Release Date: April, 1991.
Recording Time: 72 minutes.
Recording Date: August 1929 - June 1932.
Release Info: DOCD-5027, CD, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered.
The fourth and final volume in Document's series assembles a wide range of Blind Blake material, from sides cut under the name Blind Arthur ("Guitar Chimes" and "Blind Arthur's Breakdown"), collaborations with vaudeville singer Chocolate Brown (a.k.a. Irene Scruggs), and even his sole two-part blues, the morbid "Rope Stretchin' Blues." Among the final pair of tracks, from mid-1932, the first, "Champagne Charlie Is My Name," is so atypical that some question whether it is even Blake at all; however, his last known side, "Depression's Gone from Me Blues," is a career-capping triumph -- just why he never recorded again is just one of the many mysteries which continue to swirl about this legendary figure. ~ Jason Ankeny
Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes.
Despite the name of Blind Arthur being used for two guitar solos recorded in October 1929, there can be little doubt that it is Blind Blake who is playing his “famous piano-sounding guitar” (to quote a Paramount advertisement) on "Guitar Chimes". It has the same use of harmonics as in "Police Dog Blues" (DOCD-5026) but played in the key of C and latterly commented on by a noted musicologist thus, "most country blues guitarists were not sufficiently well versed in C to have hazarded such an instrumental". By comparison, "Blind Arthur's Breakdown" is an object lesson in finger-picking, the playing more in keeping with the technique of Virginian, William Moore. For "Baby Lou" and "Cold Love", Blake again returns to his theme of the mistreating lover, "Baby Lou" having the chord structure and tempo of the South American tango. In May the following year Blake was in the studio, both in his own right and as accompanist to former St. Louis vaudeville singer, Irene Scruggs. Recording as Chocolate Brown, on one song, "Itching Heel", Scruggs scoffs at chauvinistic blues singers ("he don't do nothing but play on his old guitar, while I’m busting suds in the white folks yard") to which Blake, in knee-jerk reaction, responds by speeding up the rhythm indicating that the remark hadn’t escaped unnoticed. "Diddie Wa Diddie No. 2", unlike the first song (DOCD-5026), now finds Blake admitting that he knows what “diddie wa diddie means” which he delivers with heavy irony. In his long career Blind Blake only once recorded a two part blues and in "Rope Stretchin' Blues", suitably sung to the tune of "St James Infirmary", he uses the occasion to recount, with a degree of morbidity, the ultimate penalty resulting from the infidelities of others;
"Don't trust no woman who mistreats a man, when you think she's in your kitchen cooking, she's got a stranger by the hand,
I have a lots of women I sure don't want none now, she always milks me dry, than ever you milk a cow."
Blind Blake’s final two recordings took place in June 1932 and so uncharacteristic is one of the songs that commentators have argued that perhaps two singers were involved with the session. Despite doubts it is fairly certain that Blake sings on "Champagne Charlie Is My Name", a song composed by George Leybourne and set to music by Alfred Lee in 1868, found fame in the Victorian music hall. The equally topical "Depression's Gone From Me", appropriately sung to the tune of "Sitting On The Top Of The World", witnessed Blind Blake ending his six year recording career and, one assumes, his life, on a positive note.
(Alan Balfour, 1991 Document Records)
Credits: Compiled By, Producer - Johnny Parth; Executive-Producer - Gary Atkinson; Liner Notes - Alan Balfour; Remastered By (uncredited) - Hans Klement
Personnel: Blind Blake - vocals, guitar, speech, comments; Blind Blake (as by Blind Arthur) - guitar solo; possibly Tiny Parham or Aletha Dickerson - piano; Papa Charlie Jackson - banjo, vocals, speech; Irene Scruggs (as Chocolate Brown) - vocals; Laura Rucker - vocals.
Tracklist:
- 01. Sweet Jivin' Mama - Blind Blake
- 02. Lonesome Christmas Blues - Blind Blake
- 03. Third Degree Blues - Blind Blake
- 04. Guitar Chimes - Blind Blake
- 05. Blind Arthur's Breakdown - Blind Blake
- 06. Baby Lou Blues - Blind Blake
- 07. Cold Love Blues - Blind Blake
- 08. Papa Charlie And Blind Blake Talk About It, Part 1 - Blind Blake and Papa Charlie Jackson
- 09. Papa Charlie And Blind Blake Talk About It, Part 2 - Blind Blake and Papa Charlie Jackson
- 10. Stingaree Man Blues - Irene Scruggs (as Chocolate Brown)
- 11. Itching Heel - Irene Scruggs (as Chocolate Brown)
- 12. You've Got What I Want - Irene Scruggs (as Chocolate Brown)
- 13. Cherry Hill Blues - Irene Scruggs (as Chocolate Brown)
- 14. Diddie Wa Diddie No. 2 - Blind Blake
- 15. Hard Pushing Papa - Blind Blake
- 16. What A Low Down Place The Jailhouse Is - Blind Blake
- 17. Ain't Gonna Do That No More - Blind Blake
- 18. Playing Policy Blues - Blind Blake
- 19. Righteous Blues - Blind Blake
- 20. Fancy Tricks - Laura Rucker
- 21. Rope Stretchin' Blues, Part 2 - Blind Blake
- 22. Rope Stretchin' Blues, Part 1 (Take 2) - Blind Blake
- 23. Champagne Charlie Is My Name - Blind Blake
- 24. Depression's Gone From Me Blues - Blind Blake
Recording date, location, matrix, catalog number:
01. circa August 1929, Chicago, 21357-2, Paramount 12964
02. circa September 1929, Chicago, 21420-1, Paramount 12867
03. circa September 1929, Chicago, 21421-2, Paramount 12867
04. circa September 1929, Chicago, 21459-2, Paramount 12892
05. circa September 1929, Chicago, 21460-2, Paramount 12892
06. circa October 1929, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-23-3, Paramount 12918
07. circa October 1929, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-24-2, Paramount 12918
08. circa October 1929, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-27-, Paramount 12911
09. circa October 1929, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-28-, Paramount 12911
10. circa May 26, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-325-1, Paramount 12944
11. circa May 26, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-326-3, Paramount 12944
12. circa May 28, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-348-2, Paramount 12978
13. circa May 28, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-353-2, Paramount 12978
14. circa May 29, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-437-2, Paramount 12994
15. circa May 29, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-438-2, Paramount 12994
16. circa May 29, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-439-2, Paramount 13016
17. circa May 29, 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-440-2, Paramount 13016
18. circa December 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-647-1, Paramount 13035
19. circa December 1930, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-648-1, Paramount 13035
20. circa May 1931, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-909-1, Paramount 13138
21. circa October 1931, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-1099-2, Paramount 13103
22. circa October 1931, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-1101-2, Paramount 13103
23. circa June 1932, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-1475-2, Paramount 13137
24. circa June 1932, Grafton, Wisconsin, L-1476-2, Paramount 13137