Don't start me on Page's stingy reluctance to share credits (Jake Holmes is hopefully now resting in peace) but I understand your point about the "shiver". I think I've started sometime ago to *really* appreciate these OG creators, and started to see through the cobwebs of time and primitive production. But in general it's probably material for musicians, who again can forage on these treasures. Now the appreciation in any case is quasi-religious in my case (granted, I never go to Church unless for baptisms, so consider that)
No, seriously, again I'm always in awe of my response to christian motifs in arts not being an active (or much less) catholic myself. Must be something in the subconscience, I don't know. But Gospel and the metaphors in these guys' music mesmerize me. It gives the content an additional credential to lure you.
But, oh, Blindie Willie's original version of Nobody's Fault But Mine is really shivering. I guess I'm an impressionable person and not even my Mother had been born when this was recorded. A side thought I get here when you say "we don't know if Willie wrote the words or simply adapted a Negro spiritual" is that music is always a matter of working over previous stuff. Granted I guess in 1927 there were no strict copyright laws (or millions in royalties involved!) like the ones suffered by poor Pagey and Plant.
PS: You always serve me as inspiration for further research, for "newer" stuff in this case, you mentioned Jorma Kaukonen and went for a never heard album, Crown Of Creation. Remarkable! But I cannot leave behind Blind Willie's growl or the lye water, or the pen-knife slide. The legend adds a dimension to the experience, Devil deals and whatnot. And yeah I'm humming it. Some things are just too powerful.
A really good song, that one. I was previously familiar with it from Nina Hagen's excellent cover, but the thing about such gospel tunes is that they sound... more sincere, I guess, when you hear the old version. Kind of like difference between Blues Brothers' and Son House's "John the Revelator".
Incidentally, "John the Revelator" was first recorded by Blind Willie as well, Son House must have picked it from him. (I didn't pick it because it has no slide guitar and too much of Willie's wife on it, though).
I probably wouldn't even use Nina Hagen and the Blues Brothers as a basis for sincerity comparison, though, since both of them have a blatant post-modern (if not downright parodic) sheen. But then if we're talking about covers of such material in general, perhaps a post-modern reading is preferable to a "sincere" one anyway, by default, because you just can't beat the original in that department.
Yes, I also checked Blind Willie's version and quickly noped out of it - his wife voice is a bit like Betty Boop, and this is not a compliment for a vocalist.
I'm actually not sure about Nina's version in terms of sincerity - according to Wiki, she recorded that album to celebrate her recent baptism, and she explicitly decided to make it "as traditional as possible", so maybe she was trying for something honest with it after finding religion, like so many rock and country stars. It actually doesn't sound very post-modern (at least it's not Depeche Mode version...), it's just that those few added instruments maybe, just maybe, take something away from the simple message of the original, making it less personal and more of a group effort to make you read the Bible.
Well, count me as somebody who does, by and large, gets a lot of visceral enjoyment from those old pre-war recordings and definitely not due to the fact they are old. Much more due to folks like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, etc. having guitar techniques that are simply irreplaceable and impeccable, and as far as a mix of "wild fun/intensity" and "impeccable playing" goes for acoustic blues/folk, nothing post-war even begins to compete pre-war for me. Moreover, I do think that the mythologizing hurts rather than helps our appreciation of those old records because they are too often simply seen as influential recordings or heightens expectations that are simply not present in these recordings.
The truth is, I think, that while Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt certainly cared quite seriously about their quality of output and skill in terms of performing, they still did not have any heightened pretentiousness about what they were doing. What they were doing was a way of making a living, and that's why a lot of them were cautious about going way too far with what they were doing (or some of them simply didn't want to go too much farther than an initial construction of a sound). I think realizing this makes the power of these recordings even more impressive since much of the level of joyful elation or sorrowful depths (both, of course, conveyed through implications behind the material rather than directly stated) seemed to flow through fairly organically.
Which is why your writing, George, back on your old blog was among the best writing available on this subject, and it's sad to hear that overall you aren't as big of a fan of pre-war stuff as you seemed to convey back then. You used to write about the records closer to the truth around them: focusing on their skill and techniques, highlights that shot out from the repetitive plains, and dissecting their musical personality, and less focused on adding on retrospective seriousness that really wasn't there like 95% of writing on the subject.
Still, you insight about the uniqueness of his slide playing (that it conveys the "spirit" as he saw it), and the focus that, at his peak, his duel attack of slide and voice pretty much nails it. Blind Willie Johnson often as the singles went on sometimes had less impressive slide work (which is why I don't value him more than Charley Patton, for example), but my favorite recordings of his are the duel vocal ones ("John the Revelator" and "Church I'm Saved Today" and the ones that feature both his vocals and slide in top form.
Very good points, especially about the organic flow, but that's exactly what makes it hard to cherish a Blind Blake on the level of a Bob Dylan: it's almost like pure slices of life before others elevated them a bit higher to the level of true art, and pure slices of life can feel boring without artistic embellishments. (Kind of like the difference between a thrilling criminal drama and a documentary on the routine activities of district cops). Feeling such music on a visceral level can certainly be a challenge, and I cannot pretend to have fully mastered it, though I've made quite a bit of progress over the past 20 years or so.
Despite the fact that I actually do enjoy the best Blind Blake songs as much as Bob Dylan (but I’m a sucker for any ragtime blues, pretty much), can’t argue with your point here. It was Dylan and nobody else who would actually advance the rough and tough folk “slices of life” to something much more complex that went totally beyond entertainment.
And as far as pre-war vocals go, don’t think any of those guys were as inventive and immersive sonically as Dylan was, so that is certainly one thing Dylan had the upper hand against his predecessors.
