ANDRE WILLIAMS was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1936, migrating with his family to Chicago when he was a child. After the death of his mother in 1943, he was sent South to the care of his grandparents. The North-South transition was unbearable for young Andre, who was to return to live in the Windy City with his father, a steel mill worker.
With little parental supervision, Andre traded into a penny ante career as a juvenile delinquent, barely escaping Illinois State Reformatory by using his older brother’s ID card to enlist in the US Navy. His career in the Armed Forces came to a halt when it was discovered that he was underage.
As a civilian once again, he chose to avoid the pitfalls of Chicago and relocated to Detroit, Michigan, where his musical legend began, on joining the Five Dollars, and with writing and recording for the legendary Fortune Records label. Bacon Fat, Greasy Chicken, and the extraordinary Jail Bait would be the tip of the iceberg of Andre’s musical contributions. From his start at Fortune in the 1950’s, he went on to work at Motown with Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells and the Contours. He produced (and co-wrote) the Five Du-Tones’ 1963 hit “Shake A Tail Feather” ( #28 on BILLBOARD R&B charts) and wrote Alvin Cash’s 1965 R&B chart topper “Twine Time”. In the late sixties, he produced solo hits including the standout “Cadillac Jack” for Chess Records. He has composed several hundred recordings and continues to be one of the most widely collected and respected of original soul and rhythm & blues artists.
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| Photo by Jacob Blickenstaff |
Hard drugs eventually took a toll on Andre, leaving him homeless and destitute. In 1995, his career was revived by George Paulus, who produced the acclaimed comeback album GREASY for Norton Records. Andre continued to record for Norton, as well as for In The Red, Bloodshot and Pravda, while touring internationally to great acclaim. The 2007 film AGILE, MOBILE, HOSTILE documented a year in Andre’s life. With the return to constant touring and performing came a return to old vices. He was in and out of short-term rehabilitation, but always, there was the return to hard habits. Hitting the age of seventy without a permanent address and with his health rapidly deteriorating, Andre checked into a six week program at a Chicago substance abuse facility.
At a friend’s urging, he began trying to write fictional stories, in an attempt to keep his mind and hands busy. Writing became his self-imposed rehabilitation, and his hand scribbled no holds-barred tales evolved into a short set of various-length entries which he immediately began referring to as “The Book”. This debut volume from 73 year old Andre Williams is Sweets (And Other Stories). The title story is a narrative novelette which takes you for a wild ride from Chicago to Houston, New Orleans, and New York City, as a teenage girl finds herself in a family way, without a family. Forced to fend for herself, she is taken under the wing of a local pimp who entices her into prostitution. The adventures that follow are a free for all foray through the fantastic world of pimps and their women, funeral directors, gangs and drug running, with sidebar anecdotes that are guaranteed to appall, alarm and astonish.
Extreme entries remain unedited, and none of Williams’ raw drawl storytelling style has been tampered with in this standout fiction debut. Sweets is the first hip-pocket paperback from New York publisher Kicks Books.
BUY THE BOOK HERE!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANNOUNCING... KICKS BOOKS
ANDRE WILLIAMS • SWEETS • CHICAGO BOOK LAUNCH • KB1
Dateline: New York City
Kicks Magazine announces KICKS BOOKS, posh pocket paperback originals!
The debut title from this singular new imprint is SWEETS (AND OTHER STORIES) by entertainer Andre Williams. It is the first fiction effort from the 73 year old Williams, who first entered the public eye by denting the BILLBOARD Top Ten charts in 1957 with dance ditty Bacon Fat.
SWEETS is a narrative which takes you for a wild ride from Chicago to Houston, New Orleans, and New York City, as a teenage girl finds herself in a family way, without a family. Forced to fend for herself, she is taken under the wing of a local pimp who entices her into prostitution. The adventures that follow are a free for all foray through the fantastic world of pimps and their women, funeral directors, gangs and drug running, with sidebar anecdotes that are guaranteed to appall, alarm and astonish. Extreme entries remain unedited, and none of Williams' raw drawl storytelling style has been tampered with in this standout fiction debut.
The creation of SWEETS was unique, as the writing process in itself served as the reconstructive vehicle for the author's six-week stint in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Upon entry into the forty-two day program, Williams called upon longtime friend Miriam Linna at Kicks magazine, for moral support. Linna encouraged him to give fiction writing a try, if only to wile away the long days ahead at the center, and agreed to work with him to see him through the project.
