@Kyle Billie in lieu of adding, even further, to this comment I’ll just give a thumbs up and say thank you for taking the time and saying that. “The Blues” are and is still, and always will be; forever living, a story and journey that run as deep and far as the human soul. Most people start the journey and think of Robert Johnson as the “king” of blues or “father” of the blues but it goes back so much farther and I’m glad that you took the time to mention that. I hope people see your comment and actually take a second look and listen to “the blues”. That’s dude
Robert Johnson only recorded 29 songs and I believe he was the first Musician on the 27 club of Musicians who died at 27. He had a rough life and lost his first wife giving birth. He was the King of the Blues, RIP Robert
Almost everything you've reacted to so far can be traced back to these Robert Johnson recordings. Just about every rock, blues, metal, pop or other modern guitar player owes their career to this man's brief output of brilliantly innovative work. If you haven't figured it out yet, this is effectively the same song as "Crossroads" by Cream, which you just reacted to. The story goes that Robert supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads in exchange for his newfound guitar skills which, at the time, were revolutionary. The world lost it's collective minds upon hearing him play both live and on these records. He was also the first known member of 'The 27 Club'
Strangely, you've totally omitted other genre's that have contributed to the melting pot known as rock music; such as European folk, Baroque, and classical music. Progressive rock borrows more from classical and European music.
@@marcillioficino4663 maybe you in the rigth, but without these musicians, music like rock, pop. Heavy metal etc...they wouldn't be the same whitout them.
@@marcillioficino4663 So while I do agree with you that those musical styles contributed to the subsequent genres, I think you miss the point. The blues was the genre which rock was born from. The great rock artists of the 50s-70s got their start in the blues. Black Sabbath, which most will agree if one of the first 'heavy metal' bands, took a lot of influence from the blues. A lot of their early songs are rooted in the blues but with their own twist of heavy distortion. While the styles of music you cited influenced these genres, they did so more after the conception while the blues was there from the beginning.
It was a common story that several blues guitarists, like Tommy Johnson (no relation), made even earlier than Robert. It's an African myth that was brought over to the new world by slaves. African religions had different spirits, so in a Christian context in America that spirit just became the devil. Lol - ummmm . . . there is no devil by the way. Or fairies or unicorns.
I'm from Mississippi, born and raised, lived here all my life. I've been to the legendary Crossroads and I own every recording Robert Johnson ever made. If not for him and others from Mississippi, modern music wouldn't exist as we know it. I like to think Robert would be proud and happy that he still has a huge influence today. ✌️
@@wildeyedherman3102 Take 6 from Oxford for more than an hour, passing a coffin factory on your right, then crossing under 55. Then you reach... If I tell you more, then the devil will own your soul.
My God, don't you two ever sleep ? Not that I'm complaining. Keep 'em rollin'. I seldom watch TV anymore. Brad and Lex is my new TV. Well done again, guys.
Lex nailed it...blues is all about LETTING IT OUT. To quote a line from the movie "Crossroads"..."Blues ain't nothing but a good man feelin' bad." God bless!!
@@bloodstone2k "Look at this old guitar you been squeaking by on, I bet you bought this thing just 'cause you thought it looked beat up! Well, you got it all wrong!"
I went down to the crossroads, and then a few miles south of Clarksdale, I bought a '59 Buick, and took it home to Alabama. I wonder in any Johnsons rode in that old Buick.
Robert Johnson is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Listen to the version of this song that the band Cream did on Wheels of Fire. Almost all English bands of the 60s and 70s, (Cream, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) covered his songs.
keep in mind, this actual recording is almost 100 years old, he was really ahead of his time. i personally liked leadbelly better. but no doubt that johnson was the better guitarist.
I'm gonna cry. Not a soul does reactions to this legend. You 2 have achieved a new status that others have not reached yet. And the Lex throwing out Chopin's name? ...😄😄😄😄 You are well versed.
Me and my wife have traveled Hwy 61 from Vicksburg Mississippi all the way Memphis TN which is the blues trail a number of times and there's a lot of old what looks like old shotgun houses that were actually juke joints or clubs that the old blues artists like Robert Johnson would play at from the 1930s thru the 50s and 60s and if you are a history buff or music history fan especially the blues is a fascinating trip back through time and is something that me and my wife found absolutely fantastic and spiritually motivating for the soul if you love blues or just historical glimpses of the evolution of life during those times and how the people would go out after work and on weekends to enjoy this great music
The birth of a genre of music. Str8 merican, str8 black, str8 from the fields. So many good rock songs since elvis have chased these blues. Sooper kewl.
When Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was first introduced to this he asked, 'who is on guitars?' 'Robert Johnson' 'ok but who is playing rhythm guitar?' 'Same guy at the same time'. Keith (and the rest of the Brits at the time) then dove deep into the Blues
@@yup486 Back in the early 90s, after I had grown bored with the pop metal scene, I stumbled across a Stevie Ray Vaughn video on PBS one night, for his studio version of Little Wing. That lead me to Hendrix, the Blues, Alternative Rock, etc. This all happened not long after I'd finally made the switch from cassette tapes to CDs, and I went to my local record shop (JB&H Records in Lakewood) to trade in a bunch of my old cassette tapes for the Complete Recordings box set. I've replaced all those old tapes digitally at this point, and still have that box set in my collection today.
