The Complete Recordings
by: Robert Johnson
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Rating:  - * An absolutely essential purchase. ... Almost exactly seventy years ago, a man who was then known as Robert Johnson passed away. He was poisoned, presumably by a houseman/barkeep whose wife had been flirting with him on an August Evening. Around the same time, a king pin of the then small, homely music industry sent out a middle man to find Johnson, in hopes of striking a record deal. It took until almost a year after Johnson's death for word to get back to the industry that Johnson was, in fact, deceased. This is not a surprise, considering that the spread of news at the time, let alone in poor black Mississippi (or really, where ever he may have taken up residence at the time), was reserved to word of mouth. Why then, does this fact interest me so much? I don't know. I almost find it a little bit funny. It took almost an entire year for word to get back to New York that one of blues' most popular artists had died. Today, it would have taken the better part of five minutes, for two phone calls to have been made, at quickest. Back when America wasn't heavily wound in telephone lines, we could apparently have fascinating folklore like this. That kind of distant, legendary intimacy is no longer present. Robert Johnson is arguably the most important, influential, and respected blues artist of all time. Back in the days when Johnson was still with us, recording equipment was sparse. Johnson recorded a grand total of forty one cuts, twelve of them alternate takes. All forty one cuts are included in this box set, in the highest quality that they could possibly be in. Along with the two disks of music is a very nice booklet containing a factual essay outlining the events of Johnson's life with as much accuracy and objectivity as possible, and including details of his relationships and musical repertoire. A small essay on the style and spirit of his music is also here, but I contend that it is mostly opinionated trash. Also included are two short essays by Keith Richards and Eric Clapton regarding Robert Johnson, and complete lyrics to each recording. The booklet is altogether rather nice. It also contains both known photographs of Johnson, one of which is on the cover which depicts the man posing rather nicely for the camera, his somehow appreciable lazy eye punctuating his generally handsome face, and his long fingers grasping his guitar. The other picture is arguably the better one. It depicts Johnson once again grasping a guitar, this time very close to the camera, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Even considering all this, it almost seems extravagant to have made The Complete Recordings a box set. The release could have easily been packaged into a double compact disk format, and released that way. In any case, this box set is bar none the most complete means of getting to know Robert Johnson and his repertoire, or at least what remains of it in the public knowledge today. It's rare that you can gain such a complete portrait of an artist in one fell swoop. You drop fifteen dollars on this collection, as it costs on amazon.com, and bam, you are a Robert Johnson fan. That's all it takes. Unbelievable. What I learned about Robert Johnson in the weeks since I received The Complete Recordings for Christmas is that I have never owned a more important, rewarding box set in my life. That may be a rather premature statement, considering I have only ever owned four other box sets in the first place. Those are the 1990 Led Zeppelin box set, the James Brown Star Time box set, The Complete Studio Recordings of Led Zeppelin box set, and the Nirvana box set With The Lights Out. All of these other box sets would cost a pretty penny on the market today. And yet, this one for a Delta blues singer who was born nearly one hundred years earlier and is no where close to a household name like the other said artists are is better. It just is. And it costs fifteen dollars. The surprise is that, essentially, Robert Johnson is one of the most important American musical artists of the past one hundred years, and you know him already whether or not you recognize his name. From what these recordings play, there is and probably never was a more respectable blues singer in the business. What you hear here is his deceptively complex guitarwork and versatile and soulful voice, on all forty one tracks. Highlights are not few. Kindhearted Woman, Sweet Home Chicago, They're Red Hot, Terraplane Blues, Phonograph Blues, Walking Blues, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, and Me And The Devil Blues are my personal favorites, but this collection is a treasure trove. When I try to tilt my head and look in at the music from as outside of a perspective as I can give it, this music should bore me utterly. Most all of the songs are made in the same twelve bar structure, and yet on my first straight through listen, I was never bored. Johnson's unique switchups and naked guitar style enough to keep each cut fresh, even the alternate takes. For a music fan who for the most part isn't into blues at all, I find myself in awe at what I hear in Johnson's recordings. And what I find even more interesting is that upon listening, I can pick many riffs and lyrics from other songs that I already know. As Keith Richards and Eric Clapton indicate, Johnson had an immense influence on The Rolling Stones and Cream, but I hear both of my Led Zeppelin box sets in this music as well. I marveled at Led Zep's Traveling Riverside Blues for many years, and I always wondered what gave it so much power and energy. I now realize that it mostly comes from Robert Johnson, with John Bonhams crushing beats added. I know a wealth of Red Hot Chili Peppers fans. I mean, almost too many. They would be happy to hear the original cut of They're Red Hot, which makes the humorous cover seem like a sin to modern recording. On any given listen, these recordings can be seen in a wealth of different lights. On one listen they may sound happy and uplifting, fiery on another, and solemn and breaking on another. This is blues music at it's finest. Basically, you owe it to yourself to acquire the recordings of Robert Johnson somehow, and this is the best way. Fifteen dollars. That's it. That's all it takes, and then you have the complete recorded works of one of the single most important musical artists of the past one hundred years. Johnson is indirectly responsible for the development of blues and the creation and development of rock and roll since the 1950s. Robert Johnson is an essential figure to American music and culture. You owe it to yourself to save your lunch money for this one. Rating: - * It's Great but... ... I bought a single CD version of this