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Charlie Patton
Also known as	Elder (J.)J. Hadley The Masked Marvel
Born	(1891-04-28)April 28, 1891 Bolton, United States
Died	April 28, 1934(1934-04-28) (aged 42) Indianola, Mississippi, United States
Genres	Delta blues Country blues Gospel blues
Instrument(s)	Guitar, slide guitar
Years active	1916–1934
Labels	Paramount Vocalion

Charlie Patton (April 1891 – April 28, 1934) was an American blues musician, considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues". Often cited as one of the most important American musicians of the 20th century, Patton is credited with inspiring many blues musicians.

Patton was born in Bolton, Mississippi, but spent most of his childhood at the Dockery Plantation. At an early age he learned guitar, later meeting Henry Sloan and Earl Harris. With the "Chatmon Brothers", later renamed to The Mississippi Sheiks, he gained popularity among the audience. Patton however left home at 15 and started as a solo musician one year later. When he left home, he resided in Drew, meeting numerous blues musicians. They however left when a racially-motivated accident occured; the following exodus was responsible for a dissemination of Patton's style into the deep Mississippi. In the following years he played on different small locations, until he was found by a talent scout. When he recorded test recordings to Victor Records, he was declined and was instead transferred to Paramount Records to record songs, many of which he already wrote in the early 10s.

In the following years he recorded, mostly backed by Willie Brown, on three more sessions. On the second he was backed by a fiddler; on the third he recorded a handful songs in consequense of the Great Depression in 1929, leading to a closure of Paramount; on the fourth and final he received a contract from the American Record Company (ARC) when he was without a label, and recorded with his young wife Bertha Lee his last tracks on ARC's subsidiary Vocalion Records, but which became unsuccessful due to his hoarse voice caused by a cold and limitations of records in Mississippi. He died from symptoms of his disease in Indianola, Mississippi. His last songs, "Hang It On The Wall", was recorded posthumously in 1935.

Patton, who was known as charismatic and attractive, but also stubborn and quarrelsome, had numerous relationships with women, at least six of whom he married. His last wife, Bertha Lee, a thirteen-years old cook, became Patton's singing partner on his last records. Although he had few friendships, he was popular among audience. On his live performances he performed entertaining interludes and techniques, such as irritating and unusual guitar playing and percussion-like usage of his guitar. He was known for his extremely powerful performances, both vocally and physically. On guitar he played very fast and dominated fingerpicking, but could barely play accords and was unable to read notes.

Patton's work experienced a slight revival when his records were released on compilations in the 60s, but his work received much more recognition decades later when the box set Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton was released in 2001, which received three Grammy Awards and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame as well as acclaims by critics. Patton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the time of its establishment. "Pony Blues", his most successful single, was listed on the National Recording Registry.

Early life

Charlie Patton was born in Bolton, Mississippi, in April 1891, the third son of Bill and Annie Patton. The couple eventually had twelve children, though eight of them died before maturity; the family was of mixed Native-American, African-American and Caucasian ancestry.

Hoping to improve their economic circumstances, the Patton family moved into a burnbeated plantation at the Dockery Plantation near Ruleville, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta. The plantation farmed about 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi) of land and employed several hundred workers who lived with their families in village-like surroundings that included a dry goods stores, furniture shop, church, graveyard and railroad station. Bill Patton was hardworking and achieved relative prosperity, allowing Patton to remain in school through the ninth grade, longer than was usual for farm children. His father was also an elder in a baptist church and valued a solid religious education, so Charlie regularly attended sunday school, was well-versed in the Bible and delivered occasional lay preachings. Patton's religious apprenticeship was later so influential, that he considered training as a preacher.

Patton learned to play the guitar at the age of seven. Although his devout Christian father believed dance music was a sin, he eventually indulged and presented Patton his first guitar when he was around 14. Patton later met Henry Sloan—one of the earliest musicians of Delta blues—on the Dockery Plantation. Sloan tutored Patton for several years and was backed by him on several gigs. Patton was also tutored by Earl Harris, though Harris' influence on him is not well-documented. Patton occasionally performed with the "Chatmon Brothers"—who later attained great success as The Mississippi Sheiks—playing different styles of music, including waltz, ragtime, minstrel and square dance. In 1906, at the age of fifteen, Patton left home, possibly due to contention between him and his brother Willie.

