"Several years ago when I was driving to Frank Freeman's Dancing School in Kidderminster with Captain Beefheart, the Captain told me that the person he admired most was Son House. And if somebody had told me two or three years ago when this programme started that we would be having Son House on Top Gear, I wouldn't have believed them, but we do and he's here and it's a joy that he is, because Son House basically is where it all began."
(John Peel, 11 July 1970)
'My Black Mama' SON HOUSE (1930) Delta Blues Guitar Legend
My Black Mama, part 1 (1930)
Eddie James "Son" House Jr. (1902-1988) is renowned as one of the pioneering Mississippi blues singer-guitarists who recorded during the Depression years, thereafter returning to obscurity until rediscovery by white folklorists and blues enthusiasts brought acclaim late in life. Originally intending to become a Baptist preacher, Son House struck up a friendship with Charley Patton and Willie Brown, two singer-guitarists whose records were to be highly rated by the blues collectors and revivalists of the 1960s. He performed alongside Brown and Patton, eventually cutting a number of 78 rpm sides for Paramount Records in 1930. Like many country blues artists of the time, his records did not sell, and, with the Depression forcing record companies to cut back on new recordings, he went back to working on Mississippi plantations, while continuing to perform at weekends.
He was located by the folklorist Alan Lomax, who recorded him for the Library of Congress in 1941 and 1942, but House moved to Rochester, New York in 1943, again working outside music, until his "rediscovery" by blues collectors in 1964. An album for CBS Records followed, with support from the renowned producer John Hammond and blues scholar Alan Wilson (later to find fame as a member of the band Canned Heat). Son House began to perform on the US folk and college circuit, along with other blues veterans like Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James and Bukka White. With James and White he toured Europe in 1967, with the American Folk Blues Festival package show, returning in 1970, when his stay in London included a session for Top Gear - making him the oldest artist to appear on a Peel show.
Son House - Death Letter
Death Letter
Links to Peel[]
Peel was a lifelong blues enthusiast, so a legendary figure like Son House was clearly of interest to him. Yet it was not until the late 1960s that House came to prominence via his records and live performances. Before that, his few 78s for Paramount Records were treasured by the small group of mostly American blues collectors associated with reissue labels like Origin Jazz Library and Yazoo, and with the magazine 78 Quarterly. Thanks to their efforts, House's old records and those of many other performers of the 1927-1934 era (the commercial and, for some blues fans, the artistic highpoint of country blues on record) began to circulate more widely in the late 1960s blues boom. They could even be heard on Radio 1, on both Peel's programmes and Mike Raven's rhythm and blues shows.
Son House's fire-and-brimstone style was a strong influence on the blues singers who succeeded him, notably Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, and thus on the early Rolling Stones and Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - their "Ah Feel Like Ah Said" on the 1968 LP Strictly Personal is based on Son House's "Death Letter". Much later, Jack White of the White Stripes (who recorded a version of "Death Letter"), in conversation with Peel while guesting on his show, expressed his amazement that Son House had recorded a Peel session.
Peel saw Son House play at the 100 Club in London in 1970 and was furious that many of the audience were not listening to the singer he rated so highly. On 09 December 1998: Peel tells how he got up on stage halfway through the debut UK gig of Loudon Wainwright III to tell people to stop talking, or clear off. It's something he says he has only done twice, the other occasion being when Son House played at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street. On both occasions he offered to refund the people's money if only they'd leave so the people who wanted to listen could do so. (It appears that the Son House gig took place on 1970-06-30 or 1970-07-14.[1])
Festive Fifty Entries[]
None
Sessions[]
One session. No known commercial release.
1. Recorded: 1970-07-06. First broadcast: 11 July 1970. Repeated: 17 October 1970, 29 August 1981, 01 August 2001
- My Good Gal / Spoken Word 1 / Death Letter / Spoken Word 2 / Don't You Mind People Grinnin' In Your Face
Other Shows Played[]
- 03 July 1968: Death Letter
- 18 July 1970: My Black Mama Part 2 (LP - Really! Country Blues 1927-1933) Origin Jazz Library OJL 2 (1962) (US release)
- 10 January 1980: Death Letter (album - The Father Of Folk Blues)
- 15 October 1986: Judgement Day (LP - In Concert) Blue Moon
- 22 August 1992: Death Letter (album - Father Of The Delta Blues - The Complete 1965 Sessions)
- 06 March 1993: John The Revelator (album - Death Letter) Edsel ED 167
- 18 January 2001 (Radio Eins): Death Letter (album - Father Of The Delta Blues - The Complete 1965 Sessions)
- 09 April 2003: Pearline (LP- The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives & Steel)' (CBS)
- 22 May 2003: Preaching Blues (LP- Newport Fold Festival: Best of Blues)' (Ace/Vanguard)
- 29 May 2003 (Radio Eins): Preaching Blues
- 03 June 2003: Death Letter Blues (LP- Newport Fold Festival)' (Vanguard)
- 30 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): 'This War Will Last For Years' (CD- Blues: The Essential Album) - (Essential Series)