Robert Johnson - Complete Recordings

Just got my copy of King, following the recommendation of everyone on this thread who said it was the best CD version available. Checked out the mastering credits (of course) and read the following: "Disc to Digital Transfers: Steven Lasker, Michael Donaldson (track 17). CEDAR restoration [aargh!!]: Steven Lasker. Sonic Advice: John R. T. Davies. Digital Masters by Robert Vosgien, CMS Digital." No wonder everyone likes it so much! Go, John R.T.!!

 

Figures that I would have the 46222 one.

 

All the Allen New York Orchestra sides are available in JRT Davies transfers on Red Allen & His New York Orchestra, 1929-1930, a two-CD set from JSP, catalog number 3403. I assume JRT worked from shellac sources. Some good stuff there!

 

I just finished listening to Vol II CD of "King of the Delta Blues Singers". What a monumental improvement over the original boxset! Overall the sound is so much warmer and fuller. I especially like the way his guitar sounds now.

No, I'm not particularly happy about rebuying stuff (how many copies of "Fragile" do I have???), but when I'm rewarded the way I was this morning, it is absolutely worth it. And I have this forum to thank for it!

 

The task is now clear. Sony ought to delete "The Complete Recordings" box and replace it with a new, 2 CD set. The first disc should contain the original Vocalion/ARC/Perfect singles in chronological order, followed by the best takes of the songs that were unissued during or immediately after his lifetime. The second disc should contain all of the "alternate" takes, including the take of "Traveling Riverside Blues" that is the bonus track on the remastered KOTDBS1. All of these should be done from fresh transfers, like the recent reissues of KOTDBS1 and 2.

For an extra-special bonus, they should call the FBI, Interpol, Batman, whoever it takes, and find the demo that Johnson supposedly recorded for H.C. Speir in Jackson, Mississippi. Finally, they should top it off with *full* (not cropped) presentations of *all* the existing pictures of Robert Johnson. There are not just two, but at least three -- with the unseen picture (unseen, that is, apparently by everyone other than Mack McCormick and Peter Guralnick) showing RL with his nephew.

Sony should then delete all the other ferstunken discs in the Robert Johnson catalog -- the Martin Scorcese disc, and that other one called "King of the Delta Blues Singers," which are essentially useless. If they really need more Robert Johnson product, then they can take a truncated version of the first disc described above, and sell a 50-minute disc of the original singles.

For awhile, with awful remastering and pedestrian packaging, Sony was on the cusp of doing almost as much harm to Robert Johnson's recorded catalog as Decca did to Buddy Holly's. These new issues of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" albums are like when Decca UK hired John Beecher to put together "Legend" and "The Complete Buddy Holly," and when MCA had Steve Hoffman put together "From the Original Master Tapes" and "For the First Time Anywhere." We aren't in the Promised Land yet, but we can see it from here ...

=B.

 

Last week I picked up King of the Delta Blues Singers (not to be confused with plain old King of the Delta Blues, also from Sony), and I have to agree that the sound is tons better than the Complete Recordings jewel case set I got circa 1999. It has a credit for CEDAR restoration, but it doesn't sound nearly as noise-reduced as Complete Recordings. I also saw a remastered King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol. 2 on CD. According to Amazon it was released in August 2004.

 

The first volume, for a disc that is supposedly NR'd, does have a fair amount of hiss(listen as the tracks fade out). I'm gonna have to get Volume Two now....



Evan

 

My Robert Johnson story

With the prospect of Sony's new vinyl version of King of the Delta Blues Singers due on Valentine's Day (discussed in another thread), I'm ready to try another version of this fantastic collection.

As I write, I'm listening for the first time to the second pressing (1963) which after a clean is sounding great (it set me back $4 at this years WFMU Record Fair). I've spent most time with the reviled boxed set (which I picked up in 1991). After reading this thread, I added the most recent CD reissue of King of the Delta Blues Singers to my Yourmusic.com queue. My understanding is that is the one on which John RT Davies consulted.

Eventually I plan on locating some of the 78s (and upgrading my Technics to play them). In the meantime, I'm looking forward to comparing the other options.

Around the time I picked up the boxed set, I also bought a T-shirt with the classic portrait of Johnson, which I've since worn to death (its currently full of holes and used for cleaning).

A few years back, I was confronted on the street in NYC's East Village by a hip African-American guy who spotted the T-shirt and disdainfully demanded: "What do YOU really know about Robert Johnson". (I'm a nerdy white guy, and I was pretty sure he assumed my wearing the T-shirt was some arbitrary choice).

