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Robert Johnson – King of the Delta Blues Singers
He sold his soul to the devil, travelled America playing the guitar like no one had ever seen before and wailing about hellhounds, slept around and then died young when a jealous girlfriend poisoned him. Robert Johnson, the world’s first rock and roll star.
There is very little I can say about this album or Robert Johnson himself that hasn’t already been said a million times. This is an album of incredible blues music which influenced his own generation of musicians, then the next, then he was forgotten ever so slightly (though his influence could still be heard from those who he’d already influenced), then the album was re-released influencing another generation. Continue ad nauseum. It’s influential to say the least.
The music itself has never been bettered by one man and a guitar. Though you’d be hard pressed to believe there was only one guitar at times, ‘Me And The Devil Blues’ for example sounds like he must have a few extra fingers to hand, never mind just one man playing it. The vocals are themselves brilliant, a tortured wail of a bluesman with nothing to lose. On ‘Hell Hound On My Trail’ he really does sound like he has Cerberus himself after his soul. You’re torn between being totally amazed by what you’re hearing and completely spooked out. An absolutely essential album especially considering the only other one available is just this album plus the rest of the same recording session. Buy or die.
10 out of 10