Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Blind Lemon Jefferson

Early Blues

1974 · Olympic Records (Gold Medal Collection) OL 7134 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Olympic Records (Gold Medal Collection)
Catalogue number	OL 7134
Year	1974
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Blues - Country/Texas Blues
Musicians	Blind Lemon Jefferson (vocals, guitar)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  OL-7134A QT-3
Side B:  OL-7134-B QT-3

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1974 - Olympic Records "Gold Medal Collection" yellow label, red print, red boomerang-figure logo, OL 7134 (E)  <- this copy

This Pressing

1974 Olympic Records "Gold Medal Collection" reissue - budget-label pressing of vintage Paramount masters, not a first edition.

The Album

Blind Lemon Jefferson, a blind street singer from Texas, became one of the first commercially successful rural blues recording artists, cutting close to 100 sides for Paramount in Chicago between 1926 and his death in December 1929. His raw, rhythmically free guitar style and unflinching lyrics on themes of prison, poverty, and desire helped define what came to be called Texas blues and gave a national record-buying audience its first sustained exposure to unaccompanied country blues. This collection draws nine of those late-1920s Paramount sides from his commercial peak, including the two takes of his best-known song, and stands as a testament to an artist widely credited as a foundational influence on the blues tradition that followed him.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. That Black Snake Moan - 3:05
2. Chock House Blues - 2:43
3. Chinch Bug Blues - 2:48
4. Deceitful Brownskin Blues - 2:57
5. Balky Mule Blues - 2:46

Side 2

1. Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues - 2:45
2. That Black Snake Moan No. 2 - 2:53
3. Long Distance Moan - 3:25
4. Bakershop Blues - 3:10

The Label

The label is a plain yellow field with red print, a single red circular "Gold Medal Collection / Olympic Records" logo showing a leaping figure inside a boomerang shape, and no ring or arc band around the rim; it is a flat label, not a deep-groove pressing. The catalogue number is printed as OL 7134 (E) with a timing note, and the label carries a 1974 copyright line for Olympic Records, a mid-1970s Everest Record Group budget subsidiary based on Avenue of the Stars in Los Angeles. The pressing plant is not identified on the label. This design represents the only issue of this title under this catalogue number, placing the copy at the head - and, so far as known, the whole - of its own pressing history rather than in a multi-pressing hierarchy.

Fidelity

The source material is a set of late-1920s Paramount 78 rpm masters, inherently limited in frequency range and carrying surface noise typical of pre-electric and early electric recording of the period; this Olympic reissue transfers those masters without any stereo reprocessing, so the mono presentation reflects the original recordings rather than any studio remix. As a budget-label reissue pressed on a subsidiary of a mass-market plant, this edition is not regarded by collectors as an audiophile pressing, and its sound quality is considered adequate for historical listening rather than a benchmark transfer. No audiophile remaster of this specific reissue is documented, and collectors seeking best fidelity for these performances generally look to dedicated blues-reissue labels rather than to this Gold Medal Collection edition.

Notes

This is a 1974 Olympic Records pressing on the Gold Medal Collection series, catalogue OL 7134, a mid-1970s Everest Record Group budget reissue of late-1920s Paramount recordings rather than an original issue of the source material. The flat yellow label with the red leaping-figure logo and the printed 1974 copyright line are the decisive markers of this pressing; no earlier Olympic issue of this catalogue number has been found. The record is mono, consistent with its origin as a reissue of pre-electric-era 78 rpm masters rather than any stereo remix.

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