In a documentary I saw Clapton tried to play Johnsons songs by himself and couldn’t. He needed a second guitarist. The guys playing is in believable. Almost makes me believe in the devil lol
This music is your heritage this man single handily started it all no Robert Johnson noJimi Hendrix no LED Zeppelin no Stevie Ray .This guy was the reason why so many young guys picked up a guitar.Sadly to say he never reaped anything from it and should not forgotten.
your comments about the vocals sounding "of a certain age" is spot on. Like most musicians at the time and def bluesmen, they often never played while recording or with a microphone, some never at all that are lost to history. A lot of bluesman reaching back this far learned how to play and sing in open fields or inside under oil lamplight so by nature they project and inflect WAYY differently then artists now who almost exclusively record their voices. The only modern day comparison would be opera singers who are trained to project their voice manually without amplification to large concert halls.
This is the music that birthed rock and roll. Robert and others in this genre are who inspired everyone that played rock and roll from Elvis to Eric Clapton, to Jimi Hendrix, to Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Ray Vaughn, to Nirvana, and everyone in between There are SO many good ones....Muddy Waters, Albert King, Lightning Hopkind, older ones like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Howlin Wolf and sooo many more...ohhh Willie Dixon who wrote TONS of songs that were covered by rock and roll bands. All the rock and roll musicians were listening to all this old blues music. It's all so raw and unproduced. They werent making much money, they just had emotion they had to pour out and they are still inspiring and shaping music today. You guys should listen to a lot of that old music and take it back to its roots!!
Recorded on a tape recorder in a hotel room in San Antonio Tx. circa 1935. The best guitarists can't replicate the guitar. It sounds like two people but the engineer swears there was no one else in the room.
An OG axe--man...and, a HUGE influence on guitar playing...music really...Blues, Rock, Metal, and everything that came after his time was done. Dirt floor, Juke-Joint nastiness. THE man who made the deal with the devil down at the crossroads...
This was recorded in 1936 when he was 25 years old. He died 2 years later at 27. So yeah, this song is 86 years old, sung by a very young man who died soon after it was recorded.
They didn't do concerts the way we know them. Robert Johnson was considered an Itinerant musician. He walked and traveled the Mississippi delta region going from town to town. Playing Roadhouses, juke joints. Playing the popular songs of the day. He made two trips to Texas to record his original songs. They didn't have recording studios like today. They set up recording equipment in hotel rooms and had varying musicians come and record. Robert Johnson recorded a total of 29 original songs before he died. It was these recordings, rediscovered in the 1950's and 60's, that influenced an entire generation of musicians during the early days of Rock n' Roll. Icons like Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, and countless others.
What you're hearing is the root, the seed, the foundation of modern rock music as we know it, all forged by a lonesome Black blues musician who was graced with otherwordly talent & virtuosity, but at the cost of his own life. Robert Johnson also began the ancient mythical concept knows as the "27 Club" which includes a plethora of talented artists who died too soon throughout history
We are so lucky that some of these old, original blues players were recorded and preserved. He traveled the South playing in juke joints. Many British and American blues players in the sixties and seventies were influenced by Johnson and other players from that era. One of my favorites of his is “Sweet Home Chicago”.
I’m a 40 year old man from New York State. I’ve loved Robert Johnson’s music since I was in High School. Then I heard his recordings at the correct speed and it was like listening to the first time all over again.
This is the Big Bang event that launched basically all Blues , R&B and Rock that we all love today . If you get the chance , watch the movie Crossroads with Ralph Macchio , it tells the story (myth) of Robert Johnson .
Probably the single most influential blues man ever. His work has been cited as the primary musical inspiration for artists such as Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant. And that doesn't take into account the other blues artists that were influenced by this single recording of 29 songs who in turn influenced many other greats. This song adds to the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads to be able to play and sing. Many say it was that action that led to his death at such a young age (the first member of the 27 club).
This is it. Robert Johnson is the father of everything. Every style of music you've heard since is directly tied to him. It doesn't matter. Blues, rock, country, hip hop, it all starts with Robert Johnson.
As close to square one of the roots of all popular music that I care about, his influence is incalculable! Ancient yes, but forever listened to and for good reason. The Blues, the parents of Rock.
As others have said - he was one of the most influential artists of all time ! Cream, Rolling Stones, Led Zep all listened to him ! one of the original members of the 27 Club ! Janis Joplin, Curt Cobain Amy Winehouse ! There's a hell hound on my tail also vert\y good !
In order to fully appreciate Robert Johnson, you have to remember -- as you have -- that this recording took place in the 1930's. His entire catalogue of 29 songs was recorded in two sessions over two years. A young man in his late twenties, displaying masterful and innovative guitarwork, and a haunting, complex vocal style. It's not immediately obvious that only one guitar -- Robert's -- is being played, due to his creative use of claw-picking and bottle slide technique. His use of the guitar to provide another accompanying voice to his own was a direct influence on rock and roll. Robert Johnson was a brilliant flash of musical genius, sadly cut short by his very early death.