Career

Early career

Patton began working as a musician around 1907 and gained local popularity over the following four years. His oldest recorded compositions date back to this period (including songs "Pony Blues", "Banty Rooster Blues", "Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues" and "Down The Dirt Road"), and nearly every tune he would later perform during his first recording session (not to take place until 1929), he composed in 1910. Around two years later, in the small town Drew, where he resided, he met numerous other musicians including Howlin' Wolf, Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson and Roebuck Staples. John Fahey supposed this period was the beginning of his influence on the Delta Blues. Several years later, a white person was shot by a black soldier in Drew, and all musicians were forced to leave. This departure of the musicians who had been influenced by Patton resulted in the dissemination of his style throughout Mississippi.

In 1916, blues musician W.C. Handy invited him to become a member of his band, but Patton rejected the offer because he could not read notes. During a muster to prove his ability to serve as a soldier in World War I, it was discovered that he had mitral stenosis (a cardiac anomaly), and he was released from service soon after. In the 1920s, he became widely known and accepted as a solo musician in the Southern United States. Patton played in juke joints, at street corners or in front of shops, at house parties (where a private apartment or house was at night redesigned into a juke joint), at picnics (which were hosted by white farmers for the black workers), sometimes for medicine shows at the outset of his career, and at birthdays and weddings.

First and second recording session

In 1929, talent scout H.C. Speir searched out Charlie Patton on the recommendation of blues musician Bo Carter. He was introduced to executives at Victor Records after doing a test recording, but they were not convinced, so Speir sent Patton to Paramount Records in Indiana for US$150 on June 14 or 15, where he performed his first recording session in Richmond. The entire fourteen recorded tracks were released in the following weeks on Paramount, including the single "Pony Blues"—one of his oldest tracks—which became his biggest commercial success. His second record, "Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues/Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues", was released as an advertising gimmick under the name "The Masked Marvel". A contest was held in which anyone who could identify Patton as the performer could win a free Paramount record. Buddy Boy Hawkins traveled together with Patton to have his last session. On one of the tracks, "Snatch It And Grab It", a singing and shouting Patton can be heard in the background.

As Patton's first recordings sold well, Paramount brought him into the studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, either November or December 1929, to work on more recordings. He was accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Henry Sims, who was at that time not a renowned blues musician. Sims, Patton's close friend since their youth, had already been hired by Paramount. Patton recorded 24 tracks; he was backed by Sims as fiddler on six tracks, and as guitarist on another four.

The high number of recorded tracks during this session exemplified Patton's professionality, as a musician would typically record in one day an average of only four to eight tracks. It also highlighted the outstanding position Patton held among the artists of Paramount, as such a high number of recordings of one artist in such a short period was unusual. After Blind Lemon Jefferson's death in December 1929, Patton became the most prominent and successful artist on Paramount. In the following year, 13 Patton tracks were released, more than from any other blues musician.

Third recording session and breakout

Pattons third recording session took place in August 1930 in Grafton as well and lasted four to six days long. During the Great Depression in 1929 financially-troubled buyers decreased, resulting to the closure of Paramount Records two years later. Likewise it was Patton's "smallest" session, he recorded only four tracks, backed by Willie Brown on a second guitar. The small amount of records possibly established the perception, that Paramount wanted to tie contractually for the following years.

Patton hired musicians on request from Art Libley, recording manager of Paramount. Every bluesman received the opportunity to take recordings (wherefore Patton received $100). As such, Son House (whom Patton met only recently) could take his first and over decades only session, as well as Willie Brown (who never recorded tracks after his four tracks). Other less-known musicians were the singer and pianist Louise Johnson (Patton's brief lover, who also recorded four tracks) and a cappella gospel group Delta Big Four.