same material (all the songs) for $9 at the local mall. Look around for better deals. Rating:  - * Nice Tunes ... I deducted one star because the layout is all wrong--it's annoying that they didn't put the alternate takes on a seperate CD. I took another star off because I really don't feel Johnson's music lives up to the hype. His influence over Rock and Roll is huge, but it's worth keeping in mind that in the Blues arena, he was decidedly less influential (an interesting take on this is included in wikipedia's article on the man, under the section "influence"). My problem is that for all the talk about how powerful and emotional his singing is, all I hear is an angsty whine. None of the emotion seems genuine to my ears. I have nothing against blues singers with high voices (I love Blind Willie McTell and Tommy Johnson, for instance), but with Robert Johnson, I get the impression that I am listening to a man who liked to sing and use his talent to impress women and not because he actually felt any inner torment. In fact the accompanying liner notes about his life seem to confirm my impression that he sang primarily to entertain and seduce, not out of any emotional need for the blues. Listen, for contrast, to an older Blues musician (say, 1960s Furry Lewis) and you will hear what authentic emotion sounds like--the emotion that accumulates over a long life of hard work and no recognition. Blind Willie Johnson is another example of what I feel is authentic, heartfelt singing. I listen to Robert Johnson and hear a young man living a fast lifestyle and enjoying it. I might be in the minority here, but that's what I hear. I also think there are many better blues guitarists. He was rated number five in Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitarists, but can anyone honestly say he was more talented than Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, or Blind Willie Johnson? All my qualms aside, I do enjoy listening to his music. Even though he's not near the top of my blues list, I do think some of his songs are really good. Rating: - * Encyclopedic catalog not for casual listeners ... 3 1/2 There is no mistake when people speak of this man's influence on blues. Sadly his shadow has all but engulfed the frustrating confines around musical progressions he helped pioneer, and present them with a more natural and innovative grace then the next half plus century to follow. This essential collection for purists does contain enough variation on those hallowed scales to maintain a certain interest (even a handful of tracks that outshine their formulaic counterparts), although there is no denying those not well integrated into the genre will start hearing too much bleed-through track to track which may turn initial reverence for Johnson's vocal and instrumental prowess into sporadic annoyance. Rating: - * It's the only Robert Johnson album you'll ever need. ... The story of Robert Johnson is that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the talent at playing blues. I personally don't believe the story because he really put his soul into the music, and it's very obvious. Maybe his deal with the devil was that the devil would take his soul when he died. Whether the story is true or not, he believed it, and he left with only 29 songs, 12 additional takes, 2 still photographs, and 1 incredible legacy. I personally believe that every musician must own at least one actual blues album, no matter how far their music is from the blues, because the blues is probably the most soulful of all genres of music. This might explain why most classical musicians focus only on the technical part of the music, and they don't let their heart do any of the work. Most people would probably consider this the one blues album to get if you only get just one. What do I think? I think that this album is as good as any of them. If not this album, I would suggest a blues compilation. I was fortunate to get the copy that a local radio station, that is now out of business, would use when they would play his music, as a birthday gift. My uncle told me that he found it at a yard sale. What do I think of the album? I personally agree with most people about how the alternate takes should have been at the end after everything else. However, the fact that just about all of his tracks are basically the same song, but he changes the words, makes it not as big a deal, for me at least. Because he does a great job playing the blues, probably due to the whole deal with the devil thing, it's not as boring. There are also several different rhythm styles that he uses. Even more, there are a couple of songs that aren't blues, but of the pop music of that time, which adds a bit more variety. If "They're Red Hot" and "From Four Till Late" would have been put out as singles, in the way that songs now are released as singles, they both could have been crossover successes in the way that some of the black artists of the time were. However, people probably also wanted full orchestras. I personally like the bareness of the music. It's hard to believe that just a person with a guitar can really do so much. However, I've been able to go far with nothing but myself and an acoustic guitar, so it's a bit weird that I myself am impressed by this. About the sound quality, I feel that it isn't too hard to see past it, but I also feel that it adds a bit more mystery to who Robert Johnson was. The full set, also includes transcriptions of his lyrics, a biography, an essay by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, an essay by Eric Clapton, pictures of several different people and parts of his life, and of course, both pictures of him. To conclude, I have to recommend this album. |
Critics and audiences didn't seem too happy with Back to the Future, Part II, the inventive, perhaps too clever sequel. Director Zemeckis and cast bent over backwards to add layers of time-travel complication, and while it surely exercises the brain it isn't necessarily funny in the same way that its predecessor was. It's well worth a visit, though, just to appreciate the imagination that went into it, particularly in a finale that has Marty watching his own actions from the first film. --Tom Keogh
Shot back-to-back with the second chapter in the trilogy, Back to the Future, Part III is less hectic than that film and has the same sweet spirit of the first, albeit in a whole new setting. This time, Marty ends up in the Old West of 1885, trying to prevent the death of mad scientist Christopher Lloyd at the hands of gunman Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, who had a recurring role as the bully Biff). Director Zemeckis successfully blends exciting special effects with the traditions of a Western and comes up with something original and fun. --Tom Keogh
