Product Description

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 catalogue 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 withits 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.

Track Listing

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

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6986 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-22
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set

Amazon.co.uk Review
This two-CD box contains all 41 recordings Johnson made, including 12 alternate takes, and 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

Customer Reviews

The complete recordings
I Have never felt the need to write a review before but that Robsome & Jerome comment, It has got to be a joke, hasen't it, very surreal, certainly made me laugh out loud! Anyway I have had this collection for quite a few years now, and it's outstanding of course, as anyone with more than a passing interest in the blues already knows, (cost a lot more when I first bought it) but I was just wondering if this is a remastered version, does anyone out there know? I might just have to buy another copy, at this bargan price for an important piece of musical history, why not?

For £3, buy it!
I'll keep this one short: The music isn't great and the recordings are often very scratchy, but for £3 you get to hear some of the most influential and groundbreaking music in history. Buy it for the history lesson alone if not anything else.

A dedicated box set to the genius of Mr Robert Johnson
An absolute genius, an incredible listen. A warning to anybody buying this box set: As has been said by other reviewers, the set has all of the recordings by Johnson, you will hear more than one recording of each song, and if you are new to Johnson, this will be pretty intense ( and maybe a bit dull). If you have heard Johnson before, then it's worth getting this though.

Much as I love Clapton, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, etc, Johnson is just incredible: better than the lot of them, and the best guitarist I have ever heard, even above the great Clapton himself.