Downloaded Robert Johnson Legendary Blues Volume 1 & 2, XRCD re-mastered in Ambient Stereo flac, from the above site. Although it's a classical music site, the Robert Johnson recordings were (rightly) thought important enough to spend the time and trouble to remaster.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
I have "Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings", issued on Sony Legacy in 1990. It's a very sympathetically remastered album containing all 29 songs that Johnson recorded, plus 13 alternate takes.
However, these songs were recorded with Johnson singing and playing into the corner of a hotel room in San Antonio, and in a warehouse in Texas - in 1936 and 1937 - so you can imagine the quality of the recording.
With the Pristine Classical XRCD Ambient stereo remaster, the sound is fuller, cleaner, clearer and has far more presence. Instead of sounding like he is playing in the next room, this remaster sounds as though he's
in the room. Some of the 42 tracks sound better than others, depending on which location they were recorded, but overall it's a vast improvement over the previous best effort.
I have been listening to these same 29 songs since I was a young boy, and although I really like lots of other bluesmen, there is just something about Johnson's voice that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Putting aside all the mystique surrounding him - his incredible mastery of the guitar in a very, very short time, his 'Deal' at "The Crossroads", the confusion and mystery around his death (was he shot, stabbed, or poisoned, on what day, where is he buried?) - putting all that to one side, what you are left with is an artist whose recording career lasted only a few months, recorded just 29 songs plus alternates, and yet his influence is just as strong 78 years later!
In the rock world, it would be much easier to list the bands who have not been influenced by him in some way, or at the very least covered one his songs. Led Zeppelin loved him, The Stone's Keith Richards tried to play like him, Dylan loved his lyrical freedom, Clapton has been obsessed with him since he was a teenager, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
I read that this new remaster makes the songs sound as though they were recorded a decade later in the forties, rather than the thirties, and that's quite accurate. I have 40's recordings of people like Jimmy Reed and Lightning Hopkins, and the recording quality is definitely comparable.
I realise that out of the hundred and some members here, I'm probably the only one (apart from Alan (Drymdrum) who's ever heard of Johnson(?), much less like him. I would say however that if you like blues at all, and you haven't heard him, you are missing one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. What still amazes me is that for someone (whether you realise it or not) who has had such an enormous influence on modern rock and blues music, there is still so little documented fact surrounding him.
We don't know (
for sure) when he was born as his two marriage certificates give different dates.
We don't know (
for sure) how he died.
We don't know (
for sure) when he died, and we certainly don't know (
for sure) where he's buried.
There are (at present) only three authenticated photographs of him.
How could we not know such basic facts about such a huge cultural and musical touchstone? Here's one reason.
You've got to remember that in racist 1938 America, Johnson was "just some dead nigger. Why would decent white folks care??"
Some quotes -
Martin Scorsese (film director, Blues and Johnson fan) - "The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend."
Keith Richards - When Keith Richards was first introduced to Johnson's music by his band-mate Brian Jones, he replied, "Who is the other guy playing with him?", not realizing it was Johnson playing on one guitar. "I was hearing two guitars, and it took a long time to actually realise he was doing it all by himself," said Richards, who would later add "Robert Johnson was like an orchestra all by himself."
I reckon he was listening to "Preachin' Blues".
I can definitely hear two guitars, one playing rhythm and one playing little lead licks. Apparently, judging by one of the photographs, he had huge hands, with very long fingers, so maybe that helped him to play like he did.
To me, it's the most subtle, un-showy, yet quietly amazing, piece of guitar playing you will ever hear. And it only lasts two minutes and fifty two seconds!
Clapton - Eric Clapton reckoned Johnson was "the most important blues musician who ever lived."
On his guitar playing -
In 1990 Spin magazine rated him 1st in its 35 Guitar Gods listing—on the 52nd anniversary of his death.
In 2008 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 5th on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time—70 years after he died.
Robert Johnson