
          He Is The Blues
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 11, No. 4, 1989, p. 22
          
          Erstwhile blues guitarist Lee Atwater, a former member of the
Howard University board of trustees, is the subject of a new song,
"The Man Who Would B.B. King," by Nashville song writers Marshall
Chapman and Gary Nicholson. The single was released in July on
on the Bush-League Records label.
          "The thrust of the song is here's a guy courting black musicians
and playing black music, but at the same time he's slicing social
programs and knocking the legs out from under poor blacks
everywhere," said Nicholson, who performs on the record as
"Little Willie Horton."
          Atwater made news during the Bush inauguration by hosting a rhythm
and blues concert featuring Bo Diddley, Billy Preston, Percy Sledge
and other black performers. Atwater got on stage with his guitar and
played (poorly) with them and since then has formed his own blues band
to perform at GOP fundraisers.
          "What I want to know," asks Nicholson, "is how can you
attack Jesse Jackson on one hand and praise B.B. King on the
other?"
          Co-writer Marshall Chapman is, like Atwater, a South Carolina
native. Chapman is chief executive of Bush-League Records. Although
she has released five solo albums and written songs that have been
recorded by Tanya Tucker, Sawyer Brown and Jimmy Buffet, she calls the
Atwater spoof "the real stuff...Dan Quayle may be our next
target."
          Samples of the Atwater spoof lyrics include:
          
            How could he really know thc songs he sings
          
          
            This man who would be B.B. King?
          
          
            When he's meetin' with the President
          
          
            And planning what to do
          
          
            Whoa, does he think about his 'brothers
          
          
            And what they're going through?
          
          
            A Republican singing blues is as farfetched as can be
          
          
            It's like Einstein playin' football
          
          
            It just don't make sense to me.
          
        