I heard somebody refer to BankAmericard recently. It’s been 50 years or so since they changed the name. (I raised my kids to call Nissans Datsuns, but I don’t care about credit cards.) I thought of Albert Collins, whose 1978 album Ice Pickin’ contains Master Charge, a song that used outdated names for Mastercard and Visa to complain about the bills his wife ran up shopping with them. He said it was $500 the first day (about $1900 in today’s dollars). Me, I live near a fancy shopping block in Chicago, and the prices in the windows there are very high. I don’t know what’s expensive any more.
Collins was a superb blues performer. I saw him at Biddy Milligan’s on Sheridan Road in the late ‘70s. He earned his nickname of Master of the Telecaster that night. He was part showman, part shaman as he used all of his 100-foot guitar cord to dance through the revolving door as he was playing a solo. He encouraged the folks on the sidewalk to come on in, and then danced back through the door without missing a note.
I’ll get to the four albums of his I have. I wanted to tell the story about BankAmericard and his remarkable performance while Master Charge was stuck in my head.
converselyspeaking 