Charley or Charlie, as those cocaine-fueled drunks of friends called him, lived for about forty years (his exact date of birth is unknown, either April or May 1981, but his date of death is known: it was April 28, 1934, caused by a heart attack) and when he recorded his first piece, he was already around 38 years old; it was 1929. His blues style captivated Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, but also John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix, who imitated his guitar playing behind his head or with his mouth.

Sometimes he would run a knife blade along the guitar strings to achieve a screeching sound.

He played at railway workers' strikes and in cotton plantations and, ça va sans dire, in every dive he could find...

He was a first-rate womanizer (even with the wives of farmers he met during his wanderings) but had the nasty habit of beating his women and was always ready to pick a fight with anyone, despite his short stature. He even caught a few bullet wounds and once risked losing his powerful voice from a knife wound to the throat; indeed, Charley Patton was not an easy person to handle, quite the opposite. Those who knew him described him as proud, a lover of whiskey, women, and conflict. It seems he had a sharp, venomous tongue always ready to poison anyone nearby, whether white, black, or red-skinned, and nothing...

Charley Patton - Spoonful Blues (Delta Blues 1929)