Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues

In the course of music history, some years have been credited for greatly altering the musical and cultural landscape. Such years include 1956 (rock and roll/Elvis), 1964 (British invasion), 1977 (punk), and 1991 (grunge). I am here proposing that the most important jump for recorded music and its cultural impact, across genres and formats, was 1927, although people may not have realized it at the time. In the next week, I will post songs and video from blues to Broadway, Hollywood to jazz that show how fantastic 1927 was for American music and how influential that music would be in the long run.

First, although blues music is notorious for riffing on lyrics pulled from the verse of another song, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s recording of “Match Box Blues” was the first to carry that title. And a good country blues song it is. Jefferson was one of the most sought after blues musicians of the 20s. He recorded three versions of “Match Box Blues” in 1927 for two record labels. Now, I admit that the song didn’t drastically change music at the time, but any song that was covered by the Beatles eventually proved its influence.

By 1957 the Rockabilly craze in Memphis had spawned a good number of covers of old blues songs. Carl Perkins only had vague recollections of the lyrics to “Matchbox,” but in typical blues fashion he made up his own over a Jerry Lee Lewis boogie-woogie rhythm.

The Beatles recorded the song a number of times, with the most familiar being a Ringo-sung 1964 recording from the UK Long Tall Sally EP and the US Something New LP. Comparing the Beatles version to the original, of course the rhythm was stronger and the recording clearer, but the basic melody and song structure remained quite similar to Blind Lemon Jefferson’s song from 1927.