The Definitive Charley Patton

 

‘The Definitive Charley Patton’ is a 3CD set, released on the Catfish label in 2001, and contains all of Patton's originally issued recordings in chronological order, from 1929 to his untimely death in 1934.

  Charley (or "Charlie" as the man himself seemingly insisted) was a Blues pioneer, a raconteur, a country clown, and an extremely popular performer with African-Americans.  He also had an insatiable appetite for cocaine, which back then was legal, and widely available at any pharmacy.



On these recordings, the warmth and skill of Patton's performance never fails to break through and his percussive guitar playing alongside a melodic vocal delivery, less raw than the likes of contemporaries Son House and Blind Willie Johnson, Charley steals the show at every turn.  Widely considered to be a savvy, crowd-pleasing showman who crossed a number of stylistic boundaries when performing live, Patton's recorded works are largely rooted in the blues, presumably for commercial reasons, but he nonetheless keeps his options open by attempting to appeal to as wide an audience as possible through the subject of his songs.  For instance, a handful of sanctified numbers such as "Lord, I'm Discouraged", "Jesus Is A Dying-Bed Maker" and "I'm Goin' Home" are included to reach out to church-going folks while Patton's own habit of cocaine use and womanizing are documented in the likes of "A Spoonful Blues" and the innuendo-laden "Shake It And Break It (But Don't Let It Fall Mama)" respectively.  Elsewhere, Patton's signature tune "Pony Blues" and the two-part document of the devastating Mississippi flood of 1927 "High Water Everywhere" cement Patton's standing as one of the true greats.



Catfish Records did a nice job with the audio, but despite being “digitally remastered,” the sound quality is undoubtedly poor, and it's easy to see why deciphering Patton's lyrics has been a frustrating task for blues historians over the years.  Sadly, like other record companies during the Great Depression, Paramount Records sold most of its master recordings as scrap metal, while some of the company's recordings were said to have been thrown into the Milwaukee River by disgruntled employees when the company was closing in the mid-1930s.  It's also important to remember that these 78s were subpar even for their time: cheaply made and poorly recorded, but were reasonably priced for African-Americans with very little disposable income.  Due to its use of cheap materials and inferior equipment, Paramount has become virtually synonymous with poor sound.  Paramount Records was an offshoot of the Wisconsin Chair Company, created in 1917 to help sell the phonographs the furniture company built.  It was very similar to Apple creating iTunes in order to sell iPods.  Paramount was incredibly influential in its 15-year run.


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about songs you misheard the lyrics to.