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So I'll read some of those.

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OK.

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So when I was
working on this book,

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I had this idea
that what I would do

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is I needed-- he needed a foil.

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So his wife and his mistresses
talk about the action,

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and talk about him, but
nobody calls him into account,

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and makes him tell the truth.

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And so, that's him
getting ready to jam.

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But I thought he
needed somebody.

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And I thought about Richard
Pryor's character, Mudbone.

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Does anyone know who Mudbone is?

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So Richard Pryor
had this old man

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that he created who would talk
about Richard Pryor and all

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the things that Richard
Pryor did wrong.

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So Mudbone would be like,
"That boy messed up.

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He set himself on fire
with a crack pipe."

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And I thought, wow,
what an exercise,

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like a mental exercise to
be talking about yourself

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in a persona.

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So I created the shadow that's
like Mudbone for Jack Johnson.

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"The Shadow Knows."

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From day one, we aspire to be
more than the average Negro.

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None of that yassah, boss, and
watermelon-rind smile for us.

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We want quail cooked in butter.

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We want gold where the
gap tooth should be,

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clarity for the Negro character.

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We want high style and
clothing, gold rings

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on our fingers like
Greek architecture,

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and a gold pocket
watch in our vest coat,

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more women than coats, white
women in our architecture.

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We want peculiar and
instinctual satisfactions.

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We want to be the prize
fighter as main attraction--

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the heavyweight
champion of the world.

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When we rise up, the whole
Negro race rises up with us.

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When we get to the
top, it's just us.

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No use for Negroes then,
not even ourselves.

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