What Are You Listening To?

[SteveO]

I listen to the blues from time to time for its' sheer power and feeling. I have this recording also Crazy mate. As you know so many guitarists have been fanatics with Johnson. One for sure is Clapton as you have cited below. Love in Vain covered by the Stones is great with Mick Taylor on guitar !

ROBERT JOHNSON "king of the delta blues:the complete recordings" cd, 1997

Robert lived a mere 27 years, but in that time influenced every other blues guy that came after and rock and rollers like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton so that makes him the 'godfather of the blues" IMO...
little is known about his life, no-one can pinpoint his exact birthdate,his schooling or his life in general, it is believed that he actually 'sold his soul' to the Devil in the mid 1930s in order to get fame...and once he got that fame he died, which bviously added fuel to the sold his soul myth...
anyway, this album contains twenty-four tracks recorded between 1936-37, the sound has not been remastered here but obviously been recorded straight from the original masters, leaving it authentic, the problem with that is that the music sounds distant,hollow,without equalization and 'old'...
look, im not a fan of the blues, but this guy isnt too bad IMO,
i am not scoring each song on their individual merit as i feel this would do incredible injustice to the album, but as a retrospective look back at what the blues was and should be this is a great example of that genre...

from the album:

crossroad blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A audio

malted milk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH_O7LnSghE audio

hellhound on my trail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TA32FKdhk audio