Please please please read a book or watch a documentary about Robert Johnson. His story is fascinating blues folklore. How much of it is true doesn't matter. It's utterly fabulous and gives me the chills just thinking about it. Hearing this recording again, his guitar playing, even on an acoustic, is way more advanced than a lot of rock playing decades later. There's character and humour in it. It's got personality like Jeff Beck's playing circa 1977.
There's an interesting documentary interviewing other blues musicians who knew Robert Johnson when he was alive and really believed his story about selling his soul at the crossroads. Apparently he was nothing special, and even got laughed at sometimes, and then suddenly one day he was changing the course of music history..
Unfortunately, they gloss over the time frame..... he went on stage and basically was told you suck, go away...... and he did.... for about a year. When he came back he could play......so it wasn't like he sucked on Friday and came back next Friday with skills
@Dominatus Hydra What happened was he cracked a code or two on guitar playing and probably learned some tricks and techniques from other players. He was away for a year.
There were blues men around before Johnson, like Son House and Charlie Patton (both much older than Johnson). According to at least one historian, Son House taught Johnson guitar. So he was in good company. And he didn't suddenly get more skills, he disappeared for a while and came back with some new techniques. Just like anyone else. And he wasn't the first blueman that claimed the crossroads myth. Tommy Johnson (no relation) also claimed to meet the Yoruba (Nigerian tribe) spirit, Eshu Legbaat, at the crossroads. He learned the African myth from his grandmother, and Americans replaced the trickster spirit with the devil since that fit with American Christianity. It isn't even known if Robert Johnson ever actually made this claim, he just sang about the crossroads story that he copied from Tommy Johnson and other earlier artists.
The Grandfather of Rock “The Last Fair Deal Gone Down” is my favorite tune of his, but this one is the one that is the hub on what is the wheel of rock.
@@faketheo3432 actually the first musician to ever speed up the blues and actually invent rock n roll was sister Rosetta Tharpe. Closely followed by Little Richard. Robert Johnson kind of invented blues as we know it. Chuck berry actually started out as more of a country musician.
where's the LOVE button?! Mr Johnson was the reason why rock n roll was invented in the first place. REAL blues. I can hear several Led Zeppelin tunes in just this one song. I can hear rock is derived from gospel music too. Check it out....
There is just something about old scratchy blues records that I love. Add on a mysterious back story and you have some of the best blues songs ever created.
I believe he was the first member of the 27 club, (poisoned in 1938.) Leadbelly’s music is from around the same era, (he lived from the late 1800s up until 1949, died from ALS.) Personally, I’m very happy with the blues artists y’all are reacting to. I know it’s arbitrary and maybe a bit staunchly, curmudgeonly of me, but I feel like real blues in born south of the Mason-Dixon line. If ya haven’t already checked out Son House, please do. Also, The Black Keys covers of Junior Kimbrough, (the album is called Chulahoma,) maybe try “Work me.”
Robert recorded this in November 1936 here in San Antonio at the Gunter Hotel. His music was featured in the move Crossroads with Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jamie Gertz. There is an epic guitar battle with Steve Vai. Its a must see
I LOVE that you guys are checking out stuff like this. I'm a metalhead at heart, but I absolutely love this old music. I especially like Prohibition-era jazz, like what they play on the show Boardwalk Empire.
This song was recorded in 1936. Clapton recorded his songs in the same studio on his “Me & Mister Johnson LP. The Blues is the music that gave us the British Invasion in the early ‘60s, starting with the Beatles. ✌️❤️🎶
Johnson first recorded in 1936, long after blues music started (in the 1890s as far as we know). Blind Lemon Jefferson e.g. was having blues hits in 1926.
These guys were playing in road houses and juke joints all though the south. Tough livin'. A lot of them were self taught and they played what they felt and saw. This is the roots of blues and then the roots of rock. Fantastic stuff.
Robert Johnson's only recording session was in San Antonio in 1936. Blues guitar had been recorded all throughout the 20s and early 30s by legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton (huge blues guitar icon), Son House (the other huge blues icon), Leadbelly, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev Gary Davis - all recorded before Robert Johnson. And besides guitarists, blues singers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey preceded all of these, and William Handy who claimed to be the inventor of the blues (dubious claim and his music doesn't really sound like the blues).
"Come On In My Kitchen" "Sweet Home Chicago" "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" "When You Got A Good Friend" "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
This really makes me feel like digging out some old blues tunes, I used to collect old American blues music back in the 80s, I have it all stored on a hard drive somewhere here.
FINALLY!!! The FIRST recorded blues music. Robert is often imitated and never duplicated. Please listen to more OLD timers and then early electric blues. Anything off of Muddy Waters Hard Again album with Johnny Winter. Please and thank you, you rock!!!