I had pretty much memorized the extensive liner notes to the boxed set, and it was one of those situations where I had great come-backs days later, but at the time hurried past (to the usual record stores).

FWIW: I'm listening to the 1963 (2-eye) LP for the second time, and it sounds GREAT. Does anybody have the 1961 (6-eye) to comment on the relative merits?

And anyone heard the 78s?
-David

 

Good luck. Let's just say 'complete set of DCCs' several times over.

The double set is pretty good; I was pleased it was more enjoyable than my UK copy of King of the Blues Singers vinyl which took me a while to locate.

 

GREAT post. I agree. Tell me more about the lost RJ demo..

 

Anyone think that some of the RJ stuff runs too fast?

 

Avoid the Charly at all costs.

 

I believe the making of a demo recording was suggested by Gayle Dean Wardlow; I can't recall whether it was in his book "Chasing the Devil's Music" or in his 78 Quarterly cover article on Johnson. To make a long story short, H.C. Speir remembered Johnson auditioning and making a record in his Jackson, Mississippi store.

I'll try and find the exact quote over the weekend and post it, to avoid sowing confusion.

=B.

 

Thanks. FWIW, I've been lucky enough to find all the DCCs that I wanted apart from a handful (took a lot of effort though). I think I have a shot at finding a Robert Johnson 78 or two over time. Any idea of the going rate on relatively clean copies?

When you say double set, do you mean the two individual (and most recent) CD remasters?

There's a copy of the UK vinyl (1966) on ebay right now. Way out of my price range. Were you able to compare it to the US vinyl? Is it the same Stanley Weiss mastering?
-David

 

Well, I almost got it right. Here's what Gayle Dean Wardlow said in an interview about H.C. Speir: "Robert Johnson came into his store, went upstairs, and made an audition record ... Now Speir did not remember making a demo for him. Steve LaVere says he talked to one of the relatives of Johnson, and Johnson brought a demo, or a little acetate, to play on the wind-up Victrolas. So that would have come from Speir's store. But Speir did remember him singing and throwing his voice up on 'Kindhearted Woman.' And I played him 'Kindhearted Woman' by Johnson and he said, 'Oh, I remember that guy--he threw up his voice like Bracey did ... It would have been 'Kindhearted Woman' or 'Terraplane Blues.'"

From Pat Howse and Jimmy Phillips, "Godfather of Delta Blues: H.C. Speir," in Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues, Gayle Lee Wardlow, ed., at 140 (Miller Freeman 1998).

=B.

 

I saw a three lp box set from 1990 last week. How does it stack up to everything else?
It was very reasonably priced.

 

My understanding is that the 3 LP box is from the same sources as the 1990 box (the version that isn't considered as strong as other options). It is also from 1990 and features the same cover art.

There's one on ebay now.

That said, I've never heard it to compare. IIRC, for some of the alternate takes, this is the only way to hear them on vinyl.
-David

 

Thanks for that. I could get a copy locally for $15.00 and save on the postage! I think I'll pass.

 

Have you seen the prices that these go for?

Put it this way -- it's rare that one goes for under four figures. And as it is with most blues issues, there were never any repressings of the 78s. And there were not many of these pressed. When they were gone, they were gone -- out of print from the late 30s until the Columbia LP issue in the 50s.

These are holy grail disks. Elvis on Sun is very common by comparison.

Edit: found one listed on Popsike. $1275 for a roughish VG.

 

Woah. I should have checked popsike...ah well. All the more reason to hope the new LP version excells.
-David

 

One auction site I visited a few days ago had sold a couple of RJ 78's over the last few years, and both went for $20,000+. The website claimed that only 12-14 copies of each of the two songs auctioned were known to exist.

Derek

 

Letter confirms Robert Johnson's Dallas recordings, other tales








DALLAS Music historians say the discovery of a long-lost letter offers rare insight into Robert Johnson's life and confirms that the bluesman recorded at a downtown Dallas building.

Blues students have long believed that Johnson recorded 13 songs in 1937 in a building two blocks of east of Dallas City Hall. The building was home to Brunswick Records at the time, but there was no known documentation to confirm where the recordings took place.


That's until San Diego blues enthusiast Tom Jacobson tracked down a 1961 letter unlocking the mystery, the Dallas Morning News reports.


In the letter, the producer of the recordings writes that the session took place in a makeshift studio at the Brunswick Records office.


Johnson died 18 months after the recordings were made, but his music lived on and was hugely influential on 1960s musicians like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.


The historic building's future is uncertain. A Dallas drink distributor has been trying to sell it for years with no success, a company official said.


Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights

 

Sounds like a good place for a robert johnson museum!