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From: Orjan Hansson
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 15:29:34 +0100
Subject: An Offer You Can't Refuse (Was: Big Walter's Toronto '73)

On Fri, 28 Jan 2000, Steve Levine writes:
>
> An Offer You Can't Refuse has Horton with Robert Nighthawk on one side
> and Butterfield on the other. Sound quality is decent, but the pitch
> is off, so it sounds like Horton is using an Ab harp when he's
> playing an A (I've heard that a correct pitch version is going to be
> available soon, but I haven't heard much about it). An Offer has some > amazing harp work. I call it the Big Walter Encyclopedia, since it has > so many of his signature licks and effects. The last solo on "Louise" > is a lesson in dynamics.

A correct pitch version of BW's '64 recordings with Robert Nighthawk
is now available. This has been announced before on this list but the
CD is well worth mentioning again: It is called "I Blueskvarter
(Chicago 1964, Vol 1)" and has been produced by the Scandinavian Blues
Assoc. in collaboration with the Swedish Broadcasting Corp. You can find
detailed info here:
http://www.jeffersonbluesmag.com/
There are also a few RealAudio soundtrack examples as well as a link
to a review of the CD.

The (double) CD also contains recordings of Willie Mabon, Eddie Boyd,
Yank Rachel, Johnny Young (with Slim Willis on hca) and Sunnyland
Slim. The recordings were done by the Swedish radio reporter Olle
Helander and a sound technician at The Sutherland Lounge in Chicago
in May 1964, and they are of very good quality. They have been
broadcasted a couple of times over the years by the Swedish Radio.

Probably someone taped the radio programme and then the BW recordings
(as well as those of Paul Butterfield) appeared on vinyl on the Red
Lightnin' LP RL008 "An Offer You Can't Refuse". This copying resulted
in a markedly lower sound quality and the pitch of BW's songs became
lowered by a semitone. The LP was reissued in 1997 on the Castle CD
CLACD 429 and the pitch as well as some of the song titles are still
wrong. The new CD has been made from Helander's original tapes and
the pitches are now as they should be. I've listed below the BW
songs and their (apparant) keys on the two CDs:

An Offer You Can't Refuse | I Blueskvarter
- -------------------------------|-------------------------
Easy Ab | Trouble In Mind A
Have A Good Time Eb | Letīs Have A Good Time E
Mean Mistreater Ab | Mean Mistreater A
In The Mood Eb | Iīm In The Mood E
West Side Blues Eb | -
Louise Eb | Louise, Louise E
Tin Pan Alley Eb | -
Walter's Boogie, This Is It E | -
- | You Donīt Mistreat Me A

As you see, some of the songs (West Side Blues, Tin Pan Alley and
Walter's Boogie) are missing on the new CD but there is instead
an additional number (You Donīt Mistreat Me) which hasn't been
released before. There are plans for more volumes in the series
and one can only hope that these will include the missing numbers
as well as those by Butterfield.

As far as I can judge all of these BW recordings are in 2nd
position except "Mean Mistreater" which seems to be in 1st pos.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

"Trouble In Mind"/"Easy" is a beautiful instrumental, very
different from the original "Easy" recorded in Memphis '53 with
Jimmy Deberry. It's also quite different from the '72 version of
"Trouble In Mind" on the Alligator LP/CD with Carey Bell. Many
Scandinavian blues fans are familiar with the '64 version since
Helander used it as a signature for all the ca 20 programs in
his radio series. I guess this must have contributed in some way
to the fact that there are a quite a number of good blues harp
players "over here" :-)

Orjan in Goteborg, Sweden