I love the old stuff. At this same time Jimmy Rodgers writing country songs like Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) which shows the blue's influence on country music, which was a different style from the Application sound like the Carter family.
I'm so glad that you played Robert Johnson. Easily the most influential musician ever, and definitely one of my favorites. Next up you gotta hear 'Love in Vain'
I have the two disc set of the only recordings of Robert Johnson's music. This is authentic delta blues music. Born of sorrow and pain, carried in the heart of a good man, trying to understand why life has done him so bad. Y'all need to watch one of the many documentaries about Robert Johnson and his influence on modern music. And no, his vocals couldn't be reproduced today, not with all the technologically perfect tripe, marketed as music, being foisted on the world.
Congrats on reacting to something from as far back as the 1930s. Although Johnson was the blues player most mythologised by later rockers, there were others - such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake - who were more influential in their own lifetimes.
Time Travel indeed! Back in Time? For sure! I don't think any of us 90 years later can possibly imagine just how hard it was to be poor, Black, White, Red or Yellow (whatever difference you perceive... bottom line, poor is poor) so yeah this IS a time capsule, an important time capsule. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I LOVE this Music for it's sheer honesty and human spirit of resilience. Robert Johnson tells a story of the indomitable human spirit that is even willing to sell his soul to succeed at what he loves and desires most, and obviously he put in the work and did succeed. His Music will long outlast many times the 70 years to current times, long after we here now are all dead and gone. This is The Real!
Really there’s such a diversity of secular African-American styles of music in Mississippi pre 1930’s. The wealth of musical styles in just one state really shows the variety of influences from west /central Africa Celtic and Mediterranean Europe as manifested in the choice of instruments, singing styles , rhythms and song choices that once existed throughout America before the radio came into widespread use. I mean like did Robert Johnson pick up that modern shuffle rhythm from a fellow musician, or did he hear it on a record or the radio?
Robert Johnson's music was a direct influence on the early '60s British performers, especially Eric Clapton and the Roling Stones.
@Kyle Billie Absolutely, I agree.
And Zeppelin. They even used Robert Johnson lines in their songs as a nod and a wink to him.
@Kyle Billie in lieu of adding, even further, to this comment I’ll just give a thumbs up and say thank you for taking the time and saying that. “The Blues” are and is still, and always will be; forever living, a story and journey that run as deep and far as the human soul. Most people start the journey and think of Robert Johnson as the “king” of blues or “father” of the blues but it goes back so much farther and I’m glad that you took the time to mention that. I hope people see your comment and actually take a second look and listen to “the blues”. That’s dude
Nah especially Jimmy page
Duane and Greg Allman said he was one of their biggest influences.
RJ.....The guitar GOD ! This is where rock came from. The Blues had a baby and they named it Rock N Roll
People used to think it was 2 guitar players. It was just Robert a guitar and microphone.
Robert Johnson only recorded 29 songs and I believe he was the first Musician on the 27 club of Musicians who died at 27. He had a rough life and lost his first wife giving birth. He was the King of the Blues, RIP Robert
Almost everything you've reacted to so far can be traced back to these Robert Johnson recordings. Just about every rock, blues, metal, pop or other modern guitar player owes their career to this man's brief output of brilliantly innovative work. If you haven't figured it out yet, this is effectively the same song as "Crossroads" by Cream, which you just reacted to.
The story goes that Robert supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads in exchange for his newfound guitar skills which, at the time, were revolutionary. The world lost it's collective minds upon hearing him play both live and on these records.
He was also the first known member of 'The 27 Club'
Strangely, you've totally omitted other genre's that have contributed to the melting pot known as rock music; such as European folk, Baroque, and classical music. Progressive rock borrows more from classical and European music.
@@marcillioficino4663 maybe you in the rigth, but without these musicians, music like rock, pop. Heavy metal etc...they wouldn't be the same whitout them.
Robert Johnson preaching blues up jumped the devil
First metal
@@marcillioficino4663 So while I do agree with you that those musical styles contributed to the subsequent genres, I think you miss the point. The blues was the genre which rock was born from. The great rock artists of the 50s-70s got their start in the blues. Black Sabbath, which most will agree if one of the first 'heavy metal' bands, took a lot of influence from the blues. A lot of their early songs are rooted in the blues but with their own twist of heavy distortion. While the styles of music you cited influenced these genres, they did so more after the conception while the blues was there from the beginning.
@@marcillioficino4663 chill out.... all rock music is blues based... All that other stuff you mentioned came later...
Robert Johnson is legendary. He swore the Crossroads was a true story. He died strangely, and young.
someone poisonend him cause he slept with someones wife
@@markprice8558 The devil was involved in that, in some way or other.
Nicolo Paganini had the same legend over 100 years before Robert Johnson....
@@pulsarlights2825 Cool!
It was a common story that several blues guitarists, like Tommy Johnson (no relation), made even earlier than Robert. It's an African myth that was brought over to the new world by slaves. African religions had different spirits, so in a Christian context in America that spirit just became the devil. Lol - ummmm . . . there is no devil by the way. Or fairies or unicorns.
