Springs Toledo (aka stonehands) has written a book about Harry Greb

He got the title damn right!

 

Does it say the print length is 94 pages?

 

Sweet. Great promo. No student film here ... SPESH !!!

 

His previous trilogy is exceptional!

 

94 pages? Sounds exhaustive.

I'll give him credit for the Kraftwerk bite.

 

Interesting.
Nice angle, releasing a book about Greb in 1919, in 2019.
100 years since Greb's prime.

Not sure about the title. Why not "Harry Greb : Hoochie Coochie Man" ? Makes about as much sense.
Then again, Greb books seem to have a tradition of dodgy titles (eg. "Save Him for the Angels", "Live Fast, Die Young")

I put it on the shelf next to "Luis Firpo: Born to be Wild", "Jack Dempsey: Gimme Shelter", "Sonny Liston: Jailhouse Rock" and "Sleepy Gene Tunney: Homecoming Queen".

 

Not sure about the title?! This by a dude whose ESB tag is a Clint Eastwood movie?!

Lemme explain in an attempt to show the sense it makes. "Smokestack Lightning" was written by Howling Wolf by the early 30s, which makes it close to contemporary for Greb. He said that he got the title when watching smokestacks on trains and how they sparked in the night. Greb hit something like 20 cities outside of Pittsburgh in 8 states in 1919 and travelled mostly by train (see book trailer). Pittsburgh was known for its steel mills and all that coal smoke that came out of smokestacks -the pollution there would blot out the sun at noon and travellers would comment about how walking about the city meant soot on suits.

 

And yes, 94 pages. That's why it's an eBook. It began as a feature I was going to pitch to Boxing News, but then it got too big. Murderers' Row was $30. This is a damn gift compared to that. $7.99. Sheeesh.

 

Yes. I agree. My username is crap.

Yeah, I got that the first time around.

Still, I'm not sure about the title.
Others love it.
Book looks interesting.

 

Anybody, anyplace, anytime? How about the Martini Man?

Looking forward to reading it.

 

I went back and forth on the title 17 times and was on the brink of scrapping because of reasons similar to your jokes above, you know -that song is from the 50s, what's that got to do with the 20s? But then I learned that song is much older than the 50s and that made it right given the imagery. The fact that SL is my favorite Blues song ever had no bearing. Yeah right.

Your avatar is Panama Joe Gans. He appears in the story to diminish Greb.

 

I'm a huge fan of that song too ! The fact that I've never associated it with Harry Greb or 1919 and Pittsburgh probably is why I found it jarring, (even though I appreciated the reference/imagery somewhat , trains and smokestacks of Steel Town, yep .. and Greb was as badass as the song and Howlin' Wolf's voice) ... . slightly anachronistic, yes ... and if I'm honest, I probably thought if used for boxing it better suited to a black fighter of the 30s/40s (a subject you know well !) .............. all minor points, and the height of nit-pickery .... and I probably wanted to crack some lame musical reference jokes, so I'm overanalysing now to justify that .... Like I said, I didn't dislike it, I just "not sure" ..... but it's starting to grow on me already !
If I'd known you'd deliberated on it 17 times, I would certainly have kept my mouth shut !

Book titles are a funny thing. Often authors/publishers seem to play it safe and go for DULL, which you didn't do. Fair play to you, sir.

I look forward to reading about Gans and Greb.

 

Man, I suffer over constructing titles. SUFFER. The urge to associate SL/Howling Wolf with black fighters is well-founded and that was another reason for my hesitation, but then again, Greb earned his respect in the black community because of his "all-comers"/"anybody, anyplace, anytime" motto. His manager said he'd fight a Ku-Kluxer in Ku Klux city and when Greb lost the crown to Flowers, Pittsburgh AA newspaper called him "our Greb" and damned Dempsey for not fighting Wills.

I'll say this -if you get it and read it come 1/1/2019 and still question the title, I'll not only be surprised, but I'll question my judgment because yours is an opinion I respect.

In the meantime, the link below may be a good prelim to Greb. I equate Greb with Norfolk and vice versa, so when I did "191 Edgecombe" Greb "the middleweight berserker" just had to figure in a little (as Norfolk will in SL):

https://www.city-journal.org/html/191-edgecombe-16042.html