1961 compilation album by Robert Johnson
King of the Delta Blues Singers
is a compilation album by American
Delta blues
musician
Robert Johnson
, released in 1961 by
Columbia Records
. It is considered one of the most influential blues releases. In 2020,
Rolling Stone
ranked it number 374 on its list of
the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
.
Background
[
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]
The album compiles sixteen
mono
recordings, nine of which were previously available as
78 rpm records
on the
Vocalion
label, 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
" a regional hit, but their sales figures never totaled more than 5000 or so.
[2]
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.
[3]
[4]
Hammond, who had 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 who were rediscovered in the wake of that revival, some of whom were located and invited to appear at events such as the
Newport Folk Festival
. Johnson's LP failed to make the charts, but the quality of his music was recognized and Johnson's reputation grew. The album became a badge of
hip
taste in the 1960s, evidenced by its appearance in the album cover photo to Bob Dylan's
Bringing It All Back Home
amid other emblems of
bohemian
life.
[5]
Release
[
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]
The album was originally released by
Columbia Records
in 1961 as a
mono
LP
. 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. II
, 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
Corporation, with a newly discovered alternate version of "Traveling Riverside Blues" appended as a bonus track. The original recording engineer was Vincent Liebler.
Reception
[
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]
The
Los Angeles Times
wrote that Johnson's recordings for the albums "revolutionized the Mississippi Delta style that became the foundation of the Chicago blues sound".
[17]
The Wall Street Journal
wrote that "when his album
King of the Delta Blues Singers
made its belated way to England in the mid-1960s, it energized a generation of musicians".
[15]
In 1980,
King of the Delta Blues Singers
became the first album to be inducted by the
Blues Foundation
into the
Blues Hall of Fame
.
[18]
The Hartford Courant
selected
King of the Delta Blues Singers
for its list of the 25 Pivotal Recordings That Defined Our Times (1999).
[19]
In 2003, the album was ranked number 27 on
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of
the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
,
[20]
with its ranking dropping to number 374 on the 2020 update of the list.
[21]
(The album was not included in the 2012 version of the Rolling Stone list, instead being replaced by
The Complete Recordings
at number 22.)
[22]
Mojo
magazine ranked it number six on its list of 100 Records That Changed the World (2007).
[23]
Track listing
[
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]
Side one
[
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]
Track
|
Song Title
|
Recorded
|
Catalogue
|
Released
|
Time
|
1.
|
"
Cross Road Blues
"
|
November 27, 1936
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1961
|
2:28
|
2.
|
"
Terraplane Blues
"
|
November 23, 1936
|
Vocalion 3416
|
1937
|
2:58
|
3.
|
"
Come On in My Kitchen
"
|
November 23, 1936
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1961
|
2:46
|
4.
|
"
Walkin' Blues
"
|
November 27, 1936
|
Vocalion 3601
|
1937
|
2:28
|
5.
|
"
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
"
|
November 27, 1936
|
Vocalion 3445
|
1937
|
2:38
|
6.
|
"
32-20 Blues
"
|
November 26, 1936
|
Vocalion 3445
|
1937
|
2:50
|
7.
|
"
Kind Hearted Woman Blues
"
|
November 23, 1936
|
Vocalion 3416
|
1937
|
2:50
|
8.
|
"If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day"
|
November 27, 1936
|
previously unreleased
|
1961
|
2:34
|
Side two
[
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]
Track
|
Song Title
|
Recorded
|
Catalogue
|
Released
|
Time
|
1.
|
"Preachin' Blues"
|
November 27, 1936
|
Vocalion 4630
|
1939
|
2:50
|
2.
|
"When You Got a Good Friend"
|
November 23, 1936
|
previously unreleased
|
1961
|
2:35
|
3.
|
"
Ramblin' on My Mind
"
|
November 23, 1936
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1961
|
2:49
|
4.
|
"
Stones in My Passway
"
|
June 19, 1937
|
Vocalion 3723
|
1937
|
2:25
|
5.
|
"
Traveling Riverside Blues
"
|
June 20, 1937
|
previously unreleased
|
1961
|
2:43
|
6.
|
"Milkcow's Calf Blues"
|
June 20, 1937
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1961
|
2:14
|
7.
|
"
Me and the Devil Blues
"
|
June 20, 1937
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1961
|
2:30
|
8.
|
"
Hellhound on My Trail
"
|
June 20, 1937
|
Vocalion 3623
|
1937
|
2:36
|
1998 reissue bonus track
[
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]
Track
|
Song Title
|
Recorded
|
Catalogue
|
Released
|
Time
|
17.
|
"
Traveling Riverside Blues
"
|
June 20, 1937
|
unreleased alternate take
|
1998
|
2:39
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Howard Mandel, ed. (2005).
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues
.
Billboard Books
. p. 97.
ISBN
0-8230-8266-0
.
- ^
Marmorstein, Gary.
The Label: The Story of Columbia Records
. New York, Thunder's Mouth Press: 2006; p. 87.
ISBN
1-56025-707-5
- ^
Dylan describes the impact the Johnson recordings made on him in his autobiography,
Chronicles: Volume One
, (2004), pp. 281-288
- ^
Mamorstein, p. 309. In 1959, the Johnson song "Preachin' Blues" was included on the compilation
The Country Blues
on
Folkways RF1
.
- ^
Miller, James.
Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977
. Simon & Schuster (1999), p. 185.
ISBN
0-684-80873-0
. The LP is visible between
Bob Dylan
and
Sally Grossman
on the front jacket photo.
- ^
Koda, Cub.
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
- ^
Columnist. "
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
".
Birmingham Post
: January 30, 1999. Archived from
the original
on August 7, 2009.
- ^
Columnist. "
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
Archived
May 25, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
".
Down Beat
: May 24, 1962.
- ^
Garland, Phyl. "
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
".
Ebony
: 28. August 1975.
- ^
Goldman, Albert. "
A Private Bag of Mixed Beauties
".
The New York Times
: D44. December 14, 1969. Archived from
the original
on August 7, 2009.
- ^
Scherman, Tony.
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
- ^
Flippo, Chet. "
Review:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
".
Texas Monthly
: 70. October 1975.
- ^
Columnist. "
The
Vibe
100:
King of the Delta Blues Singers
".
Vibe
: 158. December 1999.
- ^
Larkin, Colin
(2007).
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
(4th ed.).
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
978-0195313734
.
- ^
a
b
Columnist. "Still King of the Delta Blues".
The Wall Street Journal
: October 16, 1998.
- ^
Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006).
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings
.
Penguin
. p. 328-329.
ISBN
978-0-140-51384-4
.
- ^
Snowden, Don. "
Robert Johnson: Demons on the Delta
".
Los Angeles Times
: 64. August 14, 1988.
- ^
Bragg, Rick.
Journeys: Driving the Blues Trail, In Search of a Lost Muse
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
- ^
Staff. "
A Century of Music: The 25 Pivotal Recordings That Defined Our Times
".
The Hartford Courant
: G.1. December 12, 1999.
- ^
"Rolling Stone ? The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)"
.
Genius.com
. Retrieved
May 20,
2021
.
- ^
"500 Greatest Albums of All Time"
.
Rolling Stone
. September 22, 2020
. Retrieved
September 24,
2020
.
.
- ^
"Rolling Stone ? The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2012)"
.
Genius.com
. Retrieved
May 20,
2021
.
- ^
Staff. "
Records That Changed the World 100 Records That Changed the World
".
Mojo
: June 2007.
External links
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]
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Albums
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Original 78 rpms
(chronological)
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Later releases
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Related
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