"A pocket of light in a dark world."
My God, Lex... you just described music.
I've said it before, Lex is an old soul
She's very poinient sometimes for someone who barely listens to the words. 🤣😂
@@iamR-cy5jb Shush now
💙💙💙💙💙
Basically this was record in a hotel room with one mic in a corner of the room with Johnson sitting facing the mic playing circa 1936.
I'm from Mississippi, born and raised, lived here all my life. I've been to the legendary Crossroads and I own every recording Robert Johnson ever made. If not for him and others from Mississippi, modern music wouldn't exist as we know it. I like to think Robert would be proud and happy that he still has a huge influence today. ✌️
That special spot in Northwest Miss'ippi.
Where is this legendary crossroads?
@@wildeyedherman3102 Take 6 from Oxford for more than an hour, passing a coffin factory on your right, then crossing under 55. Then you reach... If I tell you more, then the devil will own your soul.
@@neshobanakni Lawdy Mama!
@@neshobanakni Before or after Batesville? Silly me…looked it up. Clarksdale!
And, so it began. The blues was the birth of rock n roll.
My God, don't you two ever sleep ? Not that I'm complaining. Keep 'em rollin'.
I seldom watch TV anymore.
Brad and Lex is my new TV.
Well done again, guys.
Lex nailed it...blues is all about LETTING IT OUT. To quote a line from the movie "Crossroads"..."Blues ain't nothing but a good man feelin' bad."
God bless!!
"Kid, you don't know NOTHIN'! Muddy Waters invented electricity!"
I love that movie. :)
@@bloodstone2k "Look at this old guitar you been squeaking by on, I bet you bought this thing just 'cause you thought it looked beat up! Well, you got it all wrong!"
I went down to the crossroads, and then a few miles south of Clarksdale, I bought a '59 Buick, and took it home to Alabama. I wonder in any Johnsons rode in that old Buick.
Robert Johnson is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Listen to the version of this song that the band Cream did on Wheels of Fire. Almost all English bands of the 60s and 70s, (Cream, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) covered his songs.
The Stones do a great version of Love In Vain on their Let It Bleed album.
keep in mind, this actual recording is almost 100 years old, he was really ahead of his time. i personally liked leadbelly better. but no doubt that johnson was the better guitarist.
I'm gonna cry. Not a soul does reactions to this legend. You 2 have achieved a new status that others have not reached yet.
And the Lex throwing out Chopin's name? ...😄😄😄😄
You are well versed.
One fo the true master of music, the almigthy robert johnson.
Me and my wife have traveled Hwy 61 from Vicksburg Mississippi all the way Memphis TN which is the blues trail a number of times and there's a lot of old what looks like old shotgun houses that were actually juke joints or clubs that the old blues artists like Robert Johnson would play at from the 1930s thru the 50s and 60s and if you are a history buff or music history fan especially the blues is a fascinating trip back through time and is something that me and my wife found absolutely fantastic and spiritually motivating for the soul if you love blues or just historical glimpses of the evolution of life during those times and how the people would go out after work and on weekends to enjoy this great music
Beginning of Rock n Roll. Thank You !!! The real beginning. Straight blues
beginning of Rock n Roll was Chuck Berry, no?
This is the beginning of rock music, love that yall are paying respect to the original Robert Johnson!
Johnson was little-known to the inventors of rock and roll. He gradually became well-known in the '60s-'80s and was little-known in the '30s-'50s.
beginning of rock was Chuck Berry, no?
You finally found one of the sparks that started the fire, great to see
The birth of a genre of music. Str8 merican, str8 black, str8 from the fields. So many good rock songs since elvis have chased these blues. Sooper kewl.
When Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was first introduced to this he asked, 'who is on guitars?' 'Robert Johnson' 'ok but who is playing rhythm guitar?' 'Same guy at the same time'. Keith (and the rest of the Brits at the time) then dove deep into the Blues
This is the story that made me pick up 'The Complete Recordings' compilation that was put out, and I was not disappointed.
I think Keith Richards is the Devil that Robert met on the crossroads....
@@yup486 Back in the early 90s, after I had grown bored with the pop metal scene, I stumbled across a Stevie Ray Vaughn video on PBS one night, for his studio version of Little Wing. That lead me to Hendrix, the Blues, Alternative Rock, etc. This all happened not long after I'd finally made the switch from cassette tapes to CDs, and I went to my local record shop (JB&H Records in Lakewood) to trade in a bunch of my old cassette tapes for the Complete Recordings box set. I've replaced all those old tapes digitally at this point, and still have that box set in my collection today.
In a documentary I saw Clapton tried to play Johnsons songs by himself and couldn’t. He needed a second guitarist. The guys playing is in believable. Almost makes me believe in the devil lol
Still have no idea how the hell he does that. When I first heard that he was the only one playing, I felt a chill down my spine. No joke lol
This is the beginning of rock and roll with blues from your soul... the beginning indeed.
