Testimony of a Dreamer

By David C Williams

ITestimony of a DreamerIAlong with a thirst for rhythm and blues music our young innercity dreamer Macmillan Charles McKinney discovers that he also has an unquenchable desire to discover the truth about his culture of people Yet while on his quest for the truth about AfricanAmerican history he also discovers a social injustice that creates in him an anger of outrageous proportion Venture down Bea

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 6, 2006
• ISBN: 9780595826964

David C Williams

A visionary who classifies himself as a folklorist. The author attended a Tennessee based business college and he is a long-term veteran in the railroad transportation operations industry. Over the years he has accented his understanding of the human quest by attending a variety of seminars conducted by various prominent leaders, many of whom shared priceless wisdom. By people that know him best, he has a reputation of being a fair and just man with up standing values. He also encourages others to grow, learn, and become productive citizens of our world.

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CHAPTER 1

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On the roads that I have traveled I’ve had my share of up beat moments and some down beat ones as well. The good and bad in my life have always been joined together like hand and glove. But through it all, I learned that the ups and downs, a life filled with both good and bad, equals the two sides of the same coin. I concluded that nothing in life is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it may seem. For me to acquire my fame and fortune, a harmony between good and bad became a necessary merger.

Throughout the many varied experiences of my life, I’ve become a successful songwriter, nationally acclaimed poet, author of five best selling novels of fiction and personal manager to many of the stars in the world of entertainment. I’ve also accumulated and currently maintain a balanced portfolio of long and short-term investments that yield me very well. Combined, my enterprises constitute what I refer to as a homemade conglomerate. These are just a few of the many things that have made me famous and financially independent. I have a good life and I will honestly say that being wealthy can only be described as an indescribable luxury, but what fame can do to your privacy; it can be an indescribable pain. I’ve earned a fortune in my life, although I wish I could get rid of the fame.

Because of my involvement in high profile ventures, investments and etc., my agent markets my talents by promoting me on television, radio, in magazines and through other forms of the media. I like talking to the media, or any one else about business, human rights and many other topics of importance, yet talking with people who wanted to pry into my personal life was one cost of fame I’d refused to pay. When I’ve been interviewed in the past they never really wanted to talk very long about my holdings or the music business, it seems more to me like they always wanted to get into my personal business, fishing for dirt, and that’s why I don’t usually give personal interviews. Actually, I would refuse to give this interview, I’m already in the position that I need to be, but for the sake of my agents creditability, and since the magazine is sending a crew out here to my home, I guess I’m going to go ahead and do it. But, they better watch their P’s and Q’s.

Right from the onset of this interview and through its conclusion I must remember that contrary to thought, the bitter always comes with the sweet. So when I’m talking to the interviewer and asked sensitive questions, I’ll focus on the good, evade the bad and try my best to blow off the ugly. No matter how hard they may try to get me to say some things, there’s just no way that I’m telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, not about my life. After all, who really needs to know all of the sorted details about the many changes one must encounter and endure while going through the process of making a dream come true?

Everyone may not have secrets, but everyone knows of some things that they would rather not have publicly known. With this in mind, I think I might be better off if I try to keep the interviewer in check by maintaining control of the directions of our conversations. As a matter of fact, with all of the changes that my family and I have gone through over the years, I just might want to review some of that stuff before even trying to talk about it. I really have to be cautious, very careful about what I say because I don’t want the things that were good in my life to come out sounding bad once they’re translated to print. I have a lot of treasured memories, and I don’t want them being misunderstood on the account of a mistranslation. Yet in a review of my past, it does bring a smile to my face every time that I remember my Uncle Jack telling me his little anecdote about how I’d won him a bet.

You know, he’d say, "you wasn’t born in a hospital like most. Your Mama Gloria was too stubborn to believe that it was her time. She waited too long. It was the middle of the night when she finally screamed loud enough for everybody in the house to know that it was her time. After hearing her scream, Mama called old Doctor Westman and got him to come out to the house in the middle of the night. While they were in the house taking care of stuff, your Daddy and I, we were sitting on the porch trying to be cool under the circumstances. Charles started talking about how nice it might be to have a little girl. He mumbled out something about how a little girl just might make him slow down his roll.

Boy I’m telling you, that Daddy of yours was a jack-of-all-trades. He was always into something. But anyway, he figured that if you were a girl he would have to straighten up his life and not be such a wild seed. He said that if he had a daughter, she might be just what it would take to make him try a little harder to walk the straight and narrow.

I understood what he was saying. If it was a girl, he wanted to put his best foot forward and set a good example. But you know I never really figured out what he thought having a boy would do to him. Anyway, I looked him right in the eyes, smiled and said, Charles, I don’t know who you trying to impress. Who you really trying to fool, yourself or me? Boy or girl, it ain’t gonna make no difference whatsoever. Man we both know that you gonna stay just as buck wild and hard nosed as ever. But let me tell you what the real deal is. You gonna have a boy and he is gonna be a split spiting carbon copy image of you. That is what the cards hold for you brother-in-law.

