Blind Boy Fuller Skills in Pre War Blues Forum

0 Points

Add Reply New Topic New Poll

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Blind Boy Fuller Skills

Author

Comment

orca343

Blind Boy Fuller Skills

Lead

[-]

Posts: 362

May 26 11 8:24 PM

Tags : None

Why are Blind Boy Fuller's skills questioned? Reading Red River Blues and it talks about though he was vastly influential he has been poorly rated by blues experts and collectors. There are only so many of you all out there and some of Blindmans alumni might be in this group mentioned. Anyone know or have an opinion?

Reply Quote

waxwing

#1

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 177

May 26 11 10:07 PM

I think it was because Rev. Gary dissed him so much. Davis chose not to record further after his first session. Fuller did, and became very popular, being a great player and clear voiced singer. Much more accessible to the record buying audience and highly successful even at a late period for "country blues".

Davis had a lot of resentment about Fuller's success, and when after twenty more years of practice and developing his style, he became the darling of the folk scare, he did a lot to give Fuller a bad name. Just human nature, really. Totally understandable that he would have these resentments.

But I think the large faction of Davis devotees propagated these attitudes towards Fuller's success and this has colored many written descriptions of his work and his career. Unfortunate, as I think he is a fantastic player and singer. I think it's wrong to take the attitude that somehow Fuller "sold out" and became successful, and Davis held his "ideals" and languished in obscurity for another 20 years and that the two are somehow related. It's silly to compare the two. Fuller was a great performer and deserved all the recognition he got. Davis made his own decisions about dealing with the record companies.

Wax

Reply Quote

LD50

#2

[-]

Posts: 710

May 26 11 11:27 PM

QUOTE (waxwing @ May 26, 2011 10:07 pm)

I think it was because Rev. Gary dissed him so much. Davis chose not to record further after his first session. Fuller did, and became very popular, being a great player and clear voiced singer. Much more accessible to the record buying audience and highly successful even at a late period for "country blues".

Davis had a lot of resentment about Fuller's success, and when after twenty more years of practice and developing his style, he became the darling of the folk scare, he did a lot to give Fuller a bad name. Just human nature, really. Totally understandable that he would have these resentments.

But I think the large faction of Davis devotees propagated these attitudes towards Fuller's success and this has colored many written descriptions of his work and his career. Unfortunate, as I think he is a fantastic player and singer. I think it's wrong to take the attitude that somehow Fuller "sold out" and became successful, and Davis held his "ideals" and languished in obscurity for another 20 years and that the two are somehow related. It's silly to compare the two. Fuller was a great performer and deserved all the recognition he got. Davis made his own decisions about dealing with the record companies.

Wax

All superb points. I think another element might be merely that country blues fans often slight performers who recorded a lot, who sold a lot of records, and who recorded in the late 1930s*. It's not at all fair, but Fuller violates all three of these principles.

Blind Lemon Jefferson violated the first two rules, which may be why it took so long for him to get the respect he deserved among latter-day white fans.

(*I'm not copping an attitude, I'm guilty of this myself.)

Reply Quote

oddenda

#3

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 1033

May 27 11 1:55 AM

LD -

You've nailed it. And Fuller was not from Mississippi! Certainly an indication of poor hygiene and poor life decisions. It's the record collector's mentality placing rarity over everything else. We know WAY more about Garfield Akers than Blind Blake, for example!

Peter B.

Reply Quote

LD50

#4

[-]

Posts: 710

May 27 11 2:20 AM

QUOTE (oddenda @ May 27, 2011 01:55 am)

LD -

You've nailed it. And Fuller was not from Mississippi! Certainly an indication of poor hygiene and poor life decisions. It's the record collector's mentality placing rarity over everything else. We know WAY more about Garfield Akers than Blind Blake, for example!

Peter B.

Indeed, another huge strike against BBF is not being from Mississippi, but I didn't mention that because Gary Davis wasn't from there, either.

