Search - Charley Patton :: Definitive Charley Patton

Not entirely definitive, best sound available, a bargain.

Francis Flannery | 07/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The recordings of Charlie (Charley) Patton are among the most important and powerful blues recordings of the 20th century. Patton's extent sides, especially those recorded in 1929 - 30, show an artist with a booming voice and an intensely rhythmic but ever-shifting guitar style. His songs speak of rambling and restlessness, of weariness, of harassment from police and authority figures, drinking sprees, sexual potency, floods, crop disasters, the fear and imminence of death, and the desire for better days. Those expecting to find another Robert Johnson in Patton's recordings will be disappointed, despite the frequent association made between Johnson and Patton in thumbnail histories of the era. In spite of their similarity as romantic, rambling figures, Johnson's music derived from the recordings of a disparate range of stylists, including Skip James, Son House, Tommy Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell, Lonnie Johnson, Kokomo Arnold, Hambone Willie Newbern, Johnnie Temple, Casey Bill Weldon, and Henry Thomas. Johnson's recordings are rhythmically more standard and streamlined than Patton's. His diction is clearer and his voice higher. The thematic concerns of the two musicians are similar, no doubt due to their similar lifestyles, but in Johnson's recordings, the Devil is an overt presence, while the Devil leaves little mark in Patton's recordings. Evil is manifest as natural disaster in Patton's world - boll weevils and floods - while in Johnson's world it is given tangible form and named Devil. While some of Johnson's showmanship was no doubt derived from Patton, their association is not as linear as one might think. Both musicians, for instance, had what are purported to vast repertoires of mostly-unrecorded non-blues-oriented material that they would perform for non-blues-oriented crowds. On the basis of the recorded evidence, it is hard to imagine either musician performing pop songs of the time, but seemingly they did. Just how these performances sounded is something that will remain a mystery, but it is likely that Johnson's and Patton's pop song arrangements sounded as different from each other as did their blues. As one of the oldest blues musicians on record, much of Patton's repertoire dates from a time before blues was the rhythmically static and hidebound musical structure that would become in the hands of a number of lesser musicians than Patton into the 1930's. Patton's guitar accompaniments are showy and elaborate, kaleidoscopic in their ever-changing response to his vocals and their incessant re-articulation of the song's rhythm. His lyrics are very difficult to understand, a combination of an occasionally mush-mouthed delivery and crude recording processes. Catfish's package is excellent. The three discs come packaged in cardboard sleeves printed to resemble old 78 paper record jackets. The three discs are enclosed in a heavy cardboard box. The 18-page booklet includes an informative essay, focusing on Patton's life and the circumstances of his recordings. Previously, the two Yazoo discs had been the Patton volumes to beat. Catfish includes the few titles not included on those discs, and all of the titles are in the finest sound quality - there is enough noise reduction to get a better sense of Patton's lyrics than before, but not so much as to deaden the sound or make the recordings sound artificial. The titles are arranged chronologically, with the exception that Patton's work as accompanist to the fiddler Henry Sims and his wife Bertha Lee are placed on disc three. One title that completists might quibble is missing from this set is "On the Wall," (onetime-Patton girlfriend) Louise Johnson's erotic piano ditty from the 1930 Grafton sessions, on which Patton and Son House (or possibly Willie Brown) interject with spoken commentary. But Patton's musical contribution to this title is minimal, and its' absence is not a real problem. A more glaring omission, and one the keeps this set from being definitive, is that it does not include the existing alternate takes of three titles from the 1929 Henry Sims session: "Hammer Blues," "Elder Greene Blues," and "Some These Days I'll Be Gone." The exclusion of these recordings is baffling and disappointing, marring an otherwise spectacular presentation of Patton's recordings. Presumably, there is some reason for this omission - it violates the titles claim to being the "definitive" edition, and is a real shame. The alternates can be found in best quality on Yazoo 2001, "King of he Delta Blues."Patton's epochal titles such as the two-part "High Water Everywhere," the slide guitar drenched paean to cocaine, "Spoonful" (a very different precursor to the popular `60's rock recording by Cream of the same title), "Pony Blues" and "Pea Vine Blues," "Prayer of Death Pts. 1 and 2," and the four monumental titles recorded in 1930 with Willie Brown (of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads Blues" fame) on second guitar remain riveting and essential music, over seventy years after the recordings were first issued. The titles with Willie Brown are especially interesting - Brown was arguably a more nuanced, rhythmic and dexterous guitar player than Patton, and these duets with Patton add to Brown's very small (two incredible commercial recordings from 1930, a few 1940's Library of Congress recordings) discography. They are sterling examples of pre-war blues, and deserve greater exposure than they have enjoyed. The 1934 recordings presented on disc three show Patton in a slight decline, after having his throat slit in a 1933 fight. The years of chasing women and drinking and snorting cocaine had worn Patton down. His guitar playing became more listless and less intricate (though still at a very high standard), and his voice became rougher, his vocal range diminished. Patton died about three months after making his 1934 recordings, of a heart condition. His final recordings, while not in the same brilliant league as his 1929 - 30 recordings, are a monument to his lifetime of song and entertainment, a testament to a life better spent making music than making end's meat on a plantation."

A little-known diamond of a box set.

Ed Brickell | 11/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The massive and super-sexy box of Charley Patton on Revenant is getting plenty of raves, and perhaps rightly so -- but the real bargain is here on a compact, handsome, and highly economical package from Catfish, a UK label. The recordings sound as good as they probably ever could (take that as meaning they are fun to listen to), and the booklet is nicely done. No lyrics are provided, but otherwise everything is just about perfect. And Patton himself is a revelation, perhaps not as dramatic as Robert Johnson at his best but a terrific performer -- and a voice that's going to get stuck in your head forever. Want a nice box set of one of the greatest blues artists ever and don't have $150 for the Revenant set? Check this out. You won't be disappointed."

Best quality yet, absolutely essential!!!!

Scott R. Simpson | Springfield, Il. USA | 04/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I waited with baited breath for this one an was not disappionted one bit. Catfish has really cleaned up the sound. REALLY!! There is a great and informative booklet with it as well as the box cover being a recently discovered advertisment of Charley sitting down which none of us knew existed. this music may not be for everyone,in fact some will find his vocals hard to digest because of his intimidating growl. At this price don't pass it up. Especially since the only other time his complete recorded output was released it was at a cost of $18 a pop per cd consisting of 3 pieces. Patton rules and rocks forever!!!!!"