Customer Reviews

Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music

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I`ve been getting tapes from Joe Bussard for about 8 or 9 years now.With his entire collection of 25,000 78 rpm records to choose from,I now posess a box full of tapes containing some of the best music ever recorded from the 20`s and 30`s.After hearing about this documentary I finally got to see it on IFC and I have to admit that Joe does come off as rather overbearing and gruff,full of bluster and extremely dismissive about most music made after the 1930`s.But when you start to peel back that hard exterior you will find a sensitive human being consummed by a love of the music that was captured on the those old 78 records.And while most people considered them just junk and as something to be discarded,when he started his record collecting - and he will probally spend the rest of his life searching for them - he realized he was chasing the ghosts of our musical past and though long gone,they still existed in voice and instrument on those early records...all he had to do is find them.
One thing is for sure...the first time you see his basement,even if you don`t like or can`t appreciate what he has accomplished,the sheer size of all those records is trully amazing...the entire wall full from ceiling to floor.It is awesome.Joe shares stories about cavessing for records in the 50`s and 60`s literally going door to door for hours or even days and a little history lesson about the people who made all that music...people that maybe only recorded just one record and then just disappeared,lost in time forever.
You get to hear alot of great music and also see some trully classic footage of Son House and Uncle Dave Macon among others.His story is compelling and for true music fans of old time country,jazz and blues its required viewing.An interesting overview of a man on a mission,consummed by the sound of human beings expressing themselves on those shallac discs in a musical way with performances on par with anything before or since.It is a fitting tribute to a man who one day will be known as much more than a just a musical historian or collector of early American music....he helped save the past from being lost forever.You also get a bonus disc that is much more about Joe`s everyday life than anything else but it is still a facinating glimpse into this man`s life.
As important as it is entertaining,Desperate Man Blues is a must have.Period.

Thank God for Joe Bussard, the grumpy, old, Blues, Jazz and Old-Timey music-loving collector, musician, and living representative of the aforementioned music. To make a great understatement, he's a man who certainly knows his music. He has over 25,000 78 records in his collection, with no particular way of organizing any of them, yet he knows where each one of them is! This is a wonderful dvd which gives us a glimpse into his life. At a time when nobody gave a damn about the Blues, Jazz and Old-Timey music, Joe went all around America collecting and buying these records. Sometimes he had to walk through streams or go through coal mines to get the records, but this didn't discourage him in the slightest. Because of him and his eccentricities, we all have access to this wonderful music; real American music, our music! My favorite part of the dvd is Joe visiting two old black men, after he gets a call from one of them, saying that they have some old records that might be of interest to Joe, and him playing the music of their particular heritage for them. They were previously unaware of black music from the 1920s and 30s, and you can see it on their faces that they are really loving this discovery that they're experiencing. I also love hearing Joe talk about how Jazz died in 1933 and how modern music, especially rap, is garbage. I most definitely recommend picking up this dvd. There are actually two different documentaries on the disc, plus a full performance by Son House and John Lee Hooker, respectively. I hope to meet Bussard some day. In many ways, I'm a lot like him, but he's done more for this music and this country than I'll ever be able to, and that's the truth.

When I first read Joe's story I laughed out loud and cried a little too, since I saw myself as a similar type collector.No I never was as lucky as he,and I have never had the opportunity to meet him,but his enthusiasm and wiliness in the pursuit of his dream makes a budding collector want to hit the road immediately and start the search. While of course the video brings a better perspective to his being, and the accompanying musical cuts the reward...all of us in the collecting field are a little odd,some even borderline psychotic,and I think we all feel better about ourselves after seeing Joe get his just desserts which he so earnestly pursued and deserved.

When I got this for Christmas after placing on my wish list I was really expecting to take a trip through the early blues with the likes of Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House and Leadbelly, but instead here is a documentary about a guy that just loves this music. Was I disappointed, NO. This is a brilliant docu on a guy that you just have to like, although I don't agree with all his beliefs, I do believe in his life long obsession. Made by an Australia documentary team, which is surprising, we follow Joe as he tracks down the lost records and meet some great people along the way. We get to see his incredible basement and his favourite diner (I would love to go there too!) I've watched this twice and went out and bought the soundtrack CD also. Wonderful.