In consequence of the Great Depression poverty spread increasingly under the Afro American population; people did not have enough money to buy records. Patton did not record for the time being but gave occassionally guitar lessons. It is worth noting that he played for a white audience more frequently than ever. Such audiences resulted in more money and an increase of popularity of Patton.

Last recording session and death

After the depression, American record companies fairly recovered in 1933. The unsinged Patton received a contract from the American Record Company (ARC) in January 1934. He travelled with his wife Bertha Lee to take his fourth and last recording session, which lasted from January 30 to February 1, in New York, recording 29 tracks, some of them with his wife. Because ARC records were not well-distributed in Mississippi—the main area of Patton's fame—his records sold slowly, and only 12 of the 29 tracks appeared on ARC's subsidiary Vocalion Records. His last record, "Hang It On The Wall", was released posthumously in April 15, 1935. The masters of the 17 unreleased tracks have not been found to date.

The quality of records from this session were distinctly bad owing to a number of reasons. Patton was suffering a cold at the time of the recordings, which worsened his voice; he had scarcely survived a knife attack in 1933 that left a large scar on his throat; and he suffered from heavy heart problems that began shortly before his trip to New York and continued through it. His voice became broken-winded and brittle, and it lacked the volume and flexibility of previous years. He was on the guitar not as powerful and fast as before. Even if nuanced, many of his later songs are quieter, more introverted and applied seriously. It seems that in some songs he rather tried to complete his early wild life. Lines like "Oh Death / I know my time ain’t long" (from "Oh Death") or verses like from "Poor Me" seems to suggest he foresaw his death.

His uneasy lifestyle and the combination between increasing symptoms of a back then untreatable mitral stenosis, caused from a inherent Syphilis or a rheumatic fever back in his childhood, strained over the years on Pattons physical resources and his health worsened increasingly. After a week-long agony and steady preachings from the Book of Revelation, Patton died on heart failure roughly two months after his last recording in April 28, 1934. His death was not reported in the press and although many came to his funeral, none of them was a blues musician. On his funeral there is standing: "The Voice of the Delta" and "The foremost performer of early Mississippi Blues, whose songs became cornerstones of American music."

Around the time of Patton's death the country blues genre began to disintegrate. Many former locations introduced jukeboxes, a considerable number of musicians went to cities to perform and developed a new style of blues, the urban blues, now amplified with electric guitars.

Marital status

Patton, who has been described as charismatic and attractive (he was around 5 feet and 6.9 inches tall, weighed about 143.30 pounds, had a tan skin and curly hair) and at the same time successful and relatively wealthy, appeared on contemporary views as very attracting on women. He had numerous, including with common-law wifes, and was married to six women. Beside the six marriages there were perhaps more, at least two being indentified. His first marriage was with Gertrude Lewis in 1908; the marriage was however very short-dated, as in the same year he married Millie Bonds, who gave a birth to daughter Willie Mae, nicknamed as China Lou. Although the marriage lasted a few years, he stayed with her and his daughter in touch. In 1913 he married Dela Scott, in 1918 Roxie Morrow (with whom he had the longest marriage), in 1922 Minnie Franklin, in 1924 Mattie Parker and Bertha Reed in 1926.

Patton's fathered many children, including two sons (born 1916 and 1918, respectively) with Sallie Hollins, and one daughter (Rosetta, born 1917; according to the birth certificate she was born marital, no marriage certificate exists, though) with Martha Christian. There are no further information about the two children of Bertha Reed, and equally about one boy, who possibly died as a child.

Patton met his last wife and later occassional singing partner Bertha Lee Pate probably at the end of 1929, a cook who was at that time thirteen. He lived with her under temperamental but sometimes somewhat violent, but overall positive circumstances. A peculiar hard contention took place between them on a house party, resulting in a short imprisonment in Belzoni for both (the story was used as an inspiration for his song "High Sheriff Blues"). In 1933 they moved to Holly Ridge, where they lived together shortly before his death.

