# 136 (2/2003)

EDDY BRAKE
A major collector And a tough guy

Text: Anders Lillsunde

The roads leading to the blues music are unpredictable. The Canadian major collector and super enthusiast Eddy Brake took the road by The Rolling Stones and England to discover what was hidden behind the corner back home. This illustrates the sharp borders between the ethnical groups on the American continent. Sure, the land is big, but Slim Harpo had a more difficult task to cross the borders, than for example the French songster Francoise Hardy once upon a time. She didn’t have to take this way around to achieve cult status all over Europe in the 60’s singing in French. By the way at least on one of her recordings she was back by Mickey Baker, who at that time had moved to France.

Eddy Brake pushes his interest harder than any one else. When his award winning blues show at CUIT was cancelled, he sued the station. This case is not yet solved. Eddy Brake has also established two Blues magazines and the tracks on “Midnite Blues Party” on Electro-Fi are taken from his collection. A second volume will soon be released. He is also a Blues photographer and he took the pictures on the following pages.

He also contradicts the usual belief of a collector as an introvert individual. Eddy Brake is tattooed tough guy driving around in customized 49 Mercury that was built by him.

The interview took place the 23 of March by phone.

To me collecting is a feeling for something I like, will study and learn more about, that’s why I like it. Every one has their own opinion on what is the reason for their own collecting. Some like only the “real objects”, some treasure only the monetary value and some are collecting because it’s part of their soul. I have written an article about the collecting of Blues records in Canada.

I started myself collecting to be able to listen to Blues music. The music was of all importance. But guess what? I ended up with a collection. This collection only became a collection only because I wanted to listen to the music. I never thought of the value. When I started out during the 60’s LP’s by the likes of Amos Milburn or Roy Brown were very rare. It’s not like today. You had to buy 45’s and 78’s. The supply of LPs was very insignificant, there was “Live At Regal” by B.B. King, Muddy and the Wolf had compilations on Chess. That was about it.

You reach 10 then 100 and the 1.000. Then you are aware of that you have a collection.

I was born in the late 40’s and grew up during the 50’s. R&R was on the radio. You could listen to Fats, Chuck, Elvis, Little Richard and others like Joe Turner. They were the start of my interest in music. I was young and could not afford to buy records then. My parents hail from the east coast of Canada. C&W was part of my family that listened to artists like Webb Pierce, Hank Snow and Conway Twitty. Their music was also a background to my collecting. I became seriously interested in Blues the first time by listening to Rolling Stones and their version of “I’m a King Bee” on their first album. I had listened to R&R and R&B with Blues influences in the 50’s without recognizing it was Blues. This song was sexy and it gave me a new experience, it opened my ears for the music called the Blues. It took me over one year to discover that it was a song originally recorded by Slim Harpo.  The Animals got me more into Blues, as like other English bands like Chicken Shack and Fleetwood Mac. I started to buy both categories of records (both English and original), but went more and more back to the roots represented by B.B King, Muddy and Wolf. I discovered country Blues by Bukka White, Furry Lewis and Robert Johnson. There is a little story of when I as a young kid and became interested in Blues music in the early 60’s regarding my mother asking me “ What’s this music you are listening to and why do they call it the Blues” and I replied “that it stems from your interest in C&W and that all of your life you have been listening to the white man’s Blues and I’m now listening to the black mans Blues”. She looked at me and understood me completely. She never said anything about my Blues records after that.

I wanted to share my passion of the Blues with other people, to help them understand. With a radio show you have the opportunity to bring forward the music you like. In my opinion Blues music, above other musical styles, belongs to the people. It is not my music, nor yours. It belongs to all of us. When I shared this attitude by playing records on the radio I also gave the music justice. In my opinion my collection also belongs, in a way, to the people. The music shall be shared and understood by everyone.  That’s why I started my Blues magazine Blues Is… in 1975 and Toronto Blues News during the 90’s and did my radio show for close to ten years.

It’s a long story. I criticized during one of my radio shows the local Blues society and the way they nominated candidates to their new awards  “the Maple Blues Awards” over here in Canada. From what I had read, learnt and seen I felt that the nominations were very “in house”. The members got to vote on their “own” candidates. I thought it was wrong. I made a comparison with the W.C. Handy Awards, which I was one of the members in the nomination committee for several years. This society contacted the station with a protest and I as let go. Hopefully this story will end.

I have been in the Handy Award committee for several years and these Awards are handled in a different way. I did not only criticize the “Maple Blues Awards” but I also gave proposals for improvements. The next year they had taken some of them in account. But I had to suffer any way.  I’m no musician but I always presented music for the people and that part of my life has been taken away from me only because I had an opinion.

