Blind Boy Fuller and Recording for ARC
Q: Tell me about Blind Boy Fuller.
A: His home was in Rockingham, North Carolina. He came up to Durham later. When I first run across him he didn’t know how to play but one piece and that was with a knife. He wanted to take some of my training. I’d sit down and he’d come up to my house everyday and sit down and play. I taught him how to play. He would have been alright if I kept him under me long enough.
I knew his wife first. He had gotten away from her. She come to my house, I met her in the streets the first time, lookin’ for him. I took her home with me to my mother’s house. She had been out all night long and hadn’t slept yet. Gave her my bed so she could lay down and sleep. Next day she happened to stumble up upon him, you know. He had got away from her and she didn’t know where he was. She was awful fond of him. She was crazy about him. She never wanted to get too far from him. I can’t talk too much about it because you women know how it is, even if you ain’t married! When you come across somebody that you love you like to keep them close to you.
In the end he had to shoot her as she got too bad and out of hand. (3)
Q: Were you singing blues then?
A: Oh yeah, I was a "blues cat" then. What I mean by "blues cat" is that I played blues and blues and blues again and again. I would go to parties, dances and things like that. Chittlin’ struts and all that kind of stuff.
Q: Was Fuller playing with anyone special in Durham, N.C.?
A: If I met him playing with anybody it was Sonny Terry. That’s the only one I knew he played with.
Q: Tell me about recording for ARC.
A: We got together with this white man, Jimmy Long, who wanted somebody to come to New York City and make records. The first trip we all went together -- Blind Boy Fuller, Bull City Red and myself. We stayed on the corner of 133rd Street and 7th Avenue.
Q: Did you like the recording session?
A: I didn’t enjoy it too well and I enjoyed it alright too. I couldn’t hardly catch on to it until later on. They’d give you beer to drink but I didn’t want any liquor. I played a steel bodied guitar then. There was a difference between me and the "man." He paid the rest of them but didn’t want to give me all of mine. That was the difference between us. The records were just like you put it out. You had to go over each song as much as twice.
Q: How much did they pay you?
A: They didn’t give us nothing of what we should have got! Forty dollars for us and $35 for Bull City Red.
Q: Who was Bull City Red?
A: His name was George Washington but we called him Bull City Red. He played the guitar and sometimes he tried to play washboard. He sings "I Saw The Light From Heaven Come Down" on my record.
Q: Where was Jimmy Long from?
A: He was from Burlington, North Carolina.
Q: What type of songs did you record?
A: I couldn’t tell you about them all. I made ten Christian songs and two sets of blues - "Mountain Jack Blues" and "Ice Pick Blues." Fuller put out the song about "The Stuff Is Here" and another one about "The little red rooster said to the little red hen to meet him down at the barn at half-past ten." He put out another song about "Sure as you’re born Ida, somebody’s been playing with that thing." (4)
Q: How did Fuller die?
A: He suffered a kidney trouble. That’s what killed him. His thigh wasn’t as big as this guitar neck here. That’s the way he went away.
Q: Tell me about some of the guitar players you liked back in the early days.
A: I knew Willie Walker, you see. We all lived in the same city together, Greenville, South Carolina. He was a master guitar player. I didn’t ever learn his pieces. He was a good singer also. Most I heard him play was the blues like "Crow Jane." Him and Simmie Dooley both were good guitar players.
Simmie Dooley he lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Simmie Dooley also played with Pink Anderson. I met Simmie several times. He could play the guitar good too, though not like Willie Walker. I ain’t never heard anybody on a record yet beat Blind Blake on the guitar. I like Blake because he plays right sporty. Blind Lemon Jefferson plays like he wants somebody to feel sorry for him.
Q: What did you think of Blake’s guitar style?
A: It’s a nice style. He plays in that piano style. I and him both plays on the same orders. His favorite keys were G and C and A (I can’t recall what songs he played in A but he did). I’d sit down and listen to some of his performances -- records.
Q: What happened to Blake?
A: Blind Blake got killed. I don’t know exactly when. People told me a street car run him over. I don’t know how true it was!
Q: Were there other guitar players who played in his style?
A: Yeah, Buddy Moss and Bill Broonzy.
Q: Did you ever meet Big Bill?
A: Yeah, one time before he died. I was up there in Harlem, 125th Street where Brownie McGhee had a music studio. I didn’t have no opinion about Big Bill, ‘cause I found him fine. He was a good guitar player. He played on the orders of Blake on some things but he didn’t have a bass like Blake. But he was tolerable good-- awful good!
Q: And Buddy Moss?
A: Well, when Fuller was starting to make records most of anything he come to know about was Buddy Moss’ songs. They would rearrange them and have him play them over. That’s how Fuller got started.
Q: Did you record "Ice Pick Blues" in the old days?
A: No -- Oh yes I did. In the old days when I played for the Perfect Record Company (ARC).
Q: How about Jim Jackson?
A: I ain’t never heard Jim Jackson play.
Notes
3. Fuller sung about this in his "Big House Bound" (Vocalion 04897) and "Crooked Woman Blues" (Vocalion 05527).
4. From the ARC records it shows that Rev. Davis recorded the following tunes of which only one was not released:
Cross And Evil Woman Blues / I’m Throwin’ Up My Hand ARC 35-10-16
I Am The True Vine / I Am The Light Of The World ARC 5-12-66
Oh Lord Search My Heart / You Got To Go Down ARC 35-10-33
I Saw The Light / Lord, Stand By Me ARC 6-05-65
Twelve Gates To The City You Can Go Home ARC 7-04-55
Have More Faith In Jesus The Angel’s Message To Me ARC 6-11-63
I Belong To The Band, Hallelujah / The Great Change In Me ARC 6-02-65
Lord, I Wish I Could See, unreleased
Rev. Davis constantly referred to "I’m Throwin’ Up My Hands" as "Mountain Jack Blues" and "Cross And Evil Woman Blues" as "Ice Pick Blues." In fact, in both tunes there are verses that use the corresponding titles that Rev. Davis gave the tunes, i.e. in "I’m Throwin’ Up My Hands" the first line of the song is "If I could holler just like a mountain jack," and the last line of "Cross And Evil Woman Blues" is "All she wants is a shotgun or razor, ice-pick or pistol she can find."
