The Burning Question: Lloyd Langford

Blues musicians lead such extraordinary and interesting lives. Take for example Blind Lemon Jefferson, guitar, storyteller and the inventor and dogged defender of citric eye drops. Jefferson was born as a very small child sometime in the 1890s. The exact date of his birth is disputed. Several documents held in The Smithsonian suggest that in September 1895 Jefferson simultaneously experienced his first, second and third birthday. The explanation for this may be as simple as the local greetings card shop being insufficiently stocked. He began playing his guitar in his early teens when other boys his age were too busy drinking hooch or speeding around town in their souped-up* horses and carts.

It was around this time he met and formed friendships with other blues musicians such as Leadbelly, T-Bone Walker and Bumble Bee Slim, so named for his habit of storing his food in pouches on the back of his legs. Jefferson was the father of the Texas Blues and also the most famous exponent of the Piedmont style. The Piedmont style became unfashionable after it was stupidly abbreviated and many of its practitioners became harassed by illiterate mobs, who wrongly believed them to be unusually confident child molesters.

Jefferson’s most famous work is for Paramount Records. Whilst many have taken his 'Black Snake Moan' to be a euphemism about his sexual prowess, recently unearthed evidence suggest that Jefferson was being literal. His residence was indeed plagued by a couple of mambas, almost certainly planted by a frustrated greetings card shop manager.

*The term “souped-up” is derived from the infamous “Kentucky Scandal” of the 1920s when several jockeys were caught illegally injecting their horses with a mixture of carrot and coriander.