"The Complete Recordings" by ROBERT JOHNSON - Tracks recorded in Texas in 1936 and 1937 and transferred from Twelve Vocalion Mono 78s, Acetates and Other Sources (1990 US Columbia 2CD "Roots 'n' Blues" 49-Track Long Box Presentation Set of Remasters, Alternate Takes and Some Previously Unreleased) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Someone Fishing In My Pond..."

During his short, tumultuous and staggeringly influential tenure on this ball we call Earth, Bluesman Robert Johnson had eleven 78s issued on Vocalion Records in the USA with a further posthumous issue in 1939 after his passing aged only 27 in 1938. There were also five reissues during 1937 on Perfect and Conqueror (all listed below). 

His extraordinary musical reach that began in January 1937 with the debut release of "Terraplane Blues" will quick enough reach 100 years in 2037 (his birth centenary was May 2011) – a world-spanning influence that is based largely on 22-Tracks tucked away on fragile super-rare shellac 78"s that regularly sell for six to nine-thousand dollars at auction today in 2021 - a whole lotta love from a handful of gimme. 

Born May 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi to parents who had literally seen slavery, Johnson famously died at the age of only 27 in August 1938 from complications with pneumonia brought on by a malicious poisoning after he'd had an altercation with someone else's wife (something our frisky hero did a lot and not always at a crossroads either). RJ's 'Hellhound On My Trail' legend based on scratchy eerily played Vocalion 78s from 1936 and 1937 is now so profound and far-reaching, that his playing style and tunes have been covered by every major Blues Artist on the planet (man and woman) and even thrown up Movies loosely based on his much publicised liaison with Beelzebub where he supposedly traded his immortal Soul for the ability to play like no one else (all true of course). But is it justified – As Stevie Ray Vaughan and Keith Richards would say - Hell yes! 

This early American CD Box Set was part of the much-respected "Roots 'n' Blues" Reissue Series (Lawrence Cohn the Producer here). Columbia's FRANK ABBEY carried out the Digital Restoration and the 48-page black and white long booklet has appreciations (not surprisingly) from Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and a new essay on Johnson's life by musicologist, collector and researcher STEPHEN C. LaVERE. There are photos of key players in RJ's story – San Antonio and Dallas Producer Don Law, talent scout John Hammond, pal players like Son House, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, Lonnie and Tommy Johnson (and more). 

The booklet provides lyrics to every single version, a Discography and of course Reissue Credits. In 1990 there were only a handful of photos of the great man – the one on the box being the most famous – with those spider-fingers enabling him to bend notes on the fret that changed how players attacked the Blues. "The Complete Recordings" has been reissued since 1990 in a jewel-case version, but I love this original Box Set presentation. Here are Cross Road Blues...

US released 28 August 1990 - "The Complete Recordings" by ROBERT JOHNSON on Columbia/"Roots 'n' Blues" C2K 46222 (Barcode 07464462222) features 49 Tracks from 78s and Acetates (recorded 1936 and 1937) Remastered onto 2CDs and housed in a Long Box Presentation Set. It plays out as follows:

