The Complete Recordings [CD]

You are a fan of American music. There are some things you must do. One is purchase and listen to the two-disc Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson. Listen to it again, whether you understand it or not. The second is to purchase and read Peter Guralnick’s Searching for Robert Johnson. It is quite brief, like the recordings, and it presents the facts and myths surrounding Johnson. Like all of Guralnick’s books, it brings you as close to the artist as you can get. Now you must wait. You must listen to the blues that succeeded him: Johnny Shines, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, as well as the rockandroll to come after. Sun, Chess, and the British Invasion. Then you must go back to Robert Johnson. Now you must go before him. You must listen to Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Tommy Johnson, Leroy Carr. There are many others. And still you must come back to Robert Johnson, because Robert Johnson is right in the middle. His music is from 1936 and 1937, years after the ‘race’ record peak of the 20’s, and years before the post-war electric inventions leading up to the birth of rockandroll. It is absolutely critical to do this, because in Robert Johnson, we hear the achievements of one man, one guitar and one voice, steady bass, moaning melody, harmony, hollering, the paramount expression of a man. Robert Johnson’s technical achievements on the guitar were well regarded in his time, but what’s important is how self-sufficient it enabled him to be. He did not play with ensembles, he did not accompany singers, he was one part that produced all parts, a distillation of the music that came before him, and therein extracted back out into the electric ensembles that came after him. This is why Robert Johnson is so important. He stands in the middle, a spandrel, a disciple of the old and an embryo of the new. You must listen, and wait, and listen again.