Doo-Woop is the most expensive, i.e. vocal groups. Blues has become a bigger and bigger part in the lives of people. This has caused a bigger demand among collectors, who want the originals and have raised the prices. We also have to take into account that blues records never were made for a mass market. The records were pressed in small quantities, much smaller than the 60’s pop, soul, jazz and C&W. This has also raised the prices for these records over the years. When I started out, I got them cheap because know one else wanted them. Now more and more people are looking for the originals.

Yes, the records were pressed in millions whereas Blind John Davis releases were pressed in an amount of only 500 for a local market.

It would be very hard, but “money speaks”. If someone had 10 million dollars, they could get a tremendous collection. They could over bid at auctions, buy other collections, but for an ordinary individual it would be very hard to get an important collection.

I used to work for a company here in Toronto dealing with this kind of business. Of course you can always get a ‘finding’. There are networks of people who pay finders fees on behalf of collectors. Personally I do not think you can find this kind of old stock anymore.  Most records are already in the hands of collectors. I was lucky in the mid 60’s and had the chance to work in a record store at weekends. They had a stock of over 100.000 45’s. They went down to Buffalo, NY and bought records by the truckload. The guy who owned the store knew where to find those places. I went with him to Buffalo and visited the black record stores. I got Muddy, Wolf, and Slim Harp all on 45’s for about 50 cents apiece. That was a tremendous find for me.

Recently I met a couple of young people in Toronto who had become interested in the Blues and I told them that the concept for the blues is the music, to listen to the music. I had to buy the 45’s and 78’s to get the music. You don’t have to do that today. You can buy reissue CD’s. There is enough with these releases that they can spend all of their money. These youngsters should know there is no reason for getting into collecting Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters 78’. For the same money they can buy lots of Blues music, which will educate them further. My advice is to keep to CD’s. There is enough to keep you occupied every day. Even if you buy 5 CD’s a day, it will take you years to catch up.

It depends on what you are interested in. If you only like real Blues, you don’t buy Chicago Soul, or C&W. Some collect only Doo-Woop, some Soul, but not Blues. It depends on what you like to listen to, that’s the most important part. I would not buy Chicago Soul from the 60’s. I‘m attracted to Blues music. The feeling comes from inside.

It is Blues and R&B. I do not collect Doo-Woop or Vocal Groups. I collect Blues, both pre and post war. My biggest interest is post war Blues from Chicago, but I also like Jump, Swing and Louisiana music. I really like Zydeco, more than Cajun. Mainly it’ is black post war Blues music and acoustic Blues. Acoustic Blues gives me the same kind of feelings that Blues even played by a band from the 90’s gives me.

Well, I have about 20.000 records in all. There are approximately 5.000 of each with 45’s, 78’s, LP’s and CD’s. I’m also collecting memorabilia related to blues, like posters, books etc.

When I started collecting records were cheap. By going to Buffalo, NY for shopping, I got records for 25 to 50 cents a piece. During the latter part of the 60’s I wrote to people asking for old stock at record stores and distributors. I had contacts everywhere. What I didn’t have I bought for $1 to $5. For $200 I got lots of records. That’s the situation also today. For the same amount you get lots of CD’s.

There will soon be a “Midnite Blues Party volume two”. The content will be music from about 1945 up to 1955. Many of the songs will be very obscure. By doing this I manage to share my collection with people who never have heard the music before. I’m not keeping it only by my self.

What will happen when I get old, I don’t know. I may put it up for sale. I never intended my collection to be of a monetary value.  Because I have no pension fund, the collection may well be my pension. I could make CD copies of what I have and sell the originals. But I wouldn’t like to do that.

I don’t care too much about selling records. In fact, I haven’t bought too many records during the last 10 years. I have been unemployed for the past two and a half years. I’m not a young man anymore and it’s hard to get a new job. I couldn’t afford to buy that many records. We can go on talking about the mentality in collecting, but some want to have everything regardless what they are collecting. A Blues collector wants to have the most complete collection. Years ago I understood that I never could get everything I wanted. You can never get everything. You want some records but you will never get them, so I’m thankful for what I have got and everything beyond that is just a bonus.  

Some don’t understand that you’ll never get everything. Be content with what you have achieved. Just be happy, if you get just one more record.

Counting from the one that got me started, it was the Rollin Stones first album. After that I bought “More Real Folk Blues” by Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson and also B.B. King. Soon after that I began collecting 45’s. But I can’t remember which the first black Blues record was. It was such a long time ago.

