The Complete Recordings: The Centennial Collection (2011)
42 tracks, 111 minutes (2 CDs)
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I’ve named this specific album because it seems to be the ‘canonical’ one, but the name of the compilation itself doesn’t really matter – by now there are plenty of releases that give you exactly the same 42 tracks, maybe just in different orders. That’s because 42 is all there is. For us living in the now-times, Robert Johnson’s work consists of just 29 songs and 13 alternative takes – and one of those was only found in 1998. And yet there is a good argument to be made that he is the most influential single musician ever to have lived.
Robert Johnson is known as the ‘King of the Delta Blues.’ His sound is, by now, almost archetypical of the style, such is his impact. The well-known story is that when he first started out, playing his guitar in the Mississippi jukejoints, he was notoriously terrible, to the degree of being chased out of the door. He went away for a while and came back with a prodigious talent that seemed for many to be unaccountable. People say he ‘sold his soul to the devil.’ More likely he just went away and actually learnt how to play. Either way, he’d developed his own style and a way of playing that was exciting and engaging. In his own time – in the 1930s before he was, in all probability, murdered by a jealous husband at age 27 – Johnson was a pop star. We know him for his delta blues, which is where he excelled and what he recorded, but he played all sorts of styles and popular songs of the day, even including show tunes, touring all over the US and even Canada. Only months after his death, he would have performed at Carnegie Hall.
But those short years have turned into almost a century of music. The stuff we listen to today simply would not be the same if it weren’t for Robert Johnson. His playing and singing have struck musicians from every generation, from his contemporaries and protégés to those just hitting the scene now. Even a list of artists who have directly covered Johnson’s songs is a roll-call of genre defining musicians: Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Cassandra Wilson, Gil Scott-Heron, the White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers…and that doesn’t include all of those that have cited him as an important influence on their work.
With all of the talk and acknowledgement over how influential and important Robert Johnson’s music has been within blues, rock and everything that followed, it’s easy to lose sight of just how good he really was. I know I forgot sometimes, taking his legendary status for granted until whim takes me and my ears are astounded all over again So take a listen, and try to bring fresh ears if they aren’t already. You can take your pick of the tracks: ‘Sweet Home Chicago’, ‘When You Got a Good Friend’, ‘They’re Red Hot’, ‘If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day’, ‘Last Fair Deal Gone Down’, ‘Come On in My Kitchen’…or literally any other of his songs – ‘Me and the Devil’ how could I forget!; ‘Love in Vain’ – and be taken back to the Mississippi Delta of the mid-30s. His high-pitched voice is spellbinding and his guitar has that deliciously (and deceptively) simple sound. There is something incredibly special about these recordings that is difficult to explain. It’s haunting, which makes sense for the most low-down and heartfelt blueses, but even when he’s doing his dancier, wittier party pieces, there’s still that strange essence that floats through the speakers, carried on the graininess of the recording and across the ages. The superstitious would say that’s the devil, of course, and indeed some of it may just be the baggage of mystique that Johnson’s music carries with it. But I think part of it must also be the brain’s innate sense of a unique, overwhelming talent.
Robert Johnson’s life and music are – occasionally quite literally – legendary. Even this collection, ironically named The Complete Recordings can’t tell the whole story of Johnson’s recording career. He actually made over 50 recording, but all the rest have been lost to history. I don’t even think we know what those recordings were. They might have been different songs entirely. We will probably never know, although considering the last ‘lost recording’ was found in 1998, maybe there’s still a little hope to be had. But that slight unknowableness, of his life, of his skills, of his music and of just how all helps to make Johnson that bit more, that bit mythical and that bit magical. This is special stuff.
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