This music is your heritage this man single handily started it all no Robert Johnson noJimi Hendrix no LED Zeppelin no Stevie Ray .This guy was the reason why so many young guys picked up a guitar.Sadly to say he never reaped anything from it and should not forgotten.
back in the day there was a steady stream. of musicians going to Muscle Shoals Alabama going through the crates luv you guys
"Hot damn son I believe you did sell your soul to da dibble!" Legend says he did.
Lots of covers for this....even a movie.
your comments about the vocals sounding "of a certain age" is spot on. Like most musicians at the time and def bluesmen, they often never played while recording or with a microphone, some never at all that are lost to history. A lot of bluesman reaching back this far learned how to play and sing in open fields or inside under oil lamplight so by nature they project and inflect WAYY differently then artists now who almost exclusively record their voices.
The only modern day comparison would be opera singers who are trained to project their voice manually without amplification to large concert halls.
This is the music that birthed rock and roll. Robert and others in this genre are who inspired everyone that played rock and roll from Elvis to Eric Clapton, to Jimi Hendrix, to Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Ray Vaughn, to Nirvana, and everyone in between There are SO many good ones....Muddy Waters, Albert King, Lightning Hopkind, older ones like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Howlin Wolf and sooo many more...ohhh Willie Dixon who wrote TONS of songs that were covered by rock and roll bands.
All the rock and roll musicians were listening to all this old blues music. It's all so raw and unproduced. They werent making much money, they just had emotion they had to pour out and they are still inspiring and shaping music today. You guys should listen to a lot of that old music and take it back to its roots!!
Recorded on a tape recorder in a hotel room in San Antonio Tx. circa 1935. The best guitarists can't replicate the guitar. It sounds like two people but the engineer swears there was no one else in the room.
Kinda eerie. All this sound is from one person. I guess he really made that deal
YAYYYYYYYYY!!!! The King of the Delta Blues Singers!
An OG axe--man...and, a HUGE influence on guitar playing...music really...Blues, Rock, Metal, and everything that came after his time was done. Dirt floor, Juke-Joint nastiness. THE man who made the deal with the devil down at the crossroads...
Check out the 80's movie with Ralph Macchio (Karate Kid) called Crossroads about a guitar kid and relation to Robert Johnson's Crossroads
Awesome movie, and Steve Vai plays as the Devil's Advocate.
The Stevie Ray Vaughn/Ralph Machio guitar duel, is worth watching alone. That movie is a gold.
Ry Cooder. I have the soundtrack. Great movie.
@@Jonathan_Taylor Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio, not Stevie Ray Vaughn, bro.
“Hey scratch”
“Willie Brown, been along time”
This was recorded in 1936 when he was 25 years old. He died 2 years later at 27. So yeah, this song is 86 years old, sung by a very young man who died soon after it was recorded.
They didn't do concerts the way we know them. Robert Johnson was considered an Itinerant musician. He walked and traveled the Mississippi delta region going from town to town. Playing Roadhouses, juke joints. Playing the popular songs of the day. He made two trips to Texas to record his original songs. They didn't have recording studios like today. They set up recording equipment in hotel rooms and had varying musicians come and record. Robert Johnson recorded a total of 29 original songs before he died. It was these recordings, rediscovered in the 1950's and 60's, that influenced an entire generation of musicians during the early days of Rock n' Roll. Icons like Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, and countless others.
What you're hearing is the root, the seed, the foundation of modern rock music as we know it, all forged by a lonesome Black blues musician who was graced with otherwordly talent & virtuosity, but at the cost of his own life. Robert Johnson also began the ancient mythical concept knows as the "27 Club" which includes a plethora of talented artists who died too soon throughout history
That is REAL blues now!!!!
How one man with one guitar can make it sound like there's two guys playing a guitar each in perfect harmony. Legendary.
We are so lucky that some of these old, original blues players were recorded and preserved. He traveled the South playing in juke joints. Many British and American blues players in the sixties and seventies were influenced by Johnson and other players from that era. One of my favorites of his is “Sweet Home Chicago”.
Check out Larkin Poe's covers of Sweet Home Chicago, and C'mon, Into My Kitchen.
I’m a 40 year old man from New York State. I’ve loved Robert Johnson’s music since I was in High School. Then I heard his recordings at the correct speed and it was like listening to the first time all over again.
This is the Big Bang event that launched basically all Blues , R&B and Rock that we all love today .
If you get the chance , watch the movie Crossroads with Ralph Macchio , it tells the story (myth) of Robert Johnson .
Robert is the reason we have all genres of music we have today. Every genre can be traced back to this man.
Love these classic blues songs....so much emotion and heart into every word...every chord .... This is the beginning of Great music!!
Probably the single most influential blues man ever. His work has been cited as the primary musical inspiration for artists such as Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant. And that doesn't take into account the other blues artists that were influenced by this single recording of 29 songs who in turn influenced many other greats.
This song adds to the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads to be able to play and sing. Many say it was that action that led to his death at such a young age (the first member of the 27 club).
This is it. Robert Johnson is the father of everything. Every style of music you've heard since is directly tied to him. It doesn't matter. Blues, rock, country, hip hop, it all starts with Robert Johnson.
