Artist: Johnson, Robert
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 1990
Robert Johnson – The Complete Recordings is an unusual yet essential musical testament to the most influential blues musician of all time, and by extension the person most responsible for the shape popular music has taken over the last sixty years. It’s a stunning showcase of the raging vitality, energy and passion of a man who knew neither manners nor mercy in the way he communicated. His notorious character is mirrored in songs where, with malice on one side and bashful vulnerability on the other, nobody, Eric Clapton aside, has ever really been able to match him. Johnson’s music, though nowadays almost ancient and one of the simplest forms of blues, can be seen as a very early prophecy of the rock & roll of the ’50s and ’60s, and by extension of the hard rock that followed in the ’70s and ’80s.
Blues, especially in its most basic, most authentic form, born out of the unpredictable and more-or-less stepmotherly embrace of the Mississippi Delta, has for decades served as a kind of universal musical framework for the vast majority of popular music of every shape and color, among younger and older generations alike. Practically every significant element of it, be it the song itself or the invariably impressive way of playing it, is thoroughly steeped in the recognizable hallmarks of Black music, and the closest look at those is offered by none other than Robert Johnson. In his short musical career, across three recording sessions, the man laid down twenty-nine compositions in total. Johnson was by no means schooled, and it shows nicely in his work. His view of the world is therefore completely intuitive. Besides stunning blues, his music brings incredibly fiery emotion full of profound messages, carrying despair and dissatisfaction with a special kind of gravity. Add the obviously limited room to maneuver, shaped by the capabilities of the recording methods of the day that Johnson had to wrestle with, and today we can easily call Robert Johnson one of the greatest phenomena in the history of popular music, if not the greatest.
It’s truly incredible how many artists, and here’s the peak of irony, ones far better known to the average person, let their musical roots grow deep into Robert Johnson’s priceless legacy. In the splendid Terraplane Blues we soon spot the famous Johnny Winter vocal, Preaching Blues stirs up a craving for blues contemporary Sardinas, while the devilish, slide-greased fantasy If I Had Posssession Over Judgment Day was shamelessly borrowed in full by the great Muddy Waters himself for his far more famous Rollin’ And Tumblin’! Then there’s I’m A Steady Rollin Man, home to Alvin Lee, Love In Vain by the immortal Rolling Stones, and the simply incredible Hellhound On My Trail, which, with its lightness on one side and aggressive menace on the other, after two and a half minutes of intense chewing, callously spits you out into the open. These emotional shocks reach their peak in probably Johnson’s best-known creations Come On In My Kitchen, Ramling On My Mind, Me And The Devil Blues and above all the unique Cross Road Blues, one of Johnson’s most harrowing personal confessions.
Johnson’s incredible legacy, like his way of life, remains tightly wrapped in a veil of mystery to this day, one that only grows more intense with all sorts of legends and anecdotes. The themes the blues legend loved to toy with, especially the more sinister ones, work in its favor too. His thorough command of technique, the tone of his voice, the emotion and the mysterious tension he keeps us in, delivered in such turbulent fashion, make Robert Johnson one of the most dominant, most impressive and, of course, most influential musicians of all time.
Lineup
Robert Johnson: vocals, acoustic guitar
Production
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Tracklist
1.Kindhearted Woman Blues
2.I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom
3.Sweet Home Chicago
4.Ramblin’ On My Mind
5.When You Got A Good Friend
6.Come On In My Kitchen
7.Terraplane Blues
8.Phonograph Blues
9.32-20 Blues
10.They’re Red Hot
11.Dead shrimp Blues
12.Cross Road Blues
13.Walking Blues
14.Last Fair Deal Gone Down
15.Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
16.If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
17.Stones In My Passway
18.I’m A Steady Rolling Man
19.From Four Till Late
20.Hellhound On My Trail
21.Little Queen Of Spades
22.Malted Milk
23.Drunken Hearted Man
24.Me And The Devil Blues
25.Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
26.Traveling Riverside Blues
27.Honeymoon Blues
28.Love In Vain
29.Milkcow’s Calf Blues
