GARY CLARK,JR.

In 1925, a Texas talent agent sent a demo recording of
Jefferson to Mayo Williams at Paramount Records in Chicago.
Jefferson was sent for, and he recorded spirituals under the pseudonym
L.J. Bates. He was recorded using a primitive Edison-type horn
into which the artist had to sing. To modern ears, these sound very
poor, and filters help only so much. A couple of years later, however,
he was recorded with electrified equipment, and therefore the reproduced
sound is much better.
Unlike most other blues performers, Lemon was a prolific writer
of his own songs, performing with intensity at once hypnotic and
poignant. His most famous originals include the oft-recorded
“Matchbox Blues,” “Corinna,” “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,”
and the lascivious “Black Snake Moan.” In all, he recorded 110
songs (including outtakes) within the few years before his tragic
death in 1929, when he was found dead on a Chicago street during
a snowstorm. He was 36 years old.
Lemon’s complex style of guitar finger picking influenced
fellow Texas bluesmen as well as B.B. King, who has often invoked
Jefferson as an influence. According to historian Robert Uzzel, in
his Blind Lemon Jefferson: His Life, His Death, and His Legacy
(Austin: Eakin Press, 2002), “[Lemon’s] significance has been
acknowledged by blues, jazz, and rock musicians, from Sam
“Lightnin’” Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and T-Bone Walker to Bessie
Smith, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Carl Perkins, Jefferson
Airplane, and the Beatles.”
Jefferson’s habit of recruiting young musicians to help him get
around leaves us with some information. Although Leadbelly was
senior to Lemon, he considered the blind man a superior musician,
as does posterity. They toured together, and Leadbelly revered the
memory of Lemon all his life, even writing a memorable tune titled,
“Blind Lemon’s Blues.”
Lemon was rich by contemporary standards, driving in chauffeured
cars and eating well, all the while maintaining a strong hankering
for the ladies – many of whom he’d meet in Deep Ellum and
in Delta towns on his playing tours. His sex life was such that it
became legendary among Delta musicians. He did marry, however,
to a woman named Roberta Ranson, and is alleged to have had
children, including a son when he was around 30.
Stylistically, his songs often repeat the same melodies and guitar
riffs, although others are more eclectic. He played dances a lot, and
would call out the names of dances while singing. In his darker,
brooding pieces, he made extensive use of single-note runs, apparently
picked with his thumb. He played in various tunings and keys to
accommodate his vocals, which often featured low, plaintive moans,
underscored with minor chords, lending modal darkness to the tunes.
In 1994, Document Records issued 90 performances by Blind
Lemon Jefferson as The Complete Works, using Paramount and
small label masters, on four disks in chronological order. The producers
culled the best versions of existing masters, and the sound is
very good on a majority of the tracks.
BLUES REVUE 33