Personality

Patton is illustrated in reports from relatives and contemporaries generally as humorous, culminating in silliness but aloof, considering his advantage, stubborn and quarrelsome. His traits raised when he tippled much and often. His humour became lousy and nasty and although he never provoked physical conflicts as a rule, he never prevented them. He avoided close relationships, kept certain distance towards his few friendships and was rarely private; his friendships were probably mostly ephemeral and of low amount of emotional depth. Patton acted towards partners, some of whom he exploited, condescending and contemptuous in words and acts, and he sometimes repeatedly performed partial heavy domestic violence.

Towards other musicians he usually acted dismissive and distanced. When he was drunk he often disturbed and irritated other musicians on gigs by performing seemingly cheering interjections. During a recording session of Louise Johnson on August 1930, Patton, together with Son House, even did that in a studio; Johnson got into stutter while singing the fourth verse of "Long Way From Home". Patton was not sedentary, he often moved from one place to another, but always stayed (except on two gigs in Arkansas in the early 1910s and Memphis in the early 1930s) in the extended area of the Dockery Plantation or his place of birth, both of which were his main places of residence. While travelling he discovered numerous sites in Mississippi and in its bordering countries, sometimes going far off his home, among them Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis and Albany.

During his adult life he worked excessively as a musician rather than practicing physical work. His musicianship made him free from any heteronomy and was likewise approved as avowed profitable. Through the frequency of gigs and fame he possibly became the only delta blues musician who could live distinctly from his music and could number projections of income from gigs during 1929 without any help, and was paid almost like an average American college professor ($2850 to $3150). Patton owned a car, several guitars, very often weared suits and could help his family financially. His fame and popularity was not restricted for black-only audience, but received recognition under the white population, and sometimes he played together with white musicians and performed under a white audience; in his last years white audiences were even the majority.

Despite his success his social status was low. Blues musicians were described by the highly religious, "civil" black majority on the basis of their music, as well as of their way of life, commonly as sinful. The devoutly rootage of their faith not only influenced the population—a representation and its consequence, an afterlife in hell—but it also became a reality for musicians, resulting in conflicts of their own existence. According to author Robert Palmer, Patton regularly retrived from the music and his "immoral" lifestyle, and instead studied the Bible. Patton sometimes wanted to train as a preacher, but this intention was brief.

Work

Pattons saved work as a solo artist consists of over fifty tracks recorded in roughly sixty takes on four sessions from 1929 until 1934. About forty of these, the equivalent of about three LPs, were recorded from 1929 to 1930; no other blues musician before him left such an extensive work. In addition he backed other musicians on their sessions, resulting from 10 to 20 more tracks. His repertoire was significantly greater and did not comprise only blues tracks, but also ragtimes, religious songs, folk songs, songs of black and white origin, and contemporary music; Patton was a so-called songster of the turn of the century. Apart from religious songs he recorded non-blues songs, but those remain missing.

Every recorded track remained uninfluenced by formative interventions from recording companies due to lack of understanding between white employees and the "primitive" blues. Songs were usually just recorded, released and sold, what musicians offered was hoped for success; no specific market strategy existed. As such the creative control was performed solely by musicians, what offers the today's listener to take a nearly normal look at Patton's work. The saved recordings present always just an excerpt of its respective track. The duration of the tracks back then were shortened to three minutes, so longer tracks had to be divided to make room for solos and improvisations and to record the up to thiry minutes long, strongly repetitive passages, which Patton played on live perfomances.

Influences

Little is known about Patton's influences. He is often considered one of the first blues musicians, taking contemporary music far from the pre-1910; therefore, comparisons between preceding generations are hardly known. His playing was influenced by his most important teachers Henry Sloan and Earl Harris, but nothing is known about the influences in his early period. Patton followed the music market when the first blues records were released since 1923/1924, and orientated on successful new compositions. As an example he adapted Ma Raineys "Booze and Blues" from 1924 as "Tom Rushen Blues", used lyrics from Ardelle Braggs "Bird Nest Blues" in his "Bird Nest Bound", "Cryin' Blues" by Hound Head Henry served as a basis for his "Poor Me", and "Sittin' On Top Of The World" by Mississippi Sheiks for "Some Summer Day". He also admired musician Blind Lemon Jefferson, a successful country blues pioneer.

