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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Brian Hoskin Lyr/Chords Req: songs by Charley Patton (19) RE: Lyr/Chords Req: CHARLIE PATTON 23 Nov 04


Here's a little information from Wardlow and Calt (1988) King of the Delta Blues: the Life and Music of Charlie Patton.

"As Patton's recordings were designed for black audiences they contained only isolated samples of his white-oriented material. His eight bar ditty Some of These Days (which may have been a take-off on Sophie Tucker's famous 1910 hit) was likely conceived for white presentation: it used diatonic intervals and featured the keynote as its lowest vocal tone, a technique Patton usually avoided in singing blues and gospel material. Its rhythm pattern emphasised the second beat of each measure, instead of the 1-2-3-4 pattern Patton favored in blues. The intricate picking and strumming Patton used in executing both this work and Shake It and Break It indicates that he attempted at some point in his career to make a lasting impression on white audiences with his musicianship, perhaps in the capacity of a medicine show entertainer. It is likely when he played for white square dances and "sociables" he strummed behind a fiddler and sang tunes in the vein of Runnin' Wild, another eight bar diatonic ditty which repeated the accenting pattern of Some of These Days and likewise deployed the keynote as its lowest vocal tone. Given a fiddler to play lead, Patton could no doubt reel off such tunes indefinitely. Yet it is significant that in singing Runnin' Wild, Some of These Days and Shake It and Break It, Patton had a short supply of verses, and sang inordinate repeats of the title verse or chorus. It may thus be that when he came to record in 1929 his days as an entertainer at white functions were well behind him."


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