CD1: 54:56 minutes 

1. Kindhearted Woman Blues (Take 1) 

2. Kindhearted Woman Blues (Take 2) 

3. I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom 

4. Sweet Home Chicago

5. Rambling On My Mind (Take 1)

6. Rambling On My Mind (Take 2) 

7. When You Got A Good Friend (Take 1)

8. When You Got A Good Friend (Take 2)

9. Come On In My Kitchen (Take 1)

10. Come On In My Kitchen (Take 2)

11. Terraplane Blues 

12. Phonograph Blues (Take 1)

13. Phonograph Blues (Take 2)

14. 32-20 Blues 

15. They're Red Hot

16. Dead Shrimp Blues 

17. Cross Road Blues (Take 1)

18. Cross Road Blues (Take 2)

19. Walking Blues 

20. Last Fair Deal Gone Down 

CD2: 51:57 minutes

1. Preaching Blues (Up Jumps The Devil) 

2. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day 

3. Stones In My Passway 

4. I'm A Steady Rollin' Man 

5. From Four Till Late 

6. Hellhound On My Trail 

7. Little Queen Of Spades (Take 1)

8. Little Queen Of Spades (Take 2)

9. Malted Milk 

10. Drunken Hearted Man (Take 1)

11. Drunken Hearted Man (Take 2)

12. Me And The Devil Blues (Take 1)

13. Me And The Devil Blues (Take 2)

14. Stop Breakin' Down Blues (Take 1)

15. Stop Breakin' Down Blues (Take 2)

16. Traveling Riverside Blues 

17. Honeymoon Blues 

18. Love In Vain (Take 1)

19. Love in Vain (Take 4) 

20. Milkcow's Calf Blues (Take 2) 

21. Milkcow's Calf Blues (Take 3)

US 10-inch sized 78's 

1. Terraplane Blues b/w Kindhearted Woman Blues - January 1937, Vocalion 03416

2. 30-20 Blues b/w Last Fair Deal Gone Down - February 1937, Vocalion 03445

3. I Believe I'll Dust My Broom b/w Dead Shrimp Blues - March 1937, Vocalion 03475

4. Cross Road Blues b/w Ramblin' On My Mind - April 1937, Vocalion 03519 

5. Come On In My Kitchen b/w They're Red Hot - June 1937, Vocalion 03563

6. Sweet Home Chicago b/w Walkin' Blues - July 1937, Vocalion 03601

7. Hell Hound On My Trail b/w From Four Until Late - August 1937, Vocalion 03623 

8. Milkcow's Calf Blues b/w Malted Milk - September 1937, Vocalion 03665

9. Stones In My Passway b/w I'm A Steady Rollin' Man - November 1937, Vocalion 03723 

10. Stop Breakin' Down Blues b/w Honeymoon Blues - March 1938, Vocalion 04002

11. Me And The Devil Blues b/w Little Queen Of Spades - May 1938, Vocalion 04108

12. Love In Vain Blues b/w Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) - February 1939, Vocalion 04630 [Posthumous Release, died August 1938] 

REISSUED 78"s

1. Terraplane Blues b/w Kindhearted Woman Blues - March 1937 reissue, Perfect 7-03-56

2. Come On In My Kitchen b/w They're Red Hot - July 1937 Reissue, Perfect 7-0757

3. Hell Hound On My Trail b/w From Four Until Late - September 1937 Reissue, Perfect 7-09-56

4.  I Believe I'll Dust My Broom b/w Dead Shrimp Blues - November 1937 Reissue, Conqueror 8871

5. Milkcow's Calf Blues b/w Malted Milk - May 1938 Reissue, Conqueror 8944

The Rolling Stones could probably put out an album's worth of Robert Johnson covers - "Love In Vain", "Stop Breakin' Down Blues" while one of my fave Led Zeppelin outtakes is their take on "Traveling Riverside Blues" - Clapton has done a whole album on RJ and of course Cream's version of "Crossroads" on the 1968 "Wheels Of Fire" double album must have sent hundreds of budding axe-players everywhere into guitar shops. For sure when you play some of the outtakes, there is a 'lot' of cackle and bumps in the 78-transfer night, but then others like "Come On In My Kitchen" are wonderfully clear. Elmore James and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac both bow at the altar that is "Dust My Broom" while Foghat, Canned Heat and even the great discoverer himself John Hammond have had their chops in "Terraplane Blues". 

I'm reading the 2020-published hardback "Brother Robert: Growing Up With Robert Johnson" by Annye C. Anderson with Preston Lauterbach on Hachette Books. Now in her 90s, his baby sister Annye was only 11 when RJ passed, but she has finally made available 'his story' via her remembrances and even produced astonishing unseen photos. Co-author and fellow music traveller Preston Lauterbach has authored "Chitlin' Circuit" - a book I would beg you to buy if you have any love of American Rhythm and Blues from the Forties and Fifties. 

The mystery with regard to Robert Johnson continues to unfold and his legend lives on (you can buy the jewel case 2CD reissue online for less than a fiver). But if you want to know why all the muss and fuss, and if you have the readies - go for the original presentation. His genius deserves no less...