Lyrics

His lyrics are generally rated as his lowest element of work. John Fahey meant his lyrics were often characterized by "disconnection, incoherence, and apparent 'irrationality'", veryfied "stanzaic disjunction" and summed up they contained "various unrelated portions of the universe" that are "described at random", but also noted, that lyrical incoherence is typical for the country blues. David Evans meant it was Pattons lyrics which were not stationary, but were rather based on several few key lines of traditional origin and were improvised spontaneously while playing.

Patton's lyrics have two emphasis: For the most part they reflect his life, in some cases so far containing autobiographical characters. Closely tied on everyday experience, they offered the contemporary listener the possiblity for indentification, and they are nowadays valuable contemporary documents about the black's everyday life. He transcended the emotional thematic restriction of love often found in the Blues. Although these topois can be found, he also thematized touring, death and nature. The lyrics contained characters of popular music, and allusions of social ills are very rare and are restrained of his personal experiences. Socio-critical lyrics, including about racism, are missing entirely.

There are also tracks about his deep religiosity, such as "I'm Goin Home", "Jesus Is A Dying Bed-Maker", "Lord I'm Discouraged" and especially the double-sided "Prayer Of Death", recorded under the name "Elder J.J. Hadley". Contemporary tracks also contain religious elements. His singing style was responsible for a fragmentary understanding of lyrics, even for contemporaries. Many of his lyrics to date are hard to understand or are interpreted differently.

Musicianship

Patton played on numerous guitars. According to Booker Miller, his favorite was the Stella guitar, "made outta cypress; tan... with a lotta fancy trimming around it", as he felt picking on it was easier as with the expensive but common Gibson guitar. Patton regularly tuned his guitar, either in Open G ("Spanish") or standard, and only one track is known to have an Open D tuning, "Spoonful Blues". His guitar playing was extremely percussive, and he used occassionally the guitar body as a percussion instrument since using the slide guitar in about a third of recordings on his Delta blues repertoire. Patton was a guitar virtuouso, but his appliance was restricted for the most needful of his repertoire. He dominated excellently the fingerpicking, but could barely play accords; he was also unable to read notes. He occassionally let the guitar "speaking" (clearly heard in the refrain of "A Spoonful Blues", where the guitar "spoke" "spoonful"). His tempo was so fast, even a physically experienced sideman such as Willie Brown complained about it. Patton could only play the guitar; he unsuccessfully tried to learn violin before 1916.

Patton sang with a hoarse, growling, yet astonishingly voluminous baritone voice, which could reach one octave (well hearable in "Pony Blues") and which could allegedly reach, when non-amplified, 500 yards (460 m). Sleepy John Estes called it the loudest voice he ever heard and David Edwards said it could "broke them country houses down". He may had used vibrato in his teens, and in "Jim Lee". The syllables were often stretched, or very short intervals were insterted between lines, to adjust them to a time signature or to produce rhythmically unusual effects. While playing, he stamped with his foot on the ground to be in rhythm and put his full weight of his feet, which were further strengthen through metallic nails under his shoes. According to Richard Harney, he produced a volume "like it's five or six people in there stompin". As in the early period of blues, he temporarily played over an half-an-hour long hypnotic figure on the guitar. The volume was an essential factor for success, as the audience could comprise several hundred people.

Live performances

Pattons excessive showmanship was remarkable, as he sometimes irritated the audience. When performing while sitting on a chair (common at that time), he plucked the strings and the guitar body with fists and hands, throwed the guitar up and catched it timely to continue playing, while his accompanist kept stroke. He played behind his head, under or between his legs or on his back. These interludes were already usual in minstrel shows from the 19th century and were already considered outdated. As an entertainer he often offered background music; John Fahey's anecdote depicts it very plastic: when he introduced records for Son House from 1965, who listened to a vast number of Patton's songs and who sometimes participated on recording sessions, he was amazed by its quality, "I never knew he could play that good".

