... The Complete Robert Johnson comes across like a standards song book, the contents of which has given birth to numerous cover versions from acclaimed and esteemed bluesmen and rockers from across the globe spanning six decades.
There is however, one glaring disappointment with this set ... Read review
each cut remains a classic. This set's release in 1990 caused quite a stir, selling more than 500,000 copies and, on the basis of endorsements from Eric Clapton ...
each cut remains a classic. This set's release in 1990 caused quite a stir, selling more than 500,000 copies and, on the basis of endorsements from Eric Clapton ...
Complete Recordings - CD
Kindhearted Woman Blues Kindhearted Woman Blues - (alternate version) I Believe I'll ... more
Dust My Broom Sweet Home Chicago Rambling On My Mind Rambling On My Mind - (alternate version) When You Got A Good Friend When You Got A Good Friend - (a...
each cut remains a classic. This set's release in 1990 caused quite a stir, selling more than 500,000 copies and, on the basis of endorsements from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, introduced a great number of rock fans to Delta blues. Amazingly, Johnson built his enormous legacy on the strength of just two recording sessions: the first session, in November of 1936, produced among others "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Cross Road Blues" and "Walkin' Blues", making it perhaps the most influential single session in blues' history. --Marc Greilsamer
each cut remains a classic. This set's release in 1990 caused quite a stir, selling more than 500,000 copies and, on the basis of endorsements from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, introduced a great number of rock fans to Delta blues. Amazingly, Johnson built his enormous legacy on the strength of just two recording sessions: the first session, in November of 1936, produced among others "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Cross Road Blues" and "Walkin' Blues", making it perhaps the most influential single session in blues' history.--Marc Greilsamer
A review by Nixu1980 on Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings) - Robert Johnson November 3rd, 2009
Author's product rating:
Originality
Groundbreaking
Lyrics
Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks
A couple of weak links
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Fidelity is great, songwriting, guitar playing and vocals superb, thorough research
Disadvantages:
Sequencing - the track order is frustrating
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The subject of selling one's soul to the Devil has prevailed in American culture since the mid nineteenth century but is no more well known than in the case of blues man Robert Johnson. There is little information as to his life and only 2 photographs exist of him. As a young man, it has been told, he went to the crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the guitar. Johnson died at 27 from an apparent poisoning from a bottle of whiskey. Rumour has circulated as to the identity and motivation of the alleged killer: jilted lover, scorned husband victim of Johnson's philandering, or the devil coming to collect.
Johnson has influenced numerous musicians from Eric Clapton through to Jimi Hendrix and in 1990 this long over-due collection of all of Johnson's recordings was released to great critical acclaim. The collection is a 2 disc set containing 41 tracks and includes alternate takes of many of Jonhson's most famous songs.
The first thing that is noticeable is the incredible quality of the recordings given their age. There is great clarity here but it is never too clean. Johnson still remains a ghostly presence on these recordings but the guitar picking comes through clearly. At times, as Brian Jones once famously stated, it sounds as though there are 2 guitars playing and not the work of one man alone. With his innovative picking style now the archetype for rural blues, Johnson is graceful, emotive and potent.
Famed for his guitar skills, it's the voice that grabs my attention. Listen to Hellhound On My Trail and you will hear a man possessed by the fear of retribution; Love In Vain the anguish of unrequited love; Ramblin' On My Mind the torment and pain reflecting the madness that being jilted can induce. In every instance the echoes of his ramblings haunt and stay with you long after the song has finished.
And then there is the song writing itself. Most famously perhaps, Johnson gave us Sweet Home Chicago; a song that resides in the conscience of both ardent and casual music fans a like. The Complete Robert Johnson comes across like a standards song book, the contents of which has given birth to numerous cover versions from acclaimed and esteemed bluesmen and rockers from across the globe spanning six decades.
There is however, one glaring disappointment with this set and that is with the sequencing. This is the most comprehensive collection of Johnson's material and as such there are alternate takes included. It is such a shame that these are placed side by side with their original counterparts which makes the whole very hard to listen to as each track is repeated, albeit a variant of the original. It still baffles me as to why the alternates were not on a separate disc from the originals. Even for me, a hardened fan of the genre, it makes for difficult listening if you using an old fashioned CD player.
This is a wonderful and comprehensive archive but unfortunately does not work as a listening experience and it is solely because of this that it has lost ratings.
Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings) - Robert Johnson
Product details
Title: Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings)
Performer: Robert Johnson
Genre: Blues
Sub Genre: Delta
Release Date: 11/1990
Recomended Retail Price: 5.99 GBP
Original Release Year: 1990
Label / Distributor: Columbia / Sony Music/Arvato Services
Pieces in Set: 2
Studio / Live: Studio
Stereo: Mono
Format: Performer
EAN: 5099746724627
Catalogue Number: 4672462
Additional notes
Album Notes: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS includes a 48-page booklet with biographical notes, rare photos and a complete discography. Solo performer: Robert Johnson (vocals, guitar). Producer: Don Law. Compilation producers: Stephen LaVere, Frank Driggs. Recorded in San Antonio, Texas on November 23 & 26-27, 1936 and Dallas, Texas on June 19-20, 1937. Includes liner notes by Stephen LaVere, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Noted blues historian Robert Palmer has called him "the Mississippi Delta's first modern blues-man," and over the past 50 years Robert Johnson's influence has reached out from beyond the grave. Though his recording output numbers fewer than 30 different songs, Johnson's catalog has been a treasure trove picked clean by artists ranging from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead. The beauty of THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS lies in its utter simplicity. Johnson's reedy vocals, accompanied only by a steel-string guitar, evoke the very essence of the Deep South with its mystery and intrigue. It's easy to see where the myth of Johnson going down to the crossroads to make a Faustian pact with Lucifer was first sown; it can be heard within the confines of "Cross Road Blues" and "Hellhound On My Trail." While the sound of Johnson's recordings has a discernible hiss to it, the unadulterated emotion resonating in his voice goes straight to the marrow, making these sonic limitations seem like an afterthought.
Album Reviews: Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.52) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (10/18/90) - 5 Stars - Classic - "...No other bluesman left a studio portrait that seems to come moaning and howling from the darkest recesses of his soul. The music has a power that age cannot dim..." Down Beat (2/97, p.55) - 5 Stars (out of 5) - "...the great country blues man and his classic 41 titles...cause us to step back in slack-jawed astonishment..." Down Beat (2/91) - 5 Stars - Excellent - "...Johnson's use of harmonics and chording was eons before his time, and his delivery and lyrics remain standards by which blues intensity is measured. The intimacy is eerie; you're in the literal presence of genius..." Q (2/91) - Recommended as one of the five best blues releases of 1990 - "...Easily the most significant re-issue of the past year, THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS resolves many of the mysteries of Johnson's life while rendering the uncanny power of his work more mysterious than ever..." Q (8/94, p.126) - 5 Stars - Indispensable - "...Without a doubt a man mummified in his own legend, but these 41 recordings - Johnson's entire output - remain essential nonetheless..." Mojo (4/01, p.44) - "...If there have to be legendary bluesmen, Johnson is as well fitted for the role as anybody....[This is] a treasury that seems to grow more valuable year by year..." Time Magazine (12/31/90) - Rated as one of the 10 best recordings of 1990. - "...This isn't just music; it's American mythology, recorded in the mid-1930s and brought alive for the first time on two CDs. The blues found no deeper mystical expression than in Johnson's composing and singing..."
Titles on disc 1
1.: Kindhearted Woman Blues
2.: Kindhearted Woman Blues
3.: I Believe I'll Dust My Broom
4.: Sweet Home Chicago
5.: Rambling On My Mind
6.: Rambling On My Mind
7.: When You Got A Good Friend
8.: When You Got A Good Friend
9.: Come On In My Kitchen
10.: Come On In My Kitchen
11.: Terraplane Blues
12.: Phonograph Blues
13.: Phonograph Blues
14.: 32-20 Blues
15.: They're Red Hot
16.: Dead Shrimp Blues
17.: Cross Road Blues
18.: Cross Road Blues
19.: Walking Blues
20.: Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Titles on disc 2
1.: Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
2.: If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
3.: Stones In My Passway
4.: I'm A Steady Rollin' Man
5.: From Four Till Late
6.: Hellhound On My Trail
7.: Little Queen Of Spades
8.: Little Queen Of Spades
9.: Malted Milk
10.: Drunken Hearted Man
11.: Drunken Hearted Man
12.: Me And The Devil Blues
13.: Me And The Devil Blues
14.: Stop Breakin' Down Blues
15.: Stop Breakin' Down Blues
16.: Travelling Riverside Blues
17.: Honeymoon Blues
18.: Love In Vain
19.: Love In Vain
20.: Milkcow's Calf Blues
21.: Milkcow's Calf Blues
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