This is on the cover of a Charlie Patton complete recordings album
Is this him? It doesn't look like it to me.
Is this him? It doesn't look like it to me.
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He said he would play for me if I wished and I urged him to play me a number. His ability as a guitarist is unbelievable. I have never heard better playing - Reverend Gary Davis, Blind student welfare case worker Laura Miller in Durham, NC 1941
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. mississippijohnhurt1928
This is on the cover of a Charlie Patton complete recordings album
Is this him? It doesn't look like it to me. It's supposed to be a heavily retouched photograph of a painting done by one of Charlie's girlfriends of him when he was young (somewhere in the 1910s, I think). The story behind it is in the Calt/Wardlow bio, which is where the picture first appeared, I believe.
That said, I'm not sure I buy it either, although the hair and the general shape of the head seem right. It could have been a really bad painting. Chris It's the frontispiece facing the title page, although there it's larger, a whole deal lighter and one can actually see the left side of the face.
I think this has been discussed here before. mississippijohnhurt1928
Yeah, Charlie Patton seems like an imposing figure.
Does anyone know how tall he was? "He was frail and short (perhaps 5' 7'', if that) and walked with a limp; his open mouth disclosed some missing back teeth." [Calt/Wardlow page 13 King Of the Delta Blues] the impression given is it's derived from a H.C. Spier recollection.
I think the face is a completely different shape. Th eyes in the "painting" are closer together (probably because the nose is narrower) than the photo and the mouth is a different shape.
Well if that's the case, he isn't quite the giant on the man one would expect from his recordings
mississippijohnhurt1928
Indeed, well I pictured him as a much taller man.
Well perhaps if he was his blues nickname would have been "Big" Charlie Patton dj
From David Evans' essay in Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues:
"Charley Patton was about five feet and seven inches in height and weighed between 135 and 160 pounds in adult life." Tommy McClennan was little guy too.
It's the short guys you got to watch out for...They got to make up for what they ain't got in size with attitude and nastiness. mississippijohnhurt1928
Well 5'7 seems like a better estimate than 5'2. So he was a decent size for a man of his time.
dj
By the way, clicking on the "Charley Patton" tag at the bottom of the page and then on the "Book review of Cohn, Lomax, Calt & Wardlow, et al" topic (currently first on the resulting tag list) will get you to the other recent discussion of the photograph in question, including a better reproduction of the photo.
Tags: Charlie Patton
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