About since 1926 he was often backed by Willie Brown, who switched to Son House in 1929. After that he played mostly solo, but was sometimes backed by Henry Sims on fiddle.

Reception

Contemporary reception

Patton was the most influental blues musician in the golden age of Delta blues. Numerous blues musician were his pupils, admirer and accompanists, and some of them imitators, who played on locations Patton had never or rarely played. Howlin' Wolf, who wanted to become a blues musician after participating on one of Patton's gigs, took guitar lessons, performed at the beginning of 1930s as an imitator and was strongly influenced by his singing. Son House owed Patton for his first records; Bukka White said his goal was "to come to be a famous man, like Charley Patton" since as a child. Willie Brown, his friend and from 1915 until Patton's death his most important sideman, learned a lot from him. He also influenced big names such as Tommy Johnson (who covered two of his songs), Big Joe Williams and Roebuck "Pops" Staples, but also second-class blues musicians, such as Booker Miller, Kid Bailey, Buddy Boy Hawkins and David Honeyboy Edwards. The young Robert Johnson, who stated to Johnny Shines that Patton was his inspiration when he began to perform as an imitator, much resided in Patton's area in 1930, but did not find approval, as he was meant to be a passable harmonica player, but a bad guitarist (a decision later revised by Brown and House during Johnson's famous year of travel). The Dockery Plantation became a meeting point for all of those, later leading to its name "Birthplace of the Delta Blues".

Patton was not only influential for other musicians, his status as a stage performer was exceptional. There were no other musicians before Patton who achived in the Mississippi Delta such a fame; before Patton semi-anonymous entertainers – similar to today's solo entertainer –, without specific, individual status, were active. Patton establised such a reputation during his career that people went to concerts because of him (according to numerous reports by contemporaries). In 1947 country musician Hank Williams recorded Patton's track "Going to Move to Alabama", without naming Patton as copyright holder, under the title "Move It on Over" and reached his first nationwide hit, peaking at number 4 on Billboard's Country Singles chart. He was credited as a strong influence for Rock and Roll. Critic Robert Santelli wrote about him, "Patton’s standing in blues history is immense: no country blues artist, save Blind Lemon Jefferson, exerted more influence on the future of the form or on its succeeding generation of stylists than Patton. Everyone from Son House, Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson, to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Elmore James can trace their blues styles back to Patton."

Revival

Like many country and Delta blues artists at that time, Patton's work was rediscovered not until later. Despite two compilations already released in the 60s, the exceptional influence to following blues musicians was for a long time sparsely acknowledged, especially the "myth" Robert Johnson, well-received under the white audience. Although he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the time of its establishment, his importance was progressively recognized outside of circle groups when the first remasters were released early in the 90s. In 2001 American independent label Revenant Records released Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton after working on it for several years, a detailed box set collection consisting of his entire records including previously undisclosed records and two booklets about his life and work. The critically acclaimed box set ("It truly is the last word, and one of the most impressively packaged box sets in all of popular music") received in 2003 three Grammy Awards (Best Album Notes, Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package, Best Historical Album) and was inducted in 2006 as "Classics of Blues Recording (Album)" into the Blues Hall of Fame. Today, rare, original 78-rpm records cost on auctions between $15,000 and $20,000. "Pony Blues" from 1929 was listed in Library of Congress' United States National Recording Registry by the National Recording Preservation Board in 2006.

Bob Dylan commented about Patton, "If I made records for my own pleasure, I would only record Charley Patton songs." and wrote "High Water (For Charlie Patton)" in 2001 as a tribute. Chris Rea also appointed to him. In an interview he described his key moment "… there I listened for the first time to Chaley Patton: It was for me like a spiritual experience. I was absolutely captured how he sang, played and conveyed this particular emotion... Charley Patton had haunted me ever since I got my first guitar […] This episode changed my whole life!". American comic writer and blues connoisseur Robert Crumb honored Patton by publishing a comic biography in 1984 based on a biography by Gayle Dean Wardlow and Stephen Calt.