He was recorded by the Lomax bros. One of the 1st blues players ever to be recorded
Around Same time as Leadbelly's 1st recoerding.
Wasn't it Don Law who recorded him.
That legendary man is directly responsible for every song you know.
Grandfather of it all 🎶
As close to square one of the roots of all popular music that I care about, his influence is incalculable! Ancient yes, but forever listened to and for good reason. The Blues, the parents of Rock.
Shout-out to the 27 club and it's founding member Robert Johnson.
As others have said - he was one of the most influential artists of all time ! Cream, Rolling Stones, Led Zep all listened to him ! one of the original members of the 27 Club ! Janis Joplin, Curt Cobain Amy Winehouse ! There's a hell hound on my tail also vert\y good !
THE blues. A legend. Think of the context of the US at that time...1929-38 the years Robert Johnson was musically active.
This is what I was telling you about. One of the earliest examples of Rock & Roll right here kids!
Recorded in San Antonio, 11-27-1936. His only other recordings are from 1937 in Deep Ellum, Dallas.
welcome to the birth of everything. Including the whole selling your soul at the crossroads concept you see in movies. check out his story.
Amazing music from our past wow can this man sing and play !!!
In order to fully appreciate Robert Johnson, you have to remember -- as you have -- that this recording took place in the 1930's. His entire catalogue of 29 songs was recorded in two sessions over two years. A young man in his late twenties, displaying masterful and innovative guitarwork, and a haunting, complex vocal style. It's not immediately obvious that only one guitar -- Robert's -- is being played, due to his creative use of claw-picking and bottle slide technique. His use of the guitar to provide another accompanying voice to his own was a direct influence on rock and roll. Robert Johnson was a brilliant flash of musical genius, sadly cut short by his very early death.
I watched a documentary on Netflix about him. Wild story for sure!!
If rock and roll had a grandfather... this is it.
His song, Hot Tamales 🫔 was covered by the Res Hot Chili Peppers.
Please please please read a book or watch a documentary about Robert Johnson. His story is fascinating blues folklore. How much of it is true doesn't matter. It's utterly fabulous and gives me the chills just thinking about it.
Hearing this recording again, his guitar playing, even on an acoustic, is way more advanced than a lot of rock playing decades later. There's character and humour in it. It's got personality like Jeff Beck's playing circa 1977.
There's an interesting documentary interviewing other blues musicians who knew Robert Johnson when he was alive and really believed his story about selling his soul at the crossroads. Apparently he was nothing special, and even got laughed at sometimes, and then suddenly one day he was changing the course of music history..
Unfortunately, they gloss over the time frame..... he went on stage and basically was told you suck, go away...... and he did.... for about a year. When he came back he could play......so it wasn't like he sucked on Friday and came back next Friday with skills
@Dominatus Hydra What happened was he cracked a code or two on guitar playing and probably learned some tricks and techniques from other players. He was away for a year.
@Dominatus Hydra You were a witness?
He lived with bluesman Ike Zimmerman in another town in Mississippi for over a year and learned to play from him. Legends die hard.
There were blues men around before Johnson, like Son House and Charlie Patton (both much older than Johnson). According to at least one historian, Son House taught Johnson guitar. So he was in good company. And he didn't suddenly get more skills, he disappeared for a while and came back with some new techniques. Just like anyone else. And he wasn't the first blueman that claimed the crossroads myth. Tommy Johnson (no relation) also claimed to meet the Yoruba (Nigerian tribe) spirit, Eshu Legbaat, at the crossroads. He learned the African myth from his grandmother, and Americans replaced the trickster spirit with the devil since that fit with American Christianity. It isn't even known if Robert Johnson ever actually made this claim, he just sang about the crossroads story that he copied from Tommy Johnson and other earlier artists.
One of the pioneers, there would be no modern blues or rock and roll without Robert Johnson, died extremely young
He influenced so many modern guitar players. The great British players in particular.
The Grandfather of Rock
“The Last Fair Deal Gone Down” is my favorite tune of his, but this one is the one that is the hub on what is the wheel of rock.
That was hauntingly beautiful...
The birth of rock n roll! This is the legend that pretty much started it! It came from the blues!!!
I thought Chuck Berry invented Rock n Roll...
@@faketheo3432 actually the first musician to ever speed up the blues and actually invent rock n roll was sister Rosetta Tharpe. Closely followed by Little Richard. Robert Johnson kind of invented blues as we know it. Chuck berry actually started out as more of a country musician.
@@themojoslide Thanks for the correction 👍
to me, Robert Johnson and Mississippi Fred McDowell are the pinnacle of the Blues.
where's the LOVE button?! Mr Johnson was the reason why rock n roll was invented in the first place. REAL blues. I can hear several Led Zeppelin tunes in just this one song. I can hear rock is derived from gospel music too. Check it out....
Love that you've delved into Robert Johnson!
Three words: Sweet Home Chicago
There is just something about old scratchy blues records that I love. Add on a mysterious back story and you have some of the best blues songs ever created.
I believe he was the first member of the 27 club, (poisoned in 1938.)
