Topic: R.I.P. Arnie Caplin, founder of Biograph Records

[jed]

This just in, from Bob Corritore's Blues Newsletter:

RIP Arnie Caplin, May 8, 1929 - December 25th, 2009. Arnie Caplin, the founder of Biograph Records, died on Dec 25th, at a nursing home in Massachusetts. He was 80. Arnie was a jazz drummer and artist before starting his Biograph Records in 1967. The Biograph label would release over 250 titles in the genres of blues, jazz, ragtime and folk music. Blues releases included Bukka White, Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis, Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, Son House, Leadbelly, and more. In addition to his blues work, Arnie had a major influence in bringing forth the ragtime music of the now famous Scott Joplin. Though a behind the scenes force in the blues, the importance of Arnie Caplin can not be overemphasized. To read more about Arnie's life, click here, and to see the Biograph discography click here. Thank you Arnie for your great work.

[oddenda]

I do believe that Arnie had HISTORICAL RECORDS operating before Biograph - really odds and sods collections of obscure jazz, often deservedly so! Caplin gave me my first paid writing gig, liner notes for Buddy Moss' sole LP (although my name got buried, so it reads as if Chuck Perdue wrote them! He did an appendix; ergo my name buried.) One other time, Arnie got me to bring my 1939 National up to a Johnny Shines session near Albany, NY - Shines used it on some of the tunes on a solo LP. He liked the instrument.

Peter B. 

[eagle rockin daddy]

Ok, How many other folks had their life changed by Mr. Caplin's Biograph?  I learned so much from these albums, as they were where I first heard Blind Blake.  I loved Van Ronk's version of 'That'll Never Happen No More' on the Blues at Newport album, and was able to find the BB reissues soon after that.  All 5 of them.  I spent many hours after high school listening to them at 16 1/3, so I could figure out what he was doing.  I use the words 'figure out' loosely. There were so many other great compilations, the Memphis Minnie/Blind Willie McTell, the final Rev Davis albums, just so many great albums.  He also released some albums of music at the Fox Hollow festival, which I keep hoping to get on ebay some day.

So, how many other Weenies spent their youth with an old stereo listening to Blind Blake, Rev. Davis, Doc Watson etc. etc. and 16 1/3?

Mike

[Stefan Wirz]

the above link don't work ('cause the Vandals took the handles?)
So here they are again:
Historical Records discography
Biograph Records discography (Under construction!)
Melodeon Records discography (Spottswood's label, taken over in 1970 by Biograph)

[Bunker Hill]

('cause the Vandals took the handles?)

Good Lord, Bob Dylan being cited on Weenie. Is this a first? 

[GhostRider]

.

So, how many other Weenies spent their youth with an old stereo listening to Blind Blake, Rev. Davis, Doc Watson etc. etc. and 16 1/3?

Mike

The very first CB album I ever bought was Blind Blakes' No Dough Blues LP on Biograph, bought at Sam's Record Store in Toronto in 1982, so I'm very fond of Biograph.

Alex

[Mr.OMuck]

Actually the Biographs were a little rich for my blood. I stuck mostly to the $1.98 Prestige Bluesville line, but I did lust after them and actually a well healed friend allowed me to record a bunch of his Yazoos and Biographs on cassette which served me well for years even though I found years later that all my tapes were slightly fast. Maybe thats why i tend to play everything fast? Anyway I'm eternally grateful to people like Arnie Caplin, Nick Perls, Moe Asch and others who made this wonderful music available to all of us. What a great service.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was also introduced to the music of Blind Blake via a Biograph release, Vol. 1, "Bootleg Rumdum Blues" in my case.  I can still remember my mind being blown by putting on the record and hearing "Come On Boys, Let's Do that Messin' Round".  It's no less amazing now then it was then, but I guess I'm a bit more used to it.  Thanks to Arnie Caplin for making that music available, as well as a lot of other great stuff.
All best,
Johnm

[Parlor Picker]

Hi all,
I was also introduced to the music of Blind Blake via a Biograph release, Vol. 1, "Bootleg Rumdum Blues" in my case.  I can still remember my mind being blown by putting on the record and hearing "Come On Boys, Let's Do that Messin' Round".  It's no less amazing now then it was then, but I guess I'm a bit more used to it.  Thanks to Arnie Caplin for making that music available, as well as a lot of other great stuff.
All best,
Johnm

Same here. It was not easy to find old blues records outside London in the 1960s when I first got interested in early blues and lived near Leeds in Yorkshire. "Bootleg Rumdum Blues" was one of my very first albums - along with Robert Johnson, a John Lee Hooker EP and (no comments please!) Françoise Hardy. I remember playing the Blake record to people and, despite my assurances, they found it hard to believe that there was only one man playing guitar. Like quite a few of those US imports, the Biographs had pretty poor pressing quality with quite a bit of crackle in the vinyl (and I don't mean the original 78 crackle).

