Enunciation

Okay, I found the quote that I was thinking of when I posted in “whatcha’ listening to. “It’s from the book “Early Downhome Blues” by Jeff Todd Titon. I haven’t read the book (yet). I found the quote on the Weenie Campbell forum.

When I asked Son House to listen to a particular line from a song by Charley Patton that I could not make out, House laughed.  He said "You could sit at Charley's feet and not understand a word he sang."

To me that’s not a bad thing. In the 1980s, I was a big fan of R.E.M. and one of the things that I used to like about them was that you couldn’t understand their lyrics. I remember in college having long discussions about what Michael Stipe was saying. This was on the early albums, Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and Life’s Rich Pageant. You could start to really hear the lyrics around Fables, but they were still hard to understand what he meant. However once you started to clearly hear the lyrics, some of the mystery went out of R.E.M.

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe

But back to Charlie Patton, as stated, Charlie didn’t enunciate words, and to this day people still don’t know what he said on certain songs. In “Down the Dirt Road”, what does he say?

I’m goin’ away to a world unknown…to Illinois …to where I don’t know… to where I’m known

Charlie Patton - Down the Dirt Road Blues

Here’s a fairly lengthy discussion on Charlie Patton from Weenie Campbell.

I don’t know what he actually says, and to me that’s okay. You can put whatever meaning you like into the song, interpret it however you want. The more time you spend trying to figure out what the lyrics are, the more you get pulled in to the music. Music doesn’t need to be “perfect”, a little noise or mumbled lyrics might be just the thing to grab a listener.  Sort of like how African Mbira (thumb piano) players put little pieces of metal or bottle caps on their instruments to add a buzz to their playing. Music that is too “polished” sometimes just doesn’t sound right to me. It lacks that human element.  I’d much rather listen to Bob Dylan’s voice or Charlie Patton’s hard to decipher lyrics than any perfectly enunciated auto-tuned voice out there today.

Down the dirt road isn’t the only example of Charlie’s diction, or lack thereof. One of my favorite songs of his, “Some of these Days”, which was most likely loosely based on the early jazz song “Some of these Days” made famous by Sophie Tucker, it sounds like he’s saying “Lum of these days”, or sometimes “Yum of these days” and for me, that makes the song.

Charlie Patton - Some of these days

Hey man, whatcha’ listening to?

Nowadays I find it hard to listen to music like when I was younger. I used to always be on the lookout for new music. I had friends who were also into music, and we’d always be talking about new bands.  This was back before the internet, and you had to go out of your way to find new stuff. You’d read all of the mainstream music magazines, read the ‘zines for the underground bands, listen to college radio to be exposed to unknown bands, or trade mix tapes with your friends. I’d listen to music all of the time but now I don’t have time to do all of that. If I listen to music now, it’s usually in the car, so here’s what I currently have in my car,

Ry Cooder – Boomers Story

Ry’s done a lot of good stuff. This was the first album of his that I bought, and it’s still my favorite. I prefer Ry's earlier albums, up to about the album Borderline. To me that is what Ry was all about, playing and exploring traditional music. Some of his mid period albums are okay, but I hear that his most recent couple of albums are really good. I haven't bought any of them yet, so I can't say.

Charlie Patton – Founder of the Delta Blues

It’s hard to pick a favorite blues singer, but Charlie is definitely up there. His playing is still causing people to say " How is he doing that?" Not to mention his vocals. There's a great quote from Son House, when asked in the 1960s to decipher what Charlie was singing on an old record, Son says that he couldn't understand what he was saying when he was sitting next to him in the 1930s. (When I find the actual quote, I'll post about it.)

Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne

The last album by Uncle Tupelo before they split up to form Wilco and Son Volt. When I first heard this, It didn't really do anything for me, so I put it on the shelf. A couple of months later, I gave it another try and I couldn't understand why I didn't like it the first time. It became one of my favorite albums of the mid 1990s.

Leoncavallo – Pagliacci (with Placido Domingo)

When I played in the Munier Mandolin Orchestra, I always enjoyed playing Vesti La Giubba, especially when we had a singer. To me opera has what I like in music. It tells a story, and touches on basic human emotions.

Grateful Dead –  Ladies and Gentlemen… The Grateful Dead- Filmore East April 1971

This is my favorite time period of the Grateful Dead, They still had the energy from the early days, and hadn’t yet become too spacey. Also Pigpen was still in top form with his raps. On this album, you can still hear them trying to find their way from the psychedelic music of the 1960s to the more folksy American Beauty/Workingman's Dead period.  On this, they cover songs as far apart as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles "I second that emotion", to Merle Haggard's "Sing me back home."

High Water Everywhere

Song for today. 

Flooding here due to Tropical Storm Lee.

Charley Patton - High Water Everywhere