Research

Research on Patton's work suffers under insufficient written sources about him as well as personal testimonials. Almost everything known about Patton was derived either from his work (where interpretations are confrotated with the speaker's opportunity) or statements made by people from his environment, who were interviewed usually in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The reliability of reports, such as the for a long time influential verbal reports by House, that depicted Patton humanly and mucially negative portrayal, was often low.

During a revival in the 1960s research was mostly put in his biography. Bernard Klatzko became a pioneer for researches, travelling into the Mississippi Delta in 1964 to complete the second part of the compilation The Immortal Charlie Patton. While there, he was among the first to ask friends and people about biographical details.

House was in the same year rediscovered, too. In an interview he portraited Patton as quarrelsome, egoistic, hoggish, alcoholic and thrifty, sloppy toward music, as an analphabet and womanizer. In an article associated with that interview , authors Gayle Dean Wardlow and Stephen Calt indeed intensified Patton's image as "degenerate sociopath", but revised that statement on their extensive biography in 1988, and believed House created an on disfavour motivated caricature of Patton.

It was not until 1970 that musician, musicologist and blues enthusiast John Fahey studied in his Master Thesis Patton's lyrics and music, and wrote a short biography. He illustrated Patton as a mere entertainer without contentual depth and sentimentality, but corrected his bias on his accompanying text from collected works in 2001. Although principally using prior information for biographical data, he also added his research facts (including tnterviews with Bertha Lee and Sam Chatmon).

Biographer Robert Palmer corrected on his 1981 book Deep Blues, which contains previously unpresented interviews (concerning Patton) with Joe Rice Dockery (then owner of the Dockery Plantation), Hayes McMullen, Howlin' Wolf and Roebuck Staples, Patton's biographical image, in which he placed incriminated character traits into the social context of the Mississippi Delta in the beginning of the 20th century and in which he emphasized that promiscuity, violence and alcohol were indeed solid components of the Juke Joints subculture; Patton was therefore not unusual.

The 50th anniversary of his death took place in 1984 in Liège, where his stance on Blues was predominantly discussed by an international symposium under the title "The Voice of the Delta – Charley Patton And the Mississippi Blues Traditions". He was honoured "un des plus grands artistes [...] dans le domaine de la musique populaire négro-americaine" ("the biggest artist [...] in the African American popular music".

David Evans corrected his strong bias towards Patton in his biographical essay "The Conscience Of The Delta" – in his view mostly based on statements by House – and completed it with numerous information; he menat that Patton had indeed artificial sincerity and sensitivity. The slightly revised and updated essay was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001.

The divisiveness of the research resumes to exists when speaking in an accurate assessment of Patton's position as musician. Despite his self-understanding as entertainer and his success-orientating, no author (despite the sometimes critical view on his artificial seriosity) contested his influence on Blues; Fahey praised him with the words "to me he was the most exciting guitar player and blues singer ever heard", and Gayle Dean Wardlow labelled him as "an innovator, the first great delta bluesman". However, it is unknown whether there were already Delta blues traditions from which Patton's style derived (Evans, Fahey, Palmer) or if Patton really invented that style (Wardlow, Calt). It is problematic to find sources, as there were no records before Patton which answer these questions.

Pictorial testimonies

For a long time only drawn or gruffly screened depictions from adverts existed. All those were apparently the same picture, which in each case was just modified with graphical devices. The depiction for the "Masked-Marvel" campagne, for example, depicts Patton with a blindfold; for the "Spoonful Blues" a scene in a restaurant, Patton sitting on a chair; for the advert for "34 Blues" a sitting Patton on a chair while his legs are crossed, who holds an on his lap resting guitar. In 2003 John Tefteller, owner of one of the worldwide largest blues collection, discovered the original photo from all those drawings, and is to date his ownership. Patton shot this photo by himself and intended to apply it on announcements for performances; it was a very professional and back then very unusual method. Another photo, an alleged depiction of a young Patton with a moustache, from 1908 shows low similarity with Patton and was after its first publication in the monography by Calt and Wardlow not again published.

