Topic: The Influence of Blind Lemon Jefferson

[Lastfirstface]

Just noticed that the first verse of Will Batts' 'Cadillac Baby' is just about the same as the last verse of Lemon's 'Booger Rooger Blues'.

[uncle bud]

Daddy Stovepipe and Whistlin' Pete do an odd cover of Lemon's Black Snake Moan as Black Snake Blues.

[uncle bud]

Johnny Shines' "Going to the River" is a quite Lemony version of "Long Lonesome Blues" and other Lemon in A position material.

[uncle bud]

Roy Dunn does "Roy's Matchbox Blues", which begins and ends with the "will a matchbox hold my clothes" verse, although musically Dunn's song is not related to Lemon's.

[uncle bud]

Ed Bell has some Lemon influences in at least two songs.

In "Rosca Mama Blues" he uses the musical ideas of Lemon's tunes in E like "Piney Woods Money Mama" and "Oil Well Blues". Bell plays the song in Vestapol tuning though, as JohnM pointed out in the Ed Bell lyrics thread.

In the intro solo to "One More Time", Bell uses pieces of two Lemon riffs. Both are from Lemon's playing in C, although Bell is playing in Spanish tuning and transposing the musical ideas to other strings. One is a Lemon riff normally played up on the 3rd and 2nd strings but is here played on the 4th and 3rd strings and descending into the bass. And it's followed directly by another variant on Lemon's playing in C, the famous treble riff done at the 3rd through 5th frets of the top 2 strings, but here done once again in a lower register. They're subtle but they both have Lemon's fingerprints on them, IMO. They've just been reset by Bell in different contexts.

[uncle bud]

Hard to say whether this is a Lemon influence or just a verse in common, but in "Peaceful Blues", Texas Alexander sings:

I love my woman better than a cow loves to chew her cud
I love my woman better than a cow loves to chew her cud
But the fool she got mad, moved to the piney wood

Lemon recorded his similar verse at the end of Piney Woods Money Mama in 1928. Texas Alexander uses it as his last verse in this song from 1929.

[uncle bud]

Kansas Joe (with Memphis Minnie) uses the melody of "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" for "You Know You Done Me Wrong", though it is pitched around G and played out of either standard G position or Spanish (haven't checked but sounds like G position).

[uncle bud]

Another cover of Black Snake Moan, this one by Cobb and Underwood, which like Furry Lewis's Sweet Papa Moan, has mandolin.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was listening to Babe Stovall today, from his Arcola CD, "The Old Ace", and the first song on the program, "Good Morning Blues" shows an interesting, back-hand Lemon influence.  In fact the song is sort of one influence heaped on top of another--it is basically Kokomo Arnold's "Milk Cow Blues" played in A somewhat in the manner of Blind Boy Fuller, with a final solo quoting Lemon's intro to "Matchbox Blues", up the neck.  It's really nice, too, and sounds like Babe the whole time, not some weird pastiche.
All best,
Johnm

[jostber]

I just listened to Ed Andrews' "Barrelhouse Blues" from 1924, somehow reminded me of some of Blind Lemons harmonies. Anyone hears the same?

[uncle bud]

This one may be a chicken or egg situation given it is a May 1936 Library of Congress field recording made in the State Penitentiary in Richmond, Virginia. Clifton Wright sure sounds like he had been listening to Lemon when he sang Everywhere I Look This Morning, particularly after the first holler-like verse, once he starts reaching for the high, sustained melody notes. My guess is it is indeed Lemon influenced. You can hear it on the Document disc Field Recordings Vol 12 - Virginia and South Carolina DOCD-5614. And here it is on YouTube, though for some reason the last line of the recording is cut off.

[ArthurBlake]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this one as I am just beginning from page 1 of the thread but chances are that the recording of white boys, Jimmie Davis & Leon Chapellear's version of Easy Rider Blues has not been mentioned as I think it's extremely obscure. The lyrics are a lot different but it's obvious that the guitar player is imitating Lemon's guitar style especially the opening lick which is straight from the Match Box Blues opening notes. Obviously Lemon was known by fascinated white musicians from an early date as well.

[ArthurBlake]

For those who have not seen this great article by Jas Obrecht on Blind Lemon:

http://jasobrecht.com/blind-lemon-jefferson-star-blues-guitar/

As so often happens here when I follow a link, there is nothing there now, does that article exist elsewhere ?

[Bunker Hill]

A year ago or so Jas was the victim of a cyber attack. He's been slowly working to reinstate it all. Of the many country blues lost only the Blind Boy Fuller has be reinstated. It's well worth the read.

[Stuart]

You could contact Jas and ask him for a copy. Both his site and his Facebook page have contact info.

Here are a couple of links to BLJ articles that have been posted previously:

http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk/documents/121.pdf

https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/2663/fulltext.pdf