Daddy was a gambler. Immediately he jumped at the opportunity to make a wager. You want to make a bet? Money, money and mo money, put the cash where your mouth is Jack. How much you got to lose brother-in-law?"

I don’t want your little cash, I got money, but since you just emptied the booze bottle, I’ll bet you one fifth of Black Bull straight corn sipping whiskey. It will be a boy and we’ll have drink to celebrate, no doubt.

It didn’t take long to determine the winner. Within ten seconds of Daddy saying to Uncle Jack, That’s a bet, the sounds of my yelling voice came resounding through the air. On that note, my Uncle shouted, Pay up brother-in-law! That’s your little man shouting at the world right now.

In just that short of time my Daddy had lost a fifth of Black Bull sipping whiskey, but he’d gained a son. After cracking the seal on that bottle of whiskey to celebrate my birth, Daddy also gave Uncle Jack the honor of naming me. My name is Macmillan Charles McKinney.

Uncle Jack has always considered me as his lucky charm, and every since he told me that tale of my beginnings, I’ve felt comfortable simply calling him Unk. He is my most trusted friend, and as an uncle, a person to guide me, he never misses a beat. At the impressionable age of seventeen Unk allowed me a unique freedom of expression that has become priceless in my life. If not for him I may not have found the path that led to the beginning of my success. Uncle Jack made me the business proposal of my lifetime; he introduced me to the business of music.

CHAPTER 2

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Memphis, Tennessee, nineteen hundred and sixty seven, at the beginning of the school term I was seventeen and in my senior year, but by the end of the first day of that school term, I was already sitting around pouting because I was dreading being bored with another humdrum year of classes. In the past I’d been a good student, but if the teachers could’ve maintained my interest, I would’ve been an even better one. Last year my assignments came to me with such ease, I found it more interesting to cheat on a test, just to see if I could outsmart the instructor. Getting away with cheating had become a greater challenge than merely passing the test. I had no real reason to believe things would be more challenging this term, but I certainly hoped so.

With nothing exciting to look forward to during the upcoming school year I sat at home moping and sighing until Unk entered the room. All excited, he said, I need you to help me manage a teenage rhythm and blues band.

I’d grown to have a voracious appetite for rhythm and blues music and was virtually ecstatic over Unk’s offer. I welcomed the chance to bring my passion into the folds of such a creative world of art. Yet I was perplexed. I didn’t understand why he’d asked me. I had no management experience or any musical background. I couldn’t play any instruments or sing a song. Truth be told, I could hardly dance. But I finally realized what did qualify me. Unk understood that because of the age difference between he and the band, he needed someone closer to their age that he could trust.

Before Unk and I began to talk strategy about how we could pull off such a hustle as the music business, I said to him, Unk, I’ve never heard you talk about getting into the music business before. I know you’re into a little bit of everything, but I didn’t have the slightest idea you had an interest in the music industry. How’d you come up with the idea to manage a band?

"Mackey, I’ve got an interest in anything that can make me a dollar bill, but this is how it all happened. Do you remember a little crumb snatcher who would use our garbage cans for drums when we lived on the south side? His name is Grady.

Yeah I remember him, as a mater of fact, we were pretty tight until we moved. After that we kind of lost track of each other.

"Well, just let me tell you. I ran across him last night at Billy’s club. Your old friend is in a band. Man, they were kicking natural fire up in that juke joint last night. That Grady, the boy simply amazed me. He played that set of drums like he was Al Jackson and the band was Booker T. and The MGs’. Man, that group jammed so hard, I just had to go up after the set and say hello to the little brother. After I started to talk to him and told him who I was, right in the middle of our rap, he started to tell me about his band. He told me about how pleased the band was with the progress of their new sound. Then he summed it up by saying that their problems were cropping up because they didn’t have anyone to properly handle their business matters. Guess what? He asked me to become their new manager. Ain’t that something?

Now I already know why I’d make a good anything, but still, I asked him, What makes you think I’d be any good at that?

Well Mr. Jack, Grady said, I ain’t trying to get up in your business and all of that, but I’m a little familiar with your reputation. You know almost everybody in town, and that’s definitely a plus when it comes to booking gigs. You also know how to make a buck. With all due respect, I’ve heard some good things about your family’s history in the industry. I think you know how to make us successful. But in all honesty, I’m asking you because I don’t think that you’d cheat us.

But, you know what Macky? Unk said, "I’m gonna need you to help me handle those young pups. I’m a few years out of their range to be able to relate like you can. I know you can handle it. You can rest assured that I’ll always have everything under control, and I’ll back you up one hundred and one percent. Mark my words partner, together we can come up with