Discography

Original 78-rpm records

This is a list of all original releases by Patton. Because of the sensitive shellac there are only a few records more; American collector and expert John Tefteller guessed the number of all conserved tracks overall not more than 100.

List of all official releases by Patton

Song	Catalogue number	Release	Notes
"Pony Blues" b/w "Banty Rooster Blues"	Paramount 12792	July 1929
"Prayer Of Death Pt.1" b/w "Prayer Of Death Pt. 2"	Paramount 12799		As "Elder J. Hadley"
"Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues" b/w "Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues"	Paramount 12805		Sometimes as "The Masked Marvel"
"Down The Dirt Road Blues" b/w "It Won't Be Long"	Paramount 12854
"A Spoonful Blues" b/w "Shake It And Break It But Don't Let It Fall Mama"	Paramount 12869
"Pea Vine Blues" b/w "Tom Rushen Blues"	Paramount 12877
"Lord I'm Discouraged" b/w "I'm Going Home"	Paramount 12883
"High Water Everywhere Pt. 1" b/w "High Water Everywhere Pt. 2"	Paramount 12909	April 1930
"Rattlesnake Blues" b/w "Running Wild Blues"	Paramount 12924
"Magnolia Blues" b/w "Mean Black Cat Blues"	Paramount 12943	July 1930
"Mean Black Moan" b/w "Heart Like Railroad Steel"	Paramount 12953	August 1930
"Green River Blues" b/w "Elder Greene Blues"	Paramount 12972	September 1930
"Jesus Is A Dying-Bed Maker" b/w "I Shall Not Be Moved"	Paramount 12986	October 1930
"Hammer Blues" b/w "When Your Way Gets Dark"	Paramount 12988	November 1930
"Moon Going Down" b/w "Going To Move To Alabama"	Paramount 13014	December 1930
"Some Happy Day" b/w "You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die"	Paramount 13031
"Circle Round The Moon" b/w "Devil Sent The Rain Blues"	Paramount 13040	late 1930 / early 1931
"Dry Well Blues" b/w "Bird Nest Bound"	Paramount 13070	spring 1931
"Some Summer Day Pt. 1" b/w "Jim Lee Blues Pt. 1"	Paramount 13080	spring / summer 1931
"Frankie And Albert" b/w "Some These Days I'll Be Gone"	Paramount 13110	early 1932
"Joe Kirby" b/w "Jim Lee Blues Pt. 2"	Paramount 13133	early 1932
"34 Blues" b/w "Poor Me"	Vocalion 02651
"High Sheriff Blues" b/w "Stone Pony Blues"	Vocalion 02680	April 15, 1934
"Love My Stuff" b/w "Jersey Bull Blues"	Vocalion 02782	September 1, 1934
"Oh Death" b/w "Troubled 'Bout My Mother"	Vocalion 02904		With Bertha Lee
"Hang It On The Wall" b/w "Revenue Wall Blues"	Vocalion 02931	April 15, 1935

Notes

• ^ Note: Many sources, including musical releases and his gravestone, spell his name "Charley" even though the musician himself spelled his name "Charlie."

References

Bibliography

• Calt, Stephen; Wardlow, Gayle (1988). King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton. Newton, New Jersey: Rock Chapel. ISBN 9780961861001. OCLC 19677398.
• Fahey, John (1970). Charley Patton. London: Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70030-2. OCLC 131527.
• Komara, Edward M.; Wardlow, Gayle (1998). Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the blues. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0879305525. OCLC 39614647.
• Palmer, Robert (1981). Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140062236. OCLC 6864668.
• Sacré, Robert (1987). The Voice of the Delta. Charley Patton and the Mississippi Blues Traditions: Influences and Comparisons: An International Symposium. Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège. ISBN 2-87014-163-7. OCLC 21798335.
• Santelli, Robert (1993). The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia. New York City, New York and other: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-015939-8. OCLC 28017492.