Andre Williams “The Greasy Chicken” b/w “Come On, Baby” 1957. Fortune Records. Another musical legend gone: R&B great Andre Williams “Mr Rhythm” died on Sunday, March 17th at age 82 (b. Zephire Andre Williams, November 1, 1936).  “The Greasy Chicken” was one of Williams’ early popular recordings, issued on his first record label, Fortune Records which was located in the back of a Detroit barber shop. He released several other popular tracks on Fortune (including “Bacon Fat” and “Jail Bait”) in the 50′s and a few on Chess Records in the 60′s (including “Cadillac Jack” which went to #46 on the R&B chart). In the 70′s Williams collaborated with Parliament, Funkadelic and Ike Turner. The 80′s weren’t kind to him: he struggled with drug addiction and homelessness. However, in the late 90′s and early 2000′s his career had a resurgence when he partnered with several alternative/indie bands like The Sadies, The Dirtbombs and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (“The Black Godfother”). It was during this part of his career renaissance that we got a chance to see Williams – at least once, maybe twice (memories are hazy!). We for sure saw him play Milwaukee’s Cactus Club and might have gone to Chicago to see him as well. At one of these shows he  played ‘The Greasy Chicken” and I recall some lunatic running down a hallway shrieking “greasy chicken! greasy chicken!”