Search - Robert Johnson :: Complete Recordings

Get King of the Delta Blues Instead - Much better sound qual

sh | 02/16/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This collection is disappointing becuase they'e worked so hard to clean up the his and scratches of recordings made in a hotel room over 70 years ago, that they've so muffled the voice and music that it just doesn't come through realistically. sony's King of the Delta Blues (Vol.s 1 and 2) offers a virtually complete collection and the diff in sound quality is startling. While you hear more hiss and scratches, the sound of Johnson's voice has a prescence that that the "Comlete Collection" lacks. I already owned the latter and upon hearing the former, went out and bought it. Skip the Complete Collection and get the recording that sounds more real, more alive. If you already own the "Complete Collection" and yo like the music, bag it and get King of the Delta Blues edition, Johnson desrves to be heard without a towel wrapped over his mouth."

The Place where The soul Of Man Never Dies

Alain Rozan | USA | 02/26/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Robert Johnson remains a mystery to this day. The legend wants us to believe that as a young bluesman of limited talent, he went down to the crossroads at midnight in the Mississippi Delta and sold his soul to the devil to become the greatest bluesman that ever lived. Musicologists believe instead that, sick of being made fun of by his peers (including the great Son House), he disappeared for 6 months, took guitar lessons, practiced his guitar like a mad man and composed a wealth of songs that remain the blues standards to this day ("Sweet Home Chicago" "Dust My Broom"). Many of these songs cultivated the myth of a Faustian bargain with the devil ("Crossroads Blues", "Me and the Devil", "Hellhounds on my Trail"). Whether you believe the legend or the musicologists, what remains is a staggering collection of songs that define the blues and have been recorded by countless bluesmen and rock and roll singers. Listen to "(They're) Red Hot" and you are listening not to blues but to rock and roll twenty years before Elvis.



Besides his songwriting genius, there are two other reasons why Johnson belongs to "The Place Where the Soul of Man Never Dies":



First and foremost his incredible guitar technique. Blues musicians before him used their thumb to play a bass line and their other fingers to play a rhythm or picking or licks. Johnson upped the ante by playing the bass line with his thumb, rhythm with his middle fingers and solos with his pinky, melting all three into one big overall full sound. In other words, he was a one man band. No one has ever been able to replicate his guitar sound. The only one who comes close, in my opinion is the great John Hammond Jr. Eric Clapton has said he is both haunted and driven by the possibility of achieving that sound but has never been able to.



The second reason is Johnson's fragile high pitched voice. Most blues singers have a gruff raspy and worn out voice. Johnson's voice was incredibly fragile, much like Sinatra's or the young Presley's. Listen to his classic ballad "Love in vain" made famous by the Rolling Stones and you will truly feel why his love was in vain...



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