Topic: Blind Blake

[Bed Bug Bill]

One for the Blake nuts,really..I usually listen to Blake on youtube these days.If I want to check out something I dig out my old Biographs.
Can anyone point me to the best versions of tunes currently available.I don't mind cleaned up versions if they still keep the original vibe. But nothing artificially enhanced or reverbed.Only interested in the big tunes,they're all big tunes,not really obscurities,unless with unique licks not found elsewhere.As I say,I have virtually everything,but they are old copies.I read somewhere that there's a clean copy of Iceman.
So...all the fast stuff really and the 29 Police Dog session....and anything else I've overlooked or forgotten.
Many thanks.

[frankie]

There's a JSP set that has essentially all of his recordings (save the one that was found a year or two back (on one of the blues images calendar CDs) - can't speak to the sound quality, though.

If you want the best sound, the "Best Of..." CDs that Yazoo released were (IMHO) pretty amazing (the Lemon one was kinda revelatory in a small way). I'd suggest this one:



The tracklist:

1.  Southern Rag
2.  Georgia Bound
3.  Blind Arthur's Breakdown
4.  Too Tight Blues - No.2
5.  Dry Bone Shuffle
6.  Rope Stretchin' Blues - Part 1
7.  Panther Squall Blues
8.  Skeedle Loo Doo Blues
9.  You Gonna Quit Me Blues
10.  Sea Board Stomp
11.  No Dough Blues
12.  West Coast Blues
13.  Depression's Gone From Me Blues
14.  Come On Boys Let's Do That Messin' Around
15.  Wabash Rag
16.  He's In The Jailhouse Now
17.  Diddie Wa Diddie - No.2
18.  Blake's Worried Blues
19.  Ice Man Blues
20.  Doggin' Me Mama Blues
21.  Chump Man Blues
22.  Guitar Chimes
23.  Early Morning Blues

[EddieD]

The Yazoo CDs are good just as Frankie stated. I also like The Rough Guide to Blind Blake CD. The tracks are remastered but I think they really kept the feel and tone while reducing the surface noise. Disk two is various artists influenced by Blake. You mentioned you wanted the fast stuff along with the 1929 sessions that had Police Dog, Diddie Wah Diddie and whatnot which are on this collection. It's not everything by far but a lot of good stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-Blind-Blake-2xCD/dp/tracks/B00D3ZJCTO/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1

Disc: 1
1. Blind Arthur s Breakdown
2. He s In The Jailhouse Now
3. Police Dog Blues
4. Diddie Wah Diddie
5. You Gonna Quit Me Blues
6. West Coast Blues
7. Hey Hey Daddy Blues
8. Come On Boys Let s Do That Messin Around
9. I Was Afraid Of That: Part 2
10. Georgia Bound
11. Southern Rag
12. Bad Feelin Blues
13. That Will Never Happen No More
14. Skeedle Loo Doo Blues
15. Doing A Stretch
16. Too Tight Blues No. 2
17. Sweet Jivin Mama
18. Dry Bone Shuffle
19. Poker Woman Blues
20. Righteous Blues
21. Sweet Papa Low Down
22. Sea Board Stomp
23. Guitar Chimes
24. Wabash Rag
25. One Time Blues
Disc: 2
1. Georgia Rag
2. Mama Let Me Lay It On You
3. Cocaine Blues
4. Ragtime Millionaire
5. Hokum Stomp
6. Hang It On The Wall
7. My Money Never Runs Out
8. Old Jim Canan's
9. South Carolina Rag (Take 2)
10. Bow Wow Blues
11. How Come Mama Blues
12. West Coast Rag
13. Your Baby Ain t Sweet Like Mine
14. Black Dog Blues
15. Papa s Bout To Get Mad
16. They re Red Hot
17. Nobody Knows When You re Down And Out
18. Hokum Blues
19. She s Your Cook, But She Burns My Bread Sometimes
20. Lord I Wish I Could See
21. Hot Time Blues
22. Adam And Eve In The Garden
23. Candy Man Blues
24. Beggin Back

[Blues Vintage]

I got the same CD Frank mentioned. It's probably the best overview of Blake but oddly does not include the (in my opinion) masterpiece Hard Road Blues.

[frankie]

The Yazoo "Best of..." CDs do have some peculiar inclusions and exclusions...  on the Lemon one, it's particularly hard to explain the inclusion of "How Long"...  best example of what? A piano player NOT following Lemon? 

It IS a good *sounding* copy...  so maybe "Best of..." refers as much to the copy of the record as well as the performance...

[Bed Bug Bill]

thanks...I thought I'd search youtube for the albums mentioned and found a channel,with many different mixes from various c.d.s.
After a couple of hours of blasting different cuts,I'm even more confused.....but leaning towards the rough guide....maybe it's the same pitch/speed I'm used to...anyway thanks,the comments helped.

[EddieD]

I just purchased this great Blind Blake record. Great sound quality but still has that great warm vinyl sound. It's the same release as the CD set I mentioned above. The LP only has 12 songs on it. It comes with a download card to get the second CD and some other Blake tracks. I assume the ones that didn't fit on the LP.

[Mark Miller]

Anybody have any thoughts about how the Rough Guide CD's (the Blind Blake one, but for that matter any of them) compare to the Yazoo ones in terms of sound quality?  I'm not so much of a completist that I care if there is a song or two missing on one or the other, but I would spring for a sound upgrade if that's really what we're looking at here.  But then there are sound upgrades and there are "sound upgrades" that remove hiss at the cost of losing sound.  Anybody have any of these Rough Guides and care to comment?

[EddieD]

I have the Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson Rough Guides. The sound quality for the Blind Blake recordings are the best out of any collection in my opinion. The surface noise is really cleaned up while not diminishing the sound quality of the music. The Lemon Jefferson is also great but his recordings have a lot more surface noise overall on the original recordings. I really have to listen to the record a few more times to compare. But you can not go wrong with the Blind Blake rough guide to the Blues. The vinyl comes with a download of the complete CD 2 disk package as do all the rough guide collections.