Muddy Waters International Airport
Its has a special ring to it, doesn't it?
If you know me even a little bit, you know much I love music. At some point every day I'm listening to some kind of music. The title of my blog is a song title. So thinking of this and then writing about it is natural to me.
I came up with this idea a couple of night ago. One of my cousins was in New Orleans and was getting on a flight from Louis Armstrong International Airport. Pretty sweet, right? I wonder if they call it "The Satch?"
If New Orleans can do this, why not Chicago? We certainly have enough musicians with their roots in Chicago to make this happen.
Yesterday, I Googled, "Musicians from Chicago" and was overwhelmed. I found hundreds of musicians in all genres of music. Classical, Jazz, Rock, Gospel, Blues....ah yes....Chicago Blues.
You might ask, why a musician? I'd say why not. Who else? Can you find a politician that everyone would agree upon? NO!!!
An athlete? How do Sox fans feel about Ernie Banks Airport? Cub fans, do you want to fly into Paul Konerko Field?
That's why I think a musician will work. Everyone loves music. We just need to find the one person we all can agree on.
It's probably easier to eliminate people. Let me tell you who it won't be....
You can eliminate all rock bands and rock solo artists. Sorry to Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder. It's cool you're at Cub games but not cool enough to get an airport named after you..at least not yet. As for the groups....well no one wants to fly into an airport name Earth, Wind & Fire.
I have a couple others for who this honor won't happen. As influential as Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield were in the blues-rock genre, their chances went down the drain with the rest of their drugs. You OD on Heroin, you just don't get an airport named after you.
I'm sure you realize that this is a long way from actually happening. I have no idea what the first step is. Tomorrow, I'm making a call to the airport commission and after they're done laughing at me, try to find out what the procedure will be. We'll go from there.
It's also not set in stone that it has to be named after Muddy...it's just the coolest name possible. Let's face it Howlin Wolf Airport might be cooler, I just don't see it as realistic. Although imagine the laughter on the other end of the phone if I said that!!
I'm open to suggestions. Comment away both here and on my Facebook page. On Saturday, I'll follow up with another piece where I'll narrow down the list to 10-15 possibilities. One hint...Muddy will be on that list!!
It should be fun...well at least for me. So c'mon people make Muddy Waters International Airport a reality.
To quote another local band, Chicago, whose name also will not be on the airport, " We Can Make It Happen."