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Andre Williams was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1936, migrating with his family to Chicago when he was a child. After the death of his mother in 1943, he was sent South to the care of his grandparents. The North-South transition was unbearable for young Andre, who was to return to live in the Windy City with his father, a steel mill worker. With little parental supervision, Andre traded into a penny ante career as a juvenile delinquent, barely escaping Illinois State Reformatory by using his older brother's ID card to enlist in the US Navy. His career in the Armed Forces came to a halt when it was discovered that he was underage. As a civilian once again, he chose to avoid the pitfalls of Chicago and relocated to Detroit, Michigan, where his musical legend begins, joining the Five Dollars, and writing and recording for Fortune Records. Bacon Fat, Greasy Chicken, and the extraordinary Jail Bait are the tip of the iceberg of Andre's contributions to popular music which span these early, 1950's compositions to working at Motown with Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells and the Contours, to producing (and co-writing) the Five Du-Tones 1963 hit with Shake A Tail Feather ( #28 on BILLBOARD R&B charts) to writing Alvin Cash's R&B chart topper Twine Time in 1965 to delivering late sixties solo hits like Cadillac Jack to Chess Records.
* * * *
The design of KICKS BOOKS is an tribute to vintage PBO paperback originals, from the "tall" seven inch format of Signet Books, to the line art reduction of the Kicks Books pompadour logo (a nod to Avon's similar depiction of their mascot, the old Bard, William Shakespeare) to the inclusion of adverts in the end pages, which was common practice for independent softcover publishers of the past. The KICKS BOOKS imprint hatched out of KICKS magazine, which this year celebrates its thirtieth anniversary.
You're invited! Join KICKS BOOKS in celebrating Andre William's arrival as an author! Andre will read from SWEETS and will be on hand for a Q&A session and book signing. DJ party to follow featuring Andre Williams music selected and spun by DJ John Phillips!
See why Nick Tosches says, "Andre Williams has proven himself to be a survivor. The stories he has here written deserve to survive as well. They most certainly deserve to be read, as the rewards they offer are many and fine. Heed what I say. Otherwise you got nobody but your own self to blame."
November 14 (Saturday) 7 PM Phyllis' Music House, 1800 West Division St, Chicago 60622 tel (773) 486-9862 Reading, Q&A, book signing, record spin of Andre's music by DJ John Phillips.
Memo from Andre
Don't ask me
How I came this far
I don't even know myself
I've done lived out one life
Now I'm working on two
I born in Bessemer, Alabama
Moved to Chicago
At the age of six
My mother and dad
Was at the prime of their lives
And that was when I lost my Mother
At the time I realized
It was gonna be rough
Dealing with this
Thing called life
Boy!!!!!
It is gonna be tough
My Daddy tried to
Raise us two boys
Fresh out of the country
That was a little
Too hard
I met a few rich folks
And I've met a few crooks
I've been through life's
Ups and downs
And I've read a few books
I've been through quite a few hospitals,
Some I stayed a while
All the rest I didn't stay long
I've done some things right
And I've done some things wrong
I been in jail a couple of times
But I didn't stay long
I drank my share of whiskey
And I drank my share of gin
But here I am, I got a smile
On my face again
But let me tell ya
Dem damn drugs almost
Did me in
I've changed religions
A time or two
But! Old Andre!
Ain't a damn thing in
This world I wouldn't do
And there ain't too many
foreign countries (that)
I haven't seen
Met some good women in my life
An d I met some down right mean
I made a lotta money in my life
But I just wasn't able to keep it
Never thought the day would come
That I would see it and weep it
So here I am, I got a smile
On my face again
Thankin' Mos High
Looks like I win again
Andre Williams
(P.S. For more information on me, read the book)
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A Word from Nick Tosches
From his foreword to SWEETS
...And sure as the God in that Baptist church in which he sang as a boy was made of plaster, those juices surely did flow; and from them grew this book, which is to be taken more seriously than most other books that are published in these gone-dead days. Andre Williams is a real, natural-born, blown-in-the-glass writer, the kind they hardly ever make anymore. When I first peered into this book and saw the words “Sweets got in the cab and asked the driver to take her to a good fortune teller,” I was mesmerized, drawn in by what I knew to be a rare new voice in American fiction.
Andre Williams has proven himself to be a survivor. The stories he has here written deserve to survive as well. They most certainly deserve to be read, as the rewards they offer are many and fine.
Heed what I say. Otherwise you got nobody but your own self to blame.
Kicks Books Website!
NICK TOSCHES was born in Newark, New Jersey and is the author of three novels, eleven books of non-fiction,and three volumes of poetry. His books include: Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Dino: High Living In The Dirty Business Of Dreams, Where Dead Voices Gather, In The Hand Of Dante, and Chaldea. He lives in New York City. Born in 1949, may be the youngster in the Kicks Books pantheon, but he has outlived us all with his dangerously candid storytelling, that walks a thin wire between the carefree and the blunt. Tosches can send our mind teetering on a ledge with some far-flung new historical fact (he triple-documents every bit of history told) and pulls us back in with a point-blank segue, edged with a promise that somehow this new tidbit it related. Tosches is, without a doubt, one of a greatest historical writers alive, and the only one who wrestles with the dark side on a regular basis. Kicks Books is privileged to bring forth this double-barreled music biz/dark side/historical hip pocket tome, straight from the hand of the master. 