Don't start me on Page's stingy reluctance to share credits (Jake Holmes is hopefully now resting in peace) but I understand your point about the "shiver". I think I've started sometime ago to *really* appreciate these OG creators, and started to see through the cobwebs of time and primitive production. But in general it's probably material for musicians, who again can forage on these treasures. Now the appreciation in any case is quasi-religious in my case (granted, I never go to Church unless for baptisms, so consider that)
No, seriously, again I'm always in awe of my response to christian motifs in arts not being an active (or much less) catholic myself. Must be something in the subconscience, I don't know. But Gospel and the metaphors in these guys' music mesmerize me. It gives the content an additional credential to lure you.
But, oh, Blindie Willie's original version of Nobody's Fault But Mine is really shivering. I guess I'm an impressionable person and not even my Mother had been born when this was recorded. A side thought I get here when you say "we don't know if Willie wrote the words or simply adapted a Negro spiritual" is that music is always a matter of working over previous stuff. Granted I guess in 1927 there were no strict copyright laws (or millions in royalties involved!) like the ones suffered by poor Pagey and Plant.
PS: You always serve me as inspiration for further research, for "newer" stuff in this case, you mentioned Jorma Kaukonen and went for a never heard album, Crown Of Creation. Remarkable! But I cannot leave behind Blind Willie's growl or the lye water, or the pen-knife slide. The legend adds a dimension to the experience, Devil deals and whatnot. And yeah I'm humming it. Some things are just too powerful.
A really good song, that one. I was previously familiar with it from Nina Hagen's excellent cover, but the thing about such gospel tunes is that they sound... more sincere, I guess, when you hear the old version. Kind of like difference between Blues Brothers' and Son House's "John the Revelator".
Incidentally, "John the Revelator" was first recorded by Blind Willie as well, Son House must have picked it from him. (I didn't pick it because it has no slide guitar and too much of Willie's wife on it, though).
I probably wouldn't even use Nina Hagen and the Blues Brothers as a basis for sincerity comparison, though, since both of them have a blatant post-modern (if not downright parodic) sheen. But then if we're talking about covers of such material in general, perhaps a post-modern reading is preferable to a "sincere" one anyway, by default, because you just can't beat the original in that department.
Yes, I also checked Blind Willie's version and quickly noped out of it - his wife voice is a bit like Betty Boop, and this is not a compliment for a vocalist.
I'm actually not sure about Nina's version in terms of sincerity - according to Wiki, she recorded that album to celebrate her recent baptism, and she explicitly decided to make it "as traditional as possible", so maybe she was trying for something honest with it after finding religion, like so many rock and country stars. It actually doesn't sound very post-modern (at least it's not Depeche Mode version...), it's just that those few added instruments maybe, just maybe, take something away from the simple message of the original, making it less personal and more of a group effort to make you read the Bible.
Well, count me as somebody who does, by and large, gets a lot of visceral enjoyment from those old pre-war recordings and definitely not due to the fact they are old. Much more due to folks like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, etc. having guitar techniques that are simply irreplaceable and impeccable, and as far as a mix of "wild fun/intensity" and "impeccable playing" goes for acoustic blues/folk, nothing post-war even begins to compete pre-war for me. Moreover, I do think that the mythologizing hurts rather than helps our appreciation of those old records because they are too often simply seen as influential recordings or heightens expectations that are simply not present in these recordings.
The truth is, I think, that while Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt certainly cared quite seriously about their quality of output and skill in terms of performing, they still did not have any heightened pretentiousness about what they were doing. What they were doing was a way of making a living, and that's why a lot of them were cautious about going way too far with what they were doing (or some of them simply didn't want to go too much farther than an initial construction of a sound). I think realizing this makes the power of these recordings even more impressive since much of the level of joyful elation or sorrowful depths (both, of course, conveyed through implications behind the material rather than directly stated) seemed to flow through fairly organically.
Which is why your writing, George, back on your old blog was among the best writing available on this subject, and it's sad to hear that overall you aren't as big of a fan of pre-war stuff as you seemed to convey back then. You used to write about the records closer to the truth around them: focusing on their skill and techniques, highlights that shot out from the repetitive plains, and dissecting their musical personality, and less focused on adding on retrospective seriousness that really wasn't there like 95% of writing on the subject.
Still, you insight about the uniqueness of his slide playing (that it conveys the "spirit" as he saw it), and the focus that, at his peak, his duel attack of slide and voice pretty much nails it. Blind Willie Johnson often as the singles went on sometimes had less impressive slide work (which is why I don't value him more than Charley Patton, for example), but my favorite recordings of his are the duel vocal ones ("John the Revelator" and "Church I'm Saved Today" and the ones that feature both his vocals and slide in top form.
Great review despite my general disagreements.
Very good points, especially about the organic flow, but that's exactly what makes it hard to cherish a Blind Blake on the level of a Bob Dylan: it's almost like pure slices of life before others elevated them a bit higher to the level of true art, and pure slices of life can feel boring without artistic embellishments. (Kind of like the difference between a thrilling criminal drama and a documentary on the routine activities of district cops). Feeling such music on a visceral level can certainly be a challenge, and I cannot pretend to have fully mastered it, though I've made quite a bit of progress over the past 20 years or so.
Despite the fact that I actually do enjoy the best Blind Blake songs as much as Bob Dylan (but I’m a sucker for any ragtime blues, pretty much), can’t argue with your point here. It was Dylan and nobody else who would actually advance the rough and tough folk “slices of life” to something much more complex that went totally beyond entertainment.
And as far as pre-war vocals go, don’t think any of those guys were as inventive and immersive sonically as Dylan was, so that is certainly one thing Dylan had the upper hand against his predecessors.
this a great series, keep doing it