[Bunker Hill]

Same here. It was not easy to find old blues records outside London in the 1960s when I first got interested in early blues and lived near Leeds in Yorkshire. "Bootleg Rumdum Blues" was one of my very first albums - along with Robert Johnson, a John Lee Hooker EP and (no comments please!) Françoise Hardy. I remember playing the Blake record to people and, despite my assurances, they found it hard to believe that there was only one man playing guitar. Like quite a few of those US imports, the Biographs had pretty poor pressing quality with quite a bit of crackle in the vinyl (and I don't mean the original 78 crackle).

I’ll never forget the first Blind Blake I purchased. It must have been 1963ish when I bought two used 10 inch Blake LPs from a jazz shop in Mitcham, South London. I got home, played them, and to my horror found that one wasn’t pre war blues but what at the time I thought was folk singing with banjo. I rushed back to where I purchased it and made an exchange for a used 10 inch French RCA Jazz Gillum.

I’m now, of course, kicking myself over having got shot of that Bahamian Alphonso Higgs LP. Cest' la vie!

I might see if I can scan the front and reverse sleeves of the 10 inch Jazz Collector Blake and post the images here....or is that straying too far off topic.

[Stuart]

As I wrote at the PWBG, count me in as another person who had his life changed for the better by Arnie's efforts. Those Blind Blake LPs did it to me as well. The sequence of songs is burned into my head to the point that I can't listen to songs on other BB compilations without thinking that the songs are out of sequence.

I also picked up one of the Bahamian Blind Blake LPs in the early 1970s. I knew that it wasn't Blind Arthur Blake (or Phelps), but it had sat in a bin in a record store in Burlington, VT (I went to UVM) for years, so out of curiosity (and perhaps pity) I bought it and was pleasantly surprised. For those who are interested, Elijah has a CD available:

http://www.elijahwald.com/blindblake.html

[RB]

I think this is off the topic but I bought a Blind Blake album, in 1966, I think, in Dobell's in London.  I've long since lost that record (though I have several hundred that I bought at that time) and I've had a lot of fun te3aasing my little sister for years for losing my record.

Does anyone know what I might have had? If it helps any I believe I bought a Georgia Tom album in the same series that same day.  I remember that Dobell's shipped the records back home to Philadelphia for me.

[Bunker Hill]

I think this is off the topic but I bought a Blind Blake album, in 1966, I think, in Dobell's in London.  I've long since lost that record (though I have several hundred that I bought at that time) and I've had a lot of fun te3aasing my little sister for years for losing my record.

Does anyone know what I might have had? If it helps any I believe I bought a Georgia Tom album in the same series that same day.  I remember that Dobell's shipped the records back home to Philadelphia for me.

It could have been one of two both of which I bought in dear old Dobells. "Blind Blake Guitar and Vocal" (Jazz Collector JGL 9002, 1963) or "Blind Blake Blues In Chicago" (Riverside RM 8804, 1966). The former has 14 tracks, the latter 16 with a gatefold sleeve with lyric transcription (which I seem to have amended in pencil!). There was indeed  a "Georgia Tom & Friends" (RM 8803) in the series along with Ma Rainey, Roosevelt Sykes and a piano blues compilation.

[Parlor Picker]

Staying off topic, I spent many of my lunch breaks in Dobell's when I worked in London's West End area from 1970 to 1973. As soon as the manager of the blues and folk side, Ray Bolden, recognised you as a regular, you automatically got 10% off all purchases. Nothing was said, he just totted it up, made the adjustment and gave you the discounted total. I once met Bob Hite of Canned Heat in there, along with his brother Richard, who was to join the band later. Ray had an encyclopaedic knowledge of blues, jazz and folk.

[RB]

Thanks, Bunker Hill, it mujst have been the Riverside as the Georgia Tom was a match.

I also bought a Robert Petway EP that day, with four songs, on French RCA (I think)  that, I believed for years and years and years, was the most intersting record I had.