Joe Bussard has accomplished what I can only dream of doing: assembling a record collection of hard to find yet quality music; and in tremendous proportions at that! With roughly 25,000 78rpm records of early jazz, blues and country in his collection, Joe truly deserves his place as a curator of very good music that has sadly been neglected and cast aside. Indeed, we wouldn't have much of this type of music at all had it not been for Joe whose passion for music led him on countless road trips, going from house to house, sometimes with a friend, and simply asking "Do you have any records?"

The documentary on Joe goes along in a smooth way, allowing Joe plenty of camera time to tell his own story which he does quite well. We hear from a friend or two and his daughter, but the spotlight remains on Joe as it should. Joe's face absolutely lights up like a little boy's when he listens to his records; and he starts to move along with the music as he hears it, too. Now that's a man with sensitivity and passion!

In addition, we also learn about Joe's own record label and his brief stint as a radio station operator and DJ even though he didn't exactly have his paperwork in order!

The stories about how he collected records so inexpensively in the 1950s and 1960s are fascinating; and moreover we get home made footage of what the neighborhoods and rural areas looked like as Joe drove his car into towns, cities and very countrified areas. Joe was truly in the right place at the right time; nobody anticipated that this type of music would be valuable someday; perhaps not even Joe himself! When you look at the size of his collection in his basement, you instantly realize that this is on a museum-size scale and Joe deserves recognition for saving this music so that younger artists today can hear it and learn about the development of music especially in the African-American communities of the South back in the day.

The DVD comes with another documentary that covers very similar ground but it does flesh out our understanding of Joe and that's grand. There are other extras, too.

Desperate Man Blues is a must-have for any true music fan out there. I marveled at Joe's collection and his hard work tracking down all these records is remarkable, to say the least. He saved this music from the flames and the garbage disposal; and that's most beneficial for music aficionados.

Recently I went to great lengths, and rightly so, to tout the "Antone's: House Of The Blues" DVD that was about the trials and tribulations of the late Austin, Texas blues club owner Clifford Antone in order to keep the blues tradition alive by keeping old time Chicago blues legends like Huber Sumelin, Eddie Taylor, Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Reed gainfully employed. Also his remarkable sense of talent-spotting in showcasing the new talent of the likes of Sarah Brown, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and most famously the Vaughn brothers, Jimmie and later Stevie Ray. Well, apparently running music clubs is not the only way to go in preserving American roots music, as this `reality' film documentary of the saga of a fifty plus years journey by record collector Joe Bussard rather strikingly points out.

Joe Bussard`s trial and tribulations are of a different order than Clifford Antone's. Joe has taken on the task of traveling many a mile to find rare old roots music wherever he could find it. In short, he has some of the same obsessive, traits that we saw in the `Antone" film. And that is to the good. Plus old Joe has an engaging, if definitely old-fashioned, sense of collecting. Nevertheless when he `played the platters' of Clarence Ashley, Robert Johnson, Son House , Uncle Dave Mason, and a few I really didn't know I was right there with him. That may say more about me than him.

The only problem I have, a big problem I must confess, is old Joe's dismissal of "rock and roll" music. Part of that is generational, to be sure. But part is a different understanding of the nature of American roots music. Jerry Lee Lewis when he was in high form, Elvis when young, Carl Perkins and on and on in the rockabilly and rhythm and blues traditions that served as the foundation of the best of rock. No, I do not agree that was all junk. For the rest though, Joe I am right with you.

I very much looked forward to seeing this, having read good reviews. But it was dissapointing. There's not enough focus on the why, where and who of the music. Mr. Brussard is a cool guy and has obviously done a lot to preserve an important part of recorded material that might otherwise have been lost. But the film is simply not interesting enough for someone who wants to learn about music history. Who are the aritsts on the records? What are their stories? What about asking Mr. Brussard some questions that will lead to something interesting? Now he comes off as a guy totally into music, with an ecclectic taste - but with no deep insight into the development of the music he loves so much. Yes, the depression was a time when music went downhill - what about talking more about that? What the depression tore down, but also created musically? All he has to say about rock music is that it ruined everything. That seems a little narrow - what about globalization, radio, politics, race issues, the record industry and the money men - all important factors in bringing about rock'n'roll? Yes, he's playing his records, yes he is enthusiastic and knows what he likes. So? He seems to have led an interesting life and probably has a lot more to tell us about his travels than the movie lets him. How interesting is it to hear about his breakfast habits and to see him play air guitar while listening to Robert Johnson? How difficult is it to show more pictures of the actual artists? They are the interesting ones - a lot more interesting than the ones playing the records they once recorded. This movie didn't teach me anytihng and could have been a lot better!