Leadbelly’s music is from around the same era, (he lived from the late 1800s up until 1949, died from ALS.)
Personally, I’m very happy with the blues artists y’all are reacting to. I know it’s arbitrary and maybe a bit staunchly, curmudgeonly of me, but I feel like real blues in born south of the Mason-Dixon line.
If ya haven’t already checked out Son House, please do. Also, The Black Keys covers of Junior Kimbrough, (the album is called Chulahoma,) maybe try “Work me.”
Robert recorded this in November 1936 here in San Antonio at the Gunter Hotel. His music was featured in the move Crossroads with Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jamie Gertz. There is an epic guitar battle with Steve Vai. Its a must see
Robert Johnson is just the best. He is the biggest influence on all bluesman who came after him,
Eric Clapton has covered every single one of Robert Johnson's songs in his recording career.
His recordings are an absolute and utter treasure... An uber-legend! ✌😄
I LOVE that you guys are checking out stuff like this. I'm a metalhead at heart, but I absolutely love this old music. I especially like Prohibition-era jazz, like what they play on the show Boardwalk Empire.
This song was recorded in 1936. Clapton recorded his songs in the same studio on his “Me & Mister Johnson LP. The Blues is the music that gave us the British Invasion in the early ‘60s, starting with the Beatles. ✌️❤️🎶
Yeah , this is getting back when the blues was starting . This influenced a whole bunch of different bands , from Aerosmith to ZZ TOP !!!
Johnson first recorded in 1936, long after blues music started (in the 1890s as far as we know). Blind Lemon Jefferson e.g. was having blues hits in 1926.
Talk about going way back to the roots of blues!
My favorite song by him is probably "They're Red Hot". He made a lot of funny songs
Love it!
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers did a cover version
Robert Johnson had the Best Rythmn in His Era. The Master of Delta Blues 🎸🎤🎼
And in the beginning... God said let there be BLUE'S🙏 One of many Gen're to come from these amazing artists in one America's hardest times
These guys were playing in road houses and juke joints all though the south. Tough livin'. A lot of them were self taught and they played what they felt and saw. This is the roots of blues and then the roots of rock. Fantastic stuff.
The earliest recordings of real blues. This one Eric Clapton reinvented into Crossroads which was recorded live.
Robert Johnson's only recording session was in San Antonio in 1936. Blues guitar had been recorded all throughout the 20s and early 30s by legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton (huge blues guitar icon), Son House (the other huge blues icon), Leadbelly, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev Gary Davis - all recorded before Robert Johnson. And besides guitarists, blues singers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey preceded all of these, and William Handy who claimed to be the inventor of the blues (dubious claim and his music doesn't really sound like the blues).
"Come On In My Kitchen"
"Sweet Home Chicago"
"Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
"I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"
"When You Got A Good Friend"
"Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
This really makes me feel like digging out some old blues tunes, I used to collect old American blues music back in the 80s, I have it all stored on a hard drive somewhere here.
FINALLY!!! The FIRST recorded blues music. Robert is often imitated and never duplicated. Please listen to more OLD timers and then early electric blues. Anything off of Muddy Waters Hard Again album with Johnny Winter. Please and thank you, you rock!!!
Robert Johnson isn't the first bluesman recorded
@@JulioLeonFandinho 👍🏻not even close
I love the old stuff. At this same time Jimmy Rodgers writing country songs like Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) which shows the blue's influence on country music, which was a different style from the Application sound like the Carter family.
I'm so glad that you played Robert Johnson. Easily the most influential musician ever, and definitely one of my favorites. Next up you gotta hear 'Love in Vain'
Robert Johnson! Doing a deep dive. The delta blues is where it all started. You guys are for real. Thank you for bring Mr.Johnson today.
Robert Johnson was the founding member of the "27 Club"
“This can’t be replicated - You have to live a certain way to sound like this.” 🤘🏻
I have the two disc set of the only recordings of Robert Johnson's music. This is authentic delta blues music. Born of sorrow and pain, carried in the heart of a good man, trying to understand why life has done him so bad. Y'all need to watch one of the many documentaries about Robert Johnson and his influence on modern music. And no, his vocals couldn't be reproduced today, not with all the technologically perfect tripe, marketed as music, being foisted on the world.
Congrats on reacting to something from as far back as the 1930s. Although Johnson was the blues player most mythologised by later rockers, there were others - such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake - who were more influential in their own lifetimes.
Not to mention Son House. He could be the trigger for the sudden increase in Roberts skills.
Charley Patton's music is sublime.
@@Lige I am partial to Lightning Hopkins.
Time Travel indeed! Back in Time? For sure! I don't think any of us 90 years later can possibly imagine just how hard it was to be poor, Black, White, Red or Yellow (whatever difference you perceive... bottom line, poor is poor) so yeah this IS a time capsule, an important time capsule. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I LOVE this Music for it's sheer honesty and human spirit of resilience. Robert Johnson tells a story of the indomitable human spirit that is even willing to sell his soul to succeed at what he loves and desires most, and obