The history of the musician known as Blind "Pineapple" Staggers is confused and patchy. Christened "Blind" by his parents in anticipation of future success as a soft shoe dancer, he ironically became deaf shortly before his fifth birthday. He was given a guitar as a present by a vindictive sister who believed that it would torment him so much that he would leave home. He learnt to play by picking up vibrations from the loose window in the room he shared with his 19 sisters and 26 brothers, the lack of space meaning his bed was pressed vertically up against the glass, and he had to sleep strapped in by a belt. More is being found out about this fruitful genius almost every week, and as I get more information I will share it with the world, but here is a little of his history.
He was born in 1896 to father Wisconsin "Lefty" Staggers and mother Ernee Rae Buffett, a very distinctive and well known woman, in a town on the south left of America, but the actual location is shrouded in mystery. As a child, Blind grew up in poverty, the family being so poor, he could not even afford to grow hair for the first year of his life, and took to covering his head with moss. He had no formal schooling, and this led to him receiving the name "Pineapple" from one of his mother's many friends, who believed he was actually a pineapple.
He was born in 1896 to father Wisconsin "Lefty" Staggers and mother Ernee Rae Buffett, a very distinctive and well known woman, in a town on the south left of America, but the actual location is shrouded in mystery. As a child, Blind grew up in poverty, the family being so poor, he could not even afford to grow hair for the first year of his life, and took to covering his head with moss. He had no formal schooling, and this led to him receiving the name "Pineapple" from one of his mother's many friends, who believed he was actually a pineapple.
At the age of 12 he packed up his guitar and left home, earning what money he could entertaining people who didn't like any other kind of music, and perfecting his craft. It was around this time that he met and formed a partnership with Chip "Crispy" Willis, a ventriloquist from Belgium who was looking for someone small to walk around with. Crispy was a nice man who had trained as an ear doctor, and found that Pineapple's deafness was caused by an old wasps nest, which although dormant had been completely lodged in his inner ear, and as he had specialised in insect related hearing difficulties, he removed it with a mixture of ash and petrol.
Cured of his deafness, Pineapple soon realised he was not very good, and it is at this time he disappears for about a year, and no records exists of his whereabouts until June 1910, when he turned up at a barbecue in Norfolk, and played 3 songs, in exchange for a shoe.The difference in his ability was remarkable,his singing style and virtuoso picking surprised everyone, as did the fact that he had decided to effect a pronounced limp, purely for stylistic reasons. Some say he struck a deal with the devil,but he didn't. He just practiced a lot on his own.
He bought his first quality guitar from PT Barnum,the renowned showman, a Longview Western model 1 which, he was told, if you tapped it in the right way would fold up like a top hat.often after this he would become distracted mid song and start tapping on his guitar in an effort to make it collapse, which confused his audience and detracted from the power of his songs. This ended 18 months later, when the guitar did collapse and he couldn't open it out again.
