Feb
23
I didn’t have much time to spend with him, but it is always interesting sitting in the company of Satan.
Sterling Magee
Sterling Magee, AKA Mr. Satan, was born May 20, 1936 in Mt. Olive, MS. The amazing thing is, not too many people know about him. Yet together with Adam Gussow, a harmonica player, he helped redefine the blues as we know it today. In fact, they , “redefined and shaped the sound of modern blues so much that ‘I Want You’ from theirHarlem Blues debut was included on a Rhino Records release, Modern Blues of the 1990s.”
Magee sings in a style that fuses blues with elements of soul and rap, plays electric guitar with withering intensity, and uses both feet to stomp out polyrhythms on a homemade percussion setup that includes hi-hat cymbals topped with tambourines and maracas. To some, he is the greatest one-man-band to ever live. To others, he is a blues staple.
Born in Mount Olive, Mississippi, Magee was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he came of age dabbling as a piano player in local churches and suffering his parents’ ire when he drifted into the blues. As a young man he worked local blues clubs under the monicker “Five Fingers Magee” and was billed as “the fastest guitar player in the world.” After a stint in Germany as a U.S. Army paratrooper in the 1950s, Magee was demobilized in New York and ended up settling in Harlem. A sometime-songwriter for Jesse Stone, Magee recorded several near-hits on Ray Charles’s Tangerine label in the early 1960s, including “Get in My Arms Little Girl.” His proficiency on guitar earned him gigs with a number of rhythm-and-blues performers, including James Brown, King Curtis, Big Maybelle, Joey Dee and the Starlighters, and a transvestite duo known as The Illusions That Create Confusion. In the mid 1970s he played sessions with Paul Winley and the Harlem Underground, a loose-knit unit that included George Benson.
In the late 1970s, after the death of his wife, Magee gave up guitar, roamed widely through Mississippi, Florida, and Puerto Rico, and returned to Harlem reborn, refusing to be identified by his birth-name and demanding that his associates call him Satan. His longtime friend and business manager, Harlem producer and record-store owner Bobby Robinson (of the Fire and Fury R&B labels), rented him an apartment and put a guitar in his hands. Soon Magee was strolling the streets, playing for what he later referred to as his “wino buddies.” By 1983 he had added a hi-hat cymbal to his mix and begun to perform as a one-man band on 125th Street in front of the New York Telephone Company office, sometimes accompanied by drummer Pancho Morales and other musicians.
Around this time, he would meet Adam Gussow, and form the duo Satan and Adam. What began as a streetside encounter ended up blossoming into a twelve-year success story. The duo’s initial notoriety accrued in the summer of 1987, when the members of U2 wandered by Magee and Gussow with a video crew in tow, capturing the Harlem duo at work. Thirty-nine seconds of Magee’s original composition, “Freedom for My People” were ultimately included in the Rattle and Hum documentary.
In 1991, the pair went on a world wide tour with Bo Diddley, playing all over the US and Europe. They even released an album. In 1996, they were the first bi-racial blues pair to appear on the cover of Living Blues Magazine.
After a charmed rise, the duo’s fortunes took a disastrous downward turn in 1998 when Magee, who had recently relocated from Harlem to Brookneal, Virginia, had a nervous breakdown and, after briefly resurfacing, dropped completely out of sight. Satan and Adam effectively dissolved as a partnership.
After a long silence, Magee has recently come back into view. He is currently living at the Boca Ciega adult care facility in Gulfport, Florida, a small community next to St. Petersburg. His guitar skills, which vanished with his breakdown, have partially reconstituted themselves with the help of harpist T. C. Carr and other Tampa-area blues performers who have dedicated themselves to furthering his comeback.
This is my interview with him at the Boca Ciega facility.
Me: Do you prefer to be called Sterling Magee, or Mr. Satan?
SM: Well, both. Whichever way is fine.
Me: So, jumping right into it – did you ever hear about the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil? What do you think about that?
SM: Well, seems I came accross that story a time or two, yes. I do beleive though it was practice and not the devil.
Me: So you think he got that good by shear practice?
SM: Umm hmm that’s right.
Me: So I know you got your start into music on the piano. What first got you interested in the guitar?
SM: Well, the first time I saw one, I fell in love with it. Just wanted it then.
Me: Without even playing one?
SM: Well, ya see, it is a rhythmic instrument. And easier to carry than a piano. Loved me one as soon as I seen it. Yessir.
Me: I know you moved to St Pete from Mississippi a long time ago. Did you ever make it over to Central Ave, or the Scrub in Tampa?
SM: Seems I got through there once or twice, yessir. Back when I was running with Don Cassalano and the Skyliners. Went on down to Central then. I think he dead now though.
Me: Wow. What was it like?
SM: Well, you know.. It was there. Just another place at that time.
Me: So out of all the people you performed with, who was your favorite?
SM: Well, me and myself!
Me: So you liked the whole one-man-band thing?
SM: Well, yes and no. Had its ups and downs, just like anything else.
Me: Some say you are the greatest one-man-band to ever play. What do you think about that?
SM: I’d have to say I agree! Better than any other I heard.
Me: What kind of set up did you prefer? What did you play?
SM: Well, had me my guitar, and a couple of rider cymbals. Can play a little harp too, but not like I can do the guitar.
Me: Besides yourself… I mean – what about Bo Diddley? What was it like playing with him?
SM: Oh, now that was fun. had some real times then. Yessir. That was good times. Sad to hear he passed, too. Was a good man.
Me: So who else influenced you? Who was your favorite pre-war bluesman?
SM: Hmm. John Lee Hooker.
Me: I also heard you were on the DVD for U2 Rattle and Hum. How was that?
SM: Oh, I was up in Harlem, performing on 125th street. Them guys came through, and stopped to hear me. I talked to them for a while, then they moved on. They was pretty nice though, um hmm.
Me: If you could say anything to the younger blues fans, what would you say?
SM: Just practice. Practice don’t make perfect, but it damn sure helps!
Me: You and Adam (Gussow) were also the first mutli-cultural pair to appear on the cover of Living Blues….
SM: That was nice. Beautiful. Loved that very much. Never read it though.
Me: You really haver accomplished a lot. You also played at the Apollo?
SM: It was just another gig. That’s all it was.
Me: You were also inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. And what about being the guitarist for the Yakkity-Yak song?
SM: Oh, with the Coasters? Yeah, it was real good while it lasted.
Me: Why didn’t it last?
SM: They wanted to travel. I wanted to stay put – had the love of my life around me then.
Me: Well, finally, you did do some traveling. Of all the places you have been, where was your favorite?
SM: I’d have to say Germany. Loved that food! Great place, just loved it.
Me: Alight, Mr. Magee, I’m going to let you go eat your food now…
SM: Thanks! And do come back now….
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