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King of the Delta Blues Singers

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King of the Delta Blues Singers
Compilation album by
Robert Johnson
Released1961 (1961)
Recorded
GenreDelta blues
Length43:08
LabelColumbia
Producer
CompilerDon Law
Robert Johnson chronology
King of the Delta Blues Singers
(1961) 		King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II
(1970)

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 collects sixteen mono recordings, nine of which were previously available as 78 rpm records on the Vocalion label, which Johnson 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] Legendary record producer, John Hammond gave an advance copy of the album to his newest signing to Columbia, Bob Dylan, who had never heard of Johnson and who 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 at Carnegie Hall, prodded Columbia to assemble this album during the height of the folk revival in the 1960s. It was among the first of the retrospective albums of 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 counter-culture 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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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Birmingham Post[7]
Down Beat[8]
Ebony(favorable)[9]
The New York Times(favorable) 1969[10]
The New York Times(favorable) 1998[11]
Texas Monthly(favorable)[12]
Vibe(favorable)[13]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[14]
The Wall Street Journal(favorable)[15]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings(1998 reissue) + “crown”[16]

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

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  1. ^ Howard Mandel, ed. (2005). The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues. Billboard Books. p. 97. ISBN 0-8230-8266-0.
  2. ^ Marmorstein, Gary. The Label: The Story of Columbia Records. New York, Thunder's Mouth Press: 2006; p. 87. ISBN 1-56025-707-5
  3. ^ Dylan describes the impact the Johnson recordings made on him in his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, (2004), pp. 281-288
  4. ^ Mamorstein, p. 309. In 1959, the Johnson song "Preachin' Blues" was included on the compilation The Country Blues on Folkways RF1.
  5. ^ 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 in the front jacket photo.
  6. ^ Koda, Cub. Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers. AllMusic. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
  7. ^ Columnist. "Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers". Birmingham Post: January 30, 1999. Archived from the original on August 7, 2009.
  8. ^ Columnist. "Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers Archived May 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine". Down Beat: May 24, 1962.
  9. ^ Garland, Phyl. "Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers". Ebony: 28. August 1975.
  10. ^ Goldman, Albert. "A Private Bag of Mixed Beauties". The New York Times: D44. December 14, 1969. Archived from the original on August 7, 2009.
  11. ^ Scherman, Tony. Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers. The New York Times. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
  12. ^ Flippo, Chet. "Review: King of the Delta Blues Singers". Texas Monthly: 70. October 1975.
  13. ^ Columnist. "The Vibe 100: King of the Delta Blues Singers". Vibe: 158. December 1999.
  14. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  15. ^ a b Columnist. "Still King of the Delta Blues". The Wall Street Journal: October 16, 1998.
  16. ^ Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin. p. 328-329. ISBN 978-0-140-51384-4.
  17. ^ Snowden, Don. "Robert Johnson: Demons on the Delta". Los Angeles Times: 64. August 14, 1988.
  18. ^ Bragg, Rick. Journeys: Driving the Blues Trail, In Search of a Lost Muse. The New York Times. Retrieved on August 7, 2009.
  19. ^ Staff. "A Century of Music: The 25 Pivotal Recordings That Defined Our Times". The Hartford Courant: G.1. December 12, 1999.
  20. ^ "Rolling Stone – The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)". Genius.com. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  21. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020..
  22. ^ "Rolling Stone – The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2012)". Genius.com. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  23. ^ Staff. "Records That Changed the World 100 Records That Changed the World". Mojo: June 2007.
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