(But that *is* another strike against Blind Lemon Jefferson!)

Willie McTell does as well as he does since he didn't sell a lot of records, and he had the decency not to record in the late 30s.

Reply Quote

orca343

#5

[-]

Posts: 362

May 27 11 3:54 AM

"Blind Lemon Jefferson violated the first two rules, which may be why it took so long for him to get the respect he deserved among latter-day white fans."

I think the case could be made that lemon still has yet to fully gain Gringo respect.

Reply Quote

waxwing

#6

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 177

May 27 11 3:59 AM

QUOTE (LD50 @ May 26, 2011 07:20 pm)

....and he had the decency not to record in the late 30s.

...heh, heh, heh.

Wax

Reply Quote

oddenda

#7

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 1033

May 27 11 5:49 AM

LD -

Actually, McTell recorded for Decca in the mid/late 30s! Great stuff, often with Curley Weaver alongside. ALWAYS a good duo.

pbl

Reply Quote

7844473

#8

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 30580

May 27 11 6:16 AM

Oh man, I wasn't even aware of such attitudes, at least in the blues world !
These are the very same reasons why I ran away from the jazz circles I had joined as a 19 years old after just a couple of years : clever, educated grown ups, many of them musicians themselves, who would turn to integrism and diss an artist because s/he didn't follow a certain set of non written rules.
What frightened me was when I realised that after wanting to belong to that group so bad, I was becoming just as stupid, denying people and musics I liked just because they didn't fit.

Rene
Paris, France.

Reply Quote

LD50

#9

[-]

Posts: 710

May 27 11 2:30 PM

QUOTE (oddenda @ May 27, 2011 01:55 am)

You've nailed it. And Fuller was not from Mississippi! Certainly an indication of poor hygiene and poor life decisions. It's the record collector's mentality placing rarity over everything else. We know WAY more about Garfield Akers than Blind Blake, for example!

Peter B.

Not really -- Akers is still a cipher and 95% of what we know from him came from Calicott's memories. (I had zero luck finding him in census or draft records.) So we actually know about the same amount of info about both artists, ironically! But your point still stands.

Considering how much he recorded, and how popular he was, it's absurd that Blake is still such a mystery. But if researchers had done some field research in SE Georgia and north Florida in the early 60s, it might not be that way now.

Reply Quote

CoyoteSlim

#10

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 1973

May 28 11 6:37 PM

Blind boy Fuller is awesome. I don't think I've read anything "dissing" his skills, but then I pay very little attention to blues scholarly books beyond quotes from them posted on this forum. Of course, I also own no music by Gary Davis, whose voice grates on my ears. To each his own!

Coyote Slim's website

Coyote Slim's Youtube Channel

Coyote Slim's Facebook Page

Coyote Slim on CD Baby

Rabbit told the 'possum, shake them 'simmons down."

Reply Quote

tanta07

#11

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

May 28 11 7:59 PM

Wow, I never realized there was such anti-Blind Boy Fuller sentiment out there. I've always placed him in that upper tier of country blues artists.

The Buzz Brothers Band

Reply Quote

LD50

#12

[-]

Posts: 710

May 28 11 11:03 PM

QUOTE (CoyoteSlim @ May 28, 2011 06:37 pm)

Of course, I also own no music by Gary Davis, whose voice grates on my ears.

I can relate. He's a stunning guitar player, but it's taken me a looooong time to get past his voice.

Reply Quote

oddenda

#13

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 1033

May 29 11 2:38 AM

Basically, Gary had little good to say about ANY other guitar player, save Blind Blake (grudgingly) and Willie Walker, who he had to agree could play. He knew Walker from Greenville, SC days before coming to Durham. He felt Fuller COULD have been good if he'd kept up his "lessons' with him - probably resented his commercial success, feeling that he was the better player. And Davis was that, as most who knew him (Willie Trice, Baby Tate, a.o.) were somewhat in awe of his ability on guitar.

Peter B.