not all heroes go to heavan

I found a real treasure today. The work of one great unsung
hero, singing the greatness of another great unsung hero.

R. Crumb, who most people know as the odd 60s cartoonist
to make "keep on truckin'", "mr natural", and "felix the cat", was
a connesieur of private suffering, and most of his works in some
way or other focus around the strife of very flawed people.
He made cartoons that were serious art 30 years ago, while we
still wait the last few moments for the medium to gain legitimacy
today.
...as much as I respect him, he's still too creepy for me to take
in large doses tho. What follows, however, is now without a
doubt my favorite creation of his: a biography of a blues founder,
done just as it should be done.

Exepted from "The Big Book of Blues : A Biographical Encyclopedia"
by Robert Santelli:
"Charlie Patton was the first great Delta bluesman; from him flowed
nearly all the elements that would comprise the region’s blues
style. Patton had a course, earthy voice that reflected hard
times and hard living. His guitar style - percussive and raw -
matched his vocal delivery. In a since, Charlie Patton, in addition to
being a bluesman of the highest caliber, might also be the first rock
& roller. Patton was far from passive when he performed in
front of an audience. It was not uncommon for him to play the
guitar between his knees or behind his back. He also played the
instrument loud and rough. Patton jumped around and used the back
of his guitar like a drum. He was a showman and made histrionics
part of his act."




I appended three of Charlie's songs for here: Elder Green Blues, Shake
it and Break it, and Mind Reader Blues with Bertha Lee from the last
recording session just before his death. His work is old enough so as
to be public domain, so search around and you'll find stuff like this

The great Mississippi flood of 1927 mentioned herein was a cataclysm
that echoed through history, both in the soulful mourns of blues players
and the evolution of engineers controlling nature. read more here.
"I
saw a whole tree just disappear, sucked under by the current, then saw
it shoot up, it must have been a hundred yards [downstream]. Looked
like a missile fired by a submarine."