Do you? I have seen this record only twice in auctions. The minimum bid was $2.500. What the final bid price was, I don’t know. Maybe $3.000 to $5.000. My friend bought it from the shop supplied by Sam Phillips when it was released.  

I collect pictures, magazines, books, videos, everything. I’m also a Blues photographer. I have pictures from the 60’s on. I have a good collection of photos, not of everyone, but of Albert Collins, Albert King, B.B. King, Bukka White, Furry Lewis, in all hundreds artists, and I’m still taking pictures.

I also collect memorabilia related to the 50’s, like R&R and juvenile delinquency posters and paperbacks. I’m also interested in hot rod and kustom cars. I have never had a car newer than from 1951. They have all been hot rods or kustoms. I also collect from this time, newspapers cloths, suits, ties, hats and shoes. Everything is from late 40’s and early 50’s. These kinds of cloths are the only ones I have. 

I bought it as a shell. It’s 1949 Mercury. I kustomized it in the older style, as I appreciate what the Barris Brothers did in California and their concept of cars. I did some restyling and not a single item on my car is later than 1952. It’s a traditional kustom car in the Californian style. Gene Winfield who is one of the great kustom car builders saw my car. He said my Mercury was the most traditional at a show I was at. It was the only one that brought back memories from the times when he himself started in the early 50’s.

Everyone has heard stories of collections like Nick Pearl’s, which was split between several parties. If you die the heirs make the decisions. I don’t know. I’m thinking about this myself from time to time. But when I’m dead I don’t have to worry. It would be nice to have the collection at a museum or music library. But there’s nothing wrong if they are going back to other collectors to increase their knowledge and to raise the quality of their collections. I don’t know what is right or wrong. I don’ know what to say

I don’t know how big they are or who owns them. As I said before you can’t have them all. Some people think my collection is big. If I had bought all records I could have and thinking of all places where I have been, my collection would have massed to about a half a million records. But would have many of these records have been of any importance to me? My collection is based on quality not on quantity. It’s not the quantity, but the content that matters.

When I think of all those people who have written to me and offered me records, many of them weren’t even interested in Blues. One collected only Gospel. He sold his Blues records to me. He had probably a very large collection of Gospel records. For sure there are also very large collections of Blues records. It depends on what you are interested in. Your collection doesn’t get bigger and better if it’s not what your interested in, or can afford, and get it. There is a guy here in Toronto who certainly has a collection of 50.000 records, but not a single one that I want. Who has the biggest and the best collection? There’s no reason to judge a collection according to its size. What counts is what you have. Enjoy it.

I have countless. But I have two favourites. One is also at my website. I had travelled to Chicago to visit Cadillac Baby sometime in the middle of the 70’s. He had told me that he still had old stock of his records. I was staying at Bob Koester’s.  I got on a bus outside of the Jazz Record Mart. The black bus driver didn’t like my trip that far to the South side. I told him I had some one waiting. The bus was full of white folks and the driver was the only black person. When I got off the bus I was the only white.  I walked passed a guy towards Cadillac Baby’s store. I saw a car coming. I didn’t even have the time to shake hands with Cadillac Baby when I heard three gunshots. When we looked out this guy was lying dead in the street shot by the guys in the car. I asked Cadillac Baby about the cause to this. He said it was only a bunch of youngsters having fun by shooting someone. It was very close for me. I rode with Cadillac Baby in his Cadillac having fun the rest of my time there.  

Another time I had travelled to Maxwell Street to a store called Maxwell Radio Record Co. owned by Bernard Isaac Abrams, the proprietor of Ora-Nelle Records. He had loads of records. “Do you want to buy records? You can have them all” I told him I was only interested in certain records. He said ok, have a look around. I got some 45’s and 78’s. I went into a room in the back and noticed a stack of 78’s. I walked closer to have a look when a big German Sheppard dog tried to attack me.  I went back to Mr Abrams and asked if I could have a look at those 78’s.  Of course he said. “But the dog won’t let me touch the records”. He looked at me very solemnly and said “. If the dog won’t let you, neither will I”. I started thinking. I crossed Maxwell Street and bought two hot dogs and entered the room where the dog was still very aggressive. I threw a piece of the hot dog to the dog. I threw another piece. Then I held a piece in my hand and reached out for the dog. The next time I started patting the dog. The dog lied down. In the stack were four each of Johnny Young and Little Walter on Ora-Nelle. I paid 50 cent each. I gave three to some friends of mine. Recently I noticed at a website that they on auction for a minimum bid of $750 a piece.  

                                    Check out the Jefferson magazine website at: www.jeffersonbluesmag.com