The Complete Recordings: All 41 Recordings

Standing on the shoulders of the great delta blues giants like Son House and Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson took accoustic blues to reach it's pre-war peak, before amplifiers and the electric guitar came in.

As a singer he is passionate rather than technically brilliant, but it is as an accoustic blues guiitarist that he is unsurpassed - not just my view but Eric Clapton's as well. No-one else could play such a variety of styles with such power, feeling and emotion. In fact so skillful was his playing that when Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones first heard it, he was conviced that there were two people on the record - one doing the lead work and one doing the bass runs, rather than Johnson managing both simultaneously.

The best thing about this CD is that it has every single take that he ever recorded - from the intense, crazed "Preaching Blues (Up jumped the Devil)" to the slow, moving "Come on in my Kitchen" which, according to Johnny Shines, reduced men to tears when Johnson played it live.

If you only have one accoustic blues CD in your collection - this is the one it should be.


A dedicated box set to the genius of Mr Robert Johnson   February 5, 2008
P. Ilton (Jersey, C.I)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

An absolute genius, an incredible listen. A warning to anybody buying this box set: As has been said by other reviewers, the set has all of the recordings by Johnson, you will hear more than one recording of each song, and if you are new to Johnson, this will be pretty intense ( and maybe a bit dull). If you have heard Johnson before, then it's worth getting this though.

Much as I love Clapton, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, etc, Johnson is just incredible: better than the lot of them, and the best guitarist I have ever heard, even above the great Clapton himself.


The 'Enigmatic Spectre' Himself - Mr Robert Johnson   March 8, 2007
Wilf (Gloucester, England)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

One of the things that I love most about the great pillar of popular music that is The Blues is the fact that it provides such a stable and accessible platform for so many different musicians to explore and express their deepest, most heartfelt feelings from, each of them able to carve their own unique signature.

One of the most finely-carved of these signatures belongs to Robert Johnson, one of the great early contributors to the blues, and one whose legacy and influence on so many of those who came later cannot be overstated.

Despite his significance to the blues, Johnson's name never seems to have attained the same level of general familiarity as those of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker etc. Indeed, I only discovered him after watching the film The Ghosts of Mississippi with Alec Baldwin, James Woods and Whoopi Goldberg. At one point, Baldwin visits the brother of a murdered civil rights activist who is the DJ of a small southern radio station; at the end of their chat, the DJ puts on a new record which he introduces with words to the effect of "now for something from the grandfather of the blues, Robert Johnson". You only hear the first few notes of the record, but it was enough to intrigue me and to make me look into the man. WELL! What a revelation!

There is very little I can add to what has already been said about Johnson except to say his records really sound as if there are three of them playing! I don't possess enough of a technical knowledge of music to specifically describe what the guy is up to, but can only try to explain that his guitar-playing is unlike anything I've heard before and that his rythmic structures are Just Brilliant. Truly a guitar virtuoso! The combination of his guitar, rythm, voice and lyrics is absolutely haunting, beautiful, melancholy, sweet, mysterious, trippy etc. If you'd like to hear one of the greatest exponents of Mississippi Delta blues, here's your man!

Incidentally, Rolling Stone Magazine's 'Top 100 Guitarists Of All Time' has Robert Johnson at number 5, one place behind Eric Clapton at number 4! I can't think that Clapton would be at all happy to be rated higher than his hero!

(Also, if you're frustrated by the shortage of Johnson's recorded material, then I highly recommend the work of another early blues giant, the equally great Leadbelly - the master of the 12 string guitar, a lot of whose music is reminiscent of Johnson's - Oh, and of course, the incomparable Son House, who had a direct and unmistakeable influence on Johnson's music).


Legendary recordings   April 26, 2009
Paul UK. (UK.)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is the best issue of Robert Johnson's recordings to get. The sleeve notes, the information and the mastering are amazing. Buy it and enjoy the best sounding better than ever.


Best Value cd On The Market!   June 17, 2007
RUEBEN AMOS RUNACRE (ENGLAND)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This double cd is in my opinion the best value cd on the market! It comes in a compact box which includes an informative booklet on the great delta bluesman. All the recordings and all the takes on two cds, it is a must for Robert Johnson fans and enthusiasts of blues and rock music.