Topic: Leroy & Scrapper rare photo

[LoneWolf]

I just found that on my computer... Does anybody know what is the source of this photo? I don't remember where it came from...

[Richard]

No, I have seen it but it's usually cropped, particulary where then it's just Carr who is shown.

Nice to see the whole thing - what else you got 

[mississippijohnhurt1928]

Wow, I have never seen that photograph, unless it's that same one that is usually shown of the two just larger.

[LoneWolf]

Ok I found it on volume 4 on document:



But I don't remember where I found my better version...

[Bunker Hill]

Ok I found it on volume 4 on document:
But I don't remember where I found my better version...

What we do know is that its original source had to be pre-1992 when those CDs were issued.

Perhaps in a book, magazine or CD booklet. What we can be fairly sure of is that it will be where Document lifted it from!

AFTERTHOUGHT: Where's that oracle on all things Carr & Blackwell, Morgan Jones? Come on chum put us out of our misery.....

[Richard]

BH who am dat?

[Bunker Hill]

BH who am dat?

Weenies probably know him better as MTJ3, I know him as the bloke who seems to have been researching Scrapper and Leroy for an aeon...I wish I possessed such knowledge.

[Richard]

Ah, si si. Ta.

[MTJ3]

BH,  I'm surely not deserving of your kind words; all I can admit to is having spent a lot of time delving into the subject and being hopelessly unproductive.  Here are my thoughts on the photo. 

I believe that is the photo that Scrapper described as "that long picture" where (to paraphrase) he didn't have his collar right, and he wasn't happy with it, but Leroy looked good in it, so the recording company used it anyway. If so, it was a publicity photo taken in the recording studio, and it was, according to Scrapper, at least at one point hung in a window (presumably of a record shop).  I think it was part of a suite of photos taken by the company.  (See the cover of Yazoo's "The Virtuoso Guitar of Scrapper Blackwell" for another shot of Scrapper from this "shoot.")  I don't know exactly when it was taken. Here's my guess.  As Scrapper was holding a wooden guitar in the photo, my bet would be that it's a relatively early photo.  Compare, for example, the cover of Yazoo's "Naptown Blues---1929-1934," where he holds a National, which he didn't record with on his earlier sides; of course, he could have played a steel guitar outside the studio but only recorded on a wooden guitar early in his career.  I can't substantiate this, but my belief is that it was taken at the Vocalion studio in Chicago about as early on as the company realized that they needed a publicity shot of the duo, which was probably shortly after it was evident that "How Long--How Long Blues" was a massive hit.  I would guess that would have been on or about 6-7 November 1928 (their fourth and fifth sessions, at which they recorded "How Long How Long Blues--Part 2" and "How Long How Long Blues No.3," from which sessions, oddly enough, no sides were issued) or 19 December 1928 (their next session, at which they again recorded "How Long How Long Blues--Part 2" and "How Long How Long Blues No.3," as in the 6 November session, which this time were issued).  I am fairly certain that the photo was not taken at the radio station in Naptown where they made their first recording.  It could be that the photo was taken at the 20 July or 14 August 1928 sessions, but I would be inclined to discount because I don't think Vocalion would have known that they had "stars" on their hands at that juncture, and as noted above, they did snap a several photos of the lads at that "shoot," and I don't think that they would have frivolously incurred the expense.

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly where LoneWolf might have found it, but it's a wonderful reproduction of that photo. Very nice job. I will scratch around, and if I happen upon a likely source, I will dutifully report.     

[LoneWolf]

I found something. Go to Scrapper's discography on Stefan Wirz's site.

The booklet of the album "Roots of Robert Johnson" shows this photo but much smaller...

[Bunker Hill]

Hell, just pulled it from the shelves. That's obviously where Document lifted it from.

[A note to Stefan: this LP was originally sheduled for release in 1986 along with the Ma Rainey and Skip James. However it didn't appear until the following year. The original advertisement showed a different front cover to that of the eventual release. It depicted a painting of James, House, Patton, Blackwell and Lonnie Johnson in a semi circle (different seating order to that on LP) in a field with the back of somebody (RJ presumably) sitting cross-legged watching them. Ho hum, very strange.]