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Blind Blake: King of Ragtime Blues

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JasO

Blind Blake: King of Ragtime Blues

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 56

Oct 4 10 11:50 AM

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Here's a detailed look into the life and artistry of one of the great prewar blues guitarists, Blind Blake, with contributions from Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, and John Lee Hooker:

Jas Obrecht Music Blog -- Blind Blake

My apologies if I am loading up this website with too much stuff, but I figured some of you might like to see this one!

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jostber

#1

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3431

Oct 4 10 11:59 AM

Just read this, great stuff! Thanks for writing this and posting it here.

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Sassie

#2

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 18977

Oct 4 10 12:37 PM

I'm looking forward to reading your interviews, JasO - just haven't had the time just yet. Thanks for posting.

Never put off til tomorrow what you can do the day after.

Colorado, USA

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Tom Rushen

#3

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 4476

Oct 4 10 1:40 PM

QUOTE (JasO @ October 04, 2010 07:50 am)

My apologies if I am loading up this website with too much stuff, but I figured some of you might like to see this one!

Au contraire, this is wonderful stuff, thank you for taking the time!

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MaskedMarvel

#4

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Oct 4 10 1:52 PM

What do you think about Blake later lyrics compared to the early? I find while his early have the happy mood mentioned the later discuss topics like jail, righteous, police, and topics of that kind. Do you think there is something?

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

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LD50

#5

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Posts: 710

Oct 4 10 4:26 PM

It's a shame no one went out to Florida or Georgia to research Blake back when people who actually knew him personally would have still been alive.

I don't agree with people who say that Champagne Charlie Is My Name wasn't by Blake. I agree it's a REALLY weird song, but to me it seems obvious that it's his voice. It sounds like an old vaudeville song, and he sounds like he was deliberately altering his accent for it, but the voice quality is the same, and many of the guitar licks are obviously his.

Several people have said that Blake's work sort of started to slip toward the end (someone once aptly wrote that the 'sparkle' was gone), but I think you can really only hear it from 1931 on, on his last four 78s or so. I've always thought Depression's Gone From Me was mistitled, since it sounds like Blake was still plenty depressed, and Night and Day Blues/Sun to Sun probably *is* his most lackluster record. But if you look at his 1930 records, he was still as good as ever: Playing Policy Blues, Righteous Blues, Hard Pushin' Papa, they're all great.

Who knows what happened? Maybe finding out what diddie wa diddie means in 1930 really messed him up.

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toby walker

#6

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Posts: 174

Oct 4 10 5:05 PM

Great, great article. Thanks so much for posting that.

Here's a video of me playing one of Blakes tunes - 'Tootie Blues' live in concert.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFK0mxsd_NE

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TonyG

#7

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 410

Oct 4 10 5:35 PM

"Champagne Charlie is my name" is an old Music Hall song. Old even in Blake's day.

A very odd choice but I also think it is Blake singing.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=13985

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Petway

#8

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 1146

Oct 5 10 11:18 AM

QUOTE (LD50 @ October 04, 2010 04:26 pm)

Several people have said that Blake's work sort of started to slip toward the end (someone once aptly wrote that the 'sparkle' was gone), but I think you can really only hear it from 1931 on, on his last four 78s or so. I've always thought Depression's Gone From Me was mistitled, since it sounds like Blake was still plenty depressed, and Night and Day Blues/Sun to Sun probably *is* his most lackluster record. But if you look at his 1930 records, he was still as good as ever: Playing Policy Blues, Righteous Blues, Hard Pushin' Papa, they're all great.

Well, I like the way he doubles time in Night And Day, and I think the 1931 Rope Stretching Bues, with its great change from the relative A minor to C and gloomy rasgueados, was one of his best tunes ever. What do "later years" mean within a five year recorded output? Blake did his best not to repeat himself, rather than providing constant demonstration of his amazing ragtime tricks, and there were some early tunes which were almost as unimpressive as Depression - I am thinking of Search Warrant Blues, which may be the only tune he played in F, a seldom used key, with few exception like William Moore (Barbershop Rag) or, I think, Sam Brooks capoed to G in Willie Walker' South Carolina Blues.
I cannot help dreaming of a whole June 1932 session, now safely lying under several feet of mud at the bottom of lake Michigan... with maybe a lot more surprising numbers than Champagne Charlie.

It is indeed a pity that no extensive research was carried in the area Blake was linked to, maybe it would have contributed to solve one of the key questions regarding regional styles : did those who recorded more extensively (Tommy Johnson, Blake, Barbecue Bob, Skip James) draw their style from a previous tradition, or on the contrary, influenced their "neighbours" so much that they gave birth to local techniques.

Which won't change a thing from the kick one gets from the music itself, and I'll always be grateful to BBFers who let me know that this great album could be found on CD :
--------------------
Click here to view the attachment

Patrice - Puiseaux (France)

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oddenda

#9

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 1033

Oct 6 10 12:57 AM

I trust that all the members realize that the guitarist in the above prison photo is Buddy Moss, incarcerated in NE Georgia in the late 30s. From which J.B. Long bribed parole boards to get him out after Blind Boy Fuller died. Moss spent a decade in Elon College, NC and recorded one last time for Columbia along with Brownie, Sonny, Bull City Red, Washboard Slim, and Jordan Webb ca. 1941. [B]

Peter B.

