Various Artists – I Died All Over You
Document Records
30 songs – 87 minutes
I Died All Over You is an excellent companion piece to Document Records’ recently-issued Halloween albums, Blues, Blues Hoodoo Halloween Vol 2 and Hillbilly Halloween. Expanding the theme beyond the Halloween focus of the other two CDs, I Died All Over You is an enchanting journey through 30 tracks, recorded between 1918 and 1960, based around the lyrical themes of death, grief and the macabre.
As one would expect from any Document album, this is a beautifully packaged album, featuring a glorious triple-gatefold sleeve, detailed liner notes by Gillian Atkinson that provide context on each track’s social and musical history, and full discographical details (where known).
The engineering and mastering is first class, so that even tracks like Bert Williams’ “O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?”, which was recorded in August 1918, sound fresh and crystalline.
The featured artists include blues stars, some forgotten names, jazz musicians, black vaudeville artists, crooners and purveyors of novelty tunes. The one thing they all have in common, in addition to the morbid lyrics, is a musical excellence. So, Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers swing wildly through “Dead Man’s Blues”, Rickey Jordan and Lucky Thompson’s “Drop Dead” has that early West Coast swing, and the Hi-Lighters’ “Dance Me To Death” is an unheralded early rock’n’roll gem.
Fans of traditional blues will particularly delight in Sonny Boy Williamson’s stunning “She Brought Life Back To The Dead”, Atlanta legend Buddy Moss’s country blues classic, “When I’m Dead And Gone”, Memphis Slim’s mournful “Mother Earth” and Ida Cox’s “Death Letter Blues” (which bears only a passing resemblance to the Son House classic of the same name).
Unsung gems include The Poets’ one-hit wonder, “Dead”, which was a minor Halloween hit in 1958, Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux’s Cajun classic, “La Vaise Qui M’a Portin De Ma Fose (The Waltz That Carried Me To My Grave)” and Swedish band, The Needles, whose awesome mid-60’s pop-meets-Bo-Diddley, “A Dying Man”, is one of the album highlights. Also notable is Tetos Demetriades’ “Death Is Approaching”, which was recorded in Greece at a time when Government restrictions prohibited the performance, let alone the recording, of specific types of music.
Nearly all the songs were recorded in various places across the USA, but fascinating outliers include Svend Asmussen’s fiddle-led “Dead Man Polka”, recorded in Copenhagen in 1954 but sounding like it was born in the Appalacian Mountains some 20 years earlier, and Isla Cameron’s 1951 “Died For Love”, which was recorded in London, England. On the other hand, Leslie Sarony’s “Ain’t It Grand To Be Blooming Well Dead” makes no effort to hide its Anglo-centric origins, with Sarony affecting an accent straight from the East End of London. Equally, the BBC Dance Orchestra’s 1943 recording of “I Laughed So Hard I Nearly Died” combines disturbingly menacing laughing over the top of a very over-the-top and hammy musical background.
As with all Document Records releases, I Died All Over You is a lovingly constructed collection of superb songs, but it would be a shame if this were put into the category of Halloween releases. It’s a vital collection of sublime music and one that rewards repeated listening.
