Topic: For Record Collectors - Episodes - Ep075: The Death & Burial of

[jostber]

With Gayle Dean Wardlow:

http://www.thevinylguide.com/episodes/2017/4/12/ep075-the-death-burial-of-robert-johnson

[harry]

Thanks Jostber. What upcoming book is Wardlow talking about?

[oddenda]

Possibly a re-do (w'out Calt) of the Charlie Patton book. Rumor has it.

pbl

[CF]

Gayle & Bruce Conforth are publishing what is supposed to be THE book on Robert Johnson, scheduled this year

[jostber]

Interesting part on the upcoming Robert Johnson biography by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow in this article/radio interview:

Excerpt:

And then we talked about the new biography of Robert Johnson that he?s working on with Gayle Dean Wardlow. [Conforth currently sits on the Executive Board of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, in addition to being the Director of the Blues Heritage Foundation.] Conforth promised that it will be the most exhaustive book on Johnson ever published, and we went into his research at some length. We talked about the myth surrounding Johnson, and the difficulty of disentangling fact from fiction now, almost 80 years after the iconic king of the delta blues died at the age of 27. We talked about the individual stories and how, going back to first person interviews and original documents, he was able to discern the truth. We talked about the seven months Johnson studied with Ike Zimmerman, who was one of th best guitarists in Mississippi at the time, and how the story of his having sold his soul to the devil probably got started. I ask if, by demystifying the man, it might hurt his legend. Con forth replied with a no. It?ll make him more human, he said. It?s an incredible story, he says, both heartbreaking and tragic? Oh, and if you don?t listen to anything else, you should listen to the part when Conforth reacts to the suggestion made by some that Johnson?s recorded tracks were all sped up 20%. [Let?s just say that Conforth doesn?t ascribe to the theory.]


http://markmaynard.com/2016/07/bruce-conforth-on-the-real-life-of-robert-johnson-the-real-hell-of-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-and-what-it-was-like-coming-of-age-inside-izzys-youngs-folklore-center-as-the-young-bobby-zimmer/

[Mr.OMuck]

Very Interesting. I have seen Lawrence Gellert's name on various records but never heard anyone claim that he was a more important collector than the Lomax's. Have to look into it.

[harry]

So McCormick told Wardlow in the late 90s that the third authentic photograph of Robert Johnson (that he showed to Peter Guralnick) was stolen in a burglary. But in the NY Times article it's revealed that the photo is in a safe place in Mexico where McCormick lived for a while. In any way, it's probably not gonna be in the book.

[Stuart]

Very Interesting. I have seen Lawrence Gellert's name on various records but never heard anyone claim that he was a more important collector than the Lomax's. Have to look into it.

Hi Phil:

Bruce Conforth has a book:

https://www.amazon.com/African-American-Folksong-Cultural-Politics/dp/0810884887

And Steve Garabedian has written on Gellert. I've found an article which I've split into smaller files as attachments due to size limitations.

And there's plenty of other stuff out there on the old interwebs.

[Stuart]

Pt. 2 attached

[Stuart]

Pt 1 attached

[Stuart]

Here's another article - attached

[jphauser]

Very Interesting. I have seen Lawrence Gellert's name on various records but never heard anyone claim that he was a more important collector than the Lomax's. Have to look into it.

Hi Phil:

Bruce Conforth has a book:

https://www.amazon.com/African-American-Folksong-Cultural-Politics/dp/0810884887

And Steve Garabedian has written on Gellert. I've found an article which I've split into smaller files as attachments due to size limitations.

And there's plenty of other stuff out there on the old interwebs.

While Conforth is suspicious of Gellert's protest songs, Garabedian is not.  In his book 100 Books Every Folk Music Fan Should Own, Dick Weissman, a former folk singer with the Journeymen and college professor, has suggested that the issue of protest in Gellert's songs "may be more of a semantic problem than anything else" and goes on to ask how we should define a "protest song."  Lawrence Levine, in his book Black Culture and Black Consciousness, raises the same question about black music in general (but not specifically Gellert's collection).  Weissman's 100 books includes Willis Laurence James's Stars in de Elements which contains songs of protest that parallel Gellert's.  James's book is of particular interest to me because of my research on the aspect of black resistance and protest in "John Henry."  It contains the followig two verses.

John Henry was a man didn't 'bey no law
John Henry was a man didn't 'bey no law
Didn't need no gun, could whip an' man he cross.

De white man say, John Henry, do lak yo' please
De white man say, John Henry, do lak yo' please
Done hear 'bout yo', all de way f 'om Tennessee.

Jim Hauser