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LD50

#10

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Posts: 710

Oct 6 10 2:50 AM

QUOTE (oddenda @ October 06, 2010 12:57 am)

I trust that all the members realize that the guitarist in the above prison photo is Buddy Moss, incarcerated in NE Georgia in the late 30s. From which J.B. Long bribed parole boards to get him out after Blind Boy Fuller died. Moss spent a decade in Elon College, NC and recorded one last time for Columbia along with Brownie, Sonny, Bull City Red, Washboard Slim, and Jordan Webb ca. 1941. [B]

Peter B.

Actually, I at least had no idea whatsoever that the guitarist in that picture was Buddy Moss! What's the story behind that photo?

So I guess that explains Moss's recording gap from 1935 to 1941, eh?

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Tom Rushen

#11

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 4476

Oct 6 10 8:54 AM

QUOTE (LD50 @ October 05, 2010 10:50 pm)

Actually, I at least had no idea whatsoever that the guitarist in that picture was Buddy Moss!

Count me in as a member of the "I had no idea" club. I bought that album almost 40 years ago, and never knew the significance of that photo until now. Thanks, Mr. L.

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StefanWirz

#12

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 750

Oct 6 10 9:47 AM

... you may find another shot from this series taken by Jack Delano at http://www.shorpy.com/jailhouse-rock,
another one at http://www.wirz.de/music/moss.htm

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LD50

#13

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Posts: 710

Oct 6 10 1:36 PM

Funny that Perls put that picture on the cover of an LP that had no Buddy Moss tracks on it at all.

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Tom Rushen

#14

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 4476

Oct 6 10 1:52 PM

QUOTE (LD50 @ October 06, 2010 09:36 am)

Funny that Perls put that picture on the cover of an LP that had no Buddy Moss tracks on it at all.

Perls might not have even noticed he didn't have a Moss track on it. He also announced L-1038 in his catalogue as having a Charley Patton track that had not been reissued up to that point in time (circa 1973), but it didn't show up. IIRC, the track originally planned for L-1038 was "Circle Round The Moon".

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redbeansandrice

#15

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 2157

Oct 6 10 3:41 PM

Jas, thank you for posting this colorful, succinct interview. It is informative and very well written. Please post many more. I love "Rollin' and Tumblin'", by the way, and refer to it often.

Peter, thank you for enlightening us about Buddy Moss on the album cover. Contrary to your optimistic statement, other than the chosen few, who knew?

"Another damn'd thick, square book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?"
-- The Duke of Gloucester to a writer upon the publication of Vol. 1 of "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire"

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Blues Shark

#16

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Posts: 1893

Oct 7 10 7:22 AM

This seems as good a place as any to ask this question.

I've just taken delivery of Yazoo's Best of Blind Blake and I can tell already I want to hear more of this remarkable artist. So where do I go from here? Is the JSP set worth a look or should I be trying something else?

"And I was thinking how the world should have cried, on the day Jack Kirby died"

Now down in Black Bottom, that is so they say
They drink good moonshine and stay drunk all day.

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TonyG

#17

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 410

Oct 7 10 7:43 AM

If you want it all then the JSP set is clearly the place to go. Ridiculously low price. Sound quality OK considering that these are Paramounts and were probably fairly atrocious on mint 78s in 1929.

All that's missing are a few alternates included on Documents "Too Late" series of CDs and the recently discovered 78 which is on one of John Tefteller's calendars.

I think that leaves one remaining undiscovered 78.

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MaskedMarvel

#18

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Oct 8 10 7:51 AM

I have the JSP for some 4 or 5 years, and I recommend it too. It is worth much more than the cost obviously just thinking about the money I saved by listening to it and not going out, and it was much more fun! And Blake, no words can describe his greatness as far as I'm concerned. I wish I was at the starting point again to buy it and have a virgin listening to all the tracks (though for me everytime is like the first time because I forget things especially songs).

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

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Blues Shark

#19

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Posts: 1893

Oct 8 10 8:15 AM

Thanks guys - onto the amazon wishlist it has gone.

Tony - I must say when I realised that the Yazoo disc was made from paramount 78's I was amazed at the quality they had acheived.

Tommer - I guess I'm lucky then, because I am hearing his stuff for the first time. I really don't know why it has taken me so long to get round to listening to his work. You'd think as a Ry Cooder fan from way back I'd have done it sooner! What can I say - sometimes I'm just a really slow learner.

"And I was thinking how the world should have cried, on the day Jack Kirby died"

Now down in Black Bottom, that is so they say
They drink good moonshine and stay drunk all day.

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Muddylives

#20

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 5141

Oct 8 10 11:23 AM

I have the JSP set, and for me it is actually overkill. When I am in the mood for Blake, I usually go to the one-disc Yazoo comps. But I guess it depends on how big a fan you are.

Muddy

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Blind Blake: King of Ragtime Blues

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