Topic: Blind Lemon Jefferson CD

[Stuart]

Anyone have an All Music blues guide from the 1990s?  I don't think I have my copy anymore.  I recall that book as listing some obscure issues.

I just checked the 1999 edition of the AMG, but there's nothing in there that's even close. But at least we found that a CD by the title in question containing the tracks listed was released and does exist. What the specifics are regarding it and its relationship to the info on the last.fm page is still unclear, at least to me.

[misterjones]

Thanks for checking.

The weight of the evidence indicates that this was a Spain/South American release.  I've seen it advertised for purchase in both areas at Spanish language websites.  These websites indicate it is part of a multi-CD Charly "Blues Masters" collection from 1997 that overlaps to some degree with the Charly "Blues Masterworks" collection available at one point in the US.  The latter collection, however, did not include any Blind Lemon Jefferson collection. 

I'm skeptical of the Sony 1990 indication at Last.fm, though one could speculate that the material was planned as part of a comprehensive Jefferson set - or volume 1 thereof - that was effectively trumped by the Robert Johnson release.*  Perhaps Sony merely sold off what they had assembled to Charly, which later used it in its non-US set.

____________
*  As Seth Winner, who did the Robert Johnson Centennial Collection remastering, pointed out during a lecture I attended yesterday, the 1990 Johnson box set was very much a last-minute issue.  There was a lot of legal maneuvering at the time, and the set's issuance was by no means a certainty.  In fact, there was a set prepared for release in the late 1970s that never saw the light of day.

[Stuart]

Obviously, we can't say for sure without having all of the facts, but I tend to agree with your speculation. There was possibly something going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to that would explain this. And it's possible that the "Complete" in the title was just the result some kind of error or lapse. It is, after all, a niche market, and one that doesn't always get the attention to detail that it deserves when marketing to a wider, non-specialist audience.

[misterjones]

To be devil's advocate against myself, if Sony had such BLJ material, why wouldn't they have released it as part of their "Roots 'n Blues" series?

My brain is starting to hurt again . . .

[Stuart]

What I meant was that there might have been some connection with Sony that led to last.fm misidentifying the CD as a Sony product. I have no idea what that connection was or even if it was the case.

The other thread also identifies the CD as a Charly release. Maybe there was no connection with Sony and it was simply someone at last.fm mistaking Sony for Charly. Just a guess.

[misterjones]

Employing the principle of Occam's Razor - which I prefer to do in such situations - I would say you are correct.  A mere mistake by Last.fm would seem to be the most probable of explanations.

[askthewinds]

This 13-track CD introduced me to BLJ.  I must say, it is my favorite BLJ release because I can play the disc from start to finish and stay intrigued the entire time.  I love BLJ, but I can't say the 5/6 CD compilations keep me interested enough for a straight play-through.  Anyway, all the songs on this release have been released in other packages.  However, this CD has some excellent mastering.  And that's why I wanted to find the disc.  My hard drive crashed and I couldn't find this release anywhere.  I am so glad it's here.  I originally picked it up in early 2000 on the net somewhere.  The master on this disc seems to have a dry, boomier, forward sound to it.  It's good for listening in the car, and it seems to give BLJ some feeling of excitement.  It seems more heavily compressed, which I like for BLJ because the guitar and vocals are so unbalanced.  Compare Rambling Blues to one from, say, the Texas Blues release.  I far prefer the 13-track version.

[Stuart]

My hard drive crashed and I couldn't find this release anywhere. 

We have a thread about some proactive moves to prevent HDD failures from turning into greater disasters than they already are. I'll see if I can find it and post the link.

One of the problems with the complete/completist re-issue sets is that there's usually no sequencing. As they were originally released as 78s, played one side at a time, editing for a compilation and sequencing were not considerations.