King of the Delta Blues Singers

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King of the Delta Blues Singers
King of the Delta Blues Singers cover
Compilation album by Robert Johnson
Released 1961
Recorded November 1936 and
June 1937
Genre Blues
Length 43:08
Label Columbia
Producer Frank Driggs
Professional reviews
Robert Johnson chronology
King of the Delta Blues Singers
(1961)		 King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2
(1970)

King of the Delta Blues Singers is an album compiling mono recordings by Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records, catalogue number CL1654. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever, and appears at number 27 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time [1].

Contents

[edit] Content

The album compiles sixteen recordings, thirteen of which were previously available as 78s on the Vocalion label, originally recorded during two sessions in 1936 and 1937. The records sold well in their target market of the American south and southwest, with "Terraplane Blues" something of a regional hit, but their sales figures were never beyond 5000 or so in total.[1] By the time this album appeared, Johnson was mostly rumor, if known at all, except to a small group of collectors and those who had purchased the original 78s. An advance copy of the album was given by its instigator, John Hammond, to his newest signing to Columbia, Bob Dylan, who had never heard of Johnson and became mesmerized by the intensity of the recordings.[2]

Hammond, who had initially searched for Johnson in 1938 to include him on the bill for the first of his From Spirituals to Swing concerts, prodded Columbia to assemble this record during the height of the folk revival. It was the first of the retrospective albums for folk, country, and blues artists of the 1920s and 1930s rediscovered in the wake of that revival, some of whom would be located and invited to appear at events such as the Newport Folk Festival. Nevertheless, Johnson's LP failed to make the charts, but the quality of Johnson's music was recognized from the start by a few respected writers and record collectors. After its release, Johnson's reputation grew, and the album became a badge of hip taste; for instance, it can be seen in the photo on the cover of Bob Dylan's 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home, amid various emblems of bohemian life.[3] Songs from the album were repeatedly covered throughout the decade by many artists, notably Eric Clapton who recorded "Ramblin' On My Mind" on John Mayall's 1966 classic Bluesbreakers album, and "Cross Road Blues" with his own power trio Cream on the 1968 album Wheels of Fire. Clapton would later record an entire disc of Johnson's songs, Me and Mr. Johnson.

At the time of its release very little scholarship had been done on Johnson's life, and the album liner notes contain some inaccuracies and false conclusions, and a speculative portrait of Johnson's personality. As the two surviving portraits of him were discovered a decade later, the cover painting depicts a faceless musician in field clothes. The album was followed in 1970 by King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2, including the remaining recordings at that time available by Johnson not on this record.

King of the Delta Blues Singers was reissued on September 15, 1998 by the Legacy Records subsidiary label of the Sony Corporaton, with a newly discovered alternate version of "Traveling Riverside Blues" appended as a bonus track. The original recording engineer for the 1936 sessions was Don Law; for the 1937 sessions it was Vin Liebler.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side One

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Time
1. 11/27/36 Vocalion 3519 1936 Cross Road Blues 2:29
2. 11/23/36 Vocalion 3416 1936 Terraplane Blues 3:01
3. 11/23/36 Vocalion 3563 1936 Come On In My Kitchen 2:52
4. 11/27/36 Vocalion 3601 1936 Walking Blues 2:30
5. 11/27/36 Vocalion 3445 1936 Last Fair Deal Gone Down 2:39
6. 11/26/36 Vocalion 3445 1936 32-20 Blues 2:50
7. 11/23/36 Vocalion 3416 1936 Kind Hearted Woman Blues 2:51
8. 11/27/36 previously unreleased If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day 2:36

[edit] Side Two

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Time
1. 11/27/36 Vocalion 4630 1938 Preaching Blues 2:52
2. 11/23/36 previously unreleased When You Got A Good Friend 2:56
3. 11/23/36 Vocalion 3519 1936 Ramblin' On My Mind 2:52
4. 6/19/37 Vocalion 3723 1937 Stones in My Passway 2:28
5. 6/20/37 previously unreleased Traveling Riverside Blues 2:47
6. 6/20/37 Vocalion 3665 1937 Milkcow's Calf Blues 2:17
7. 6/20/37 Vocalion 4108 1937 Me and the Devil Blues 2:34
8. 6/20/37 Vocalion 3623 1937 Hellhound on My Trail 2:37

[edit] 1998 Reissue bonus track

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Time
1. 6/20/37 unreleased alternate take Traveling Riverside Blues 2:39

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marmorstein, Gary. The Label: The Story of Columbia Records. New York, Thunder's Mouth Press: 2006; p. 87. ISBN 1-56025-707-5
  2. ^ Ibid., p. 309.
  3. ^ Miller, James. Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977. Simon & Schuster (1999), p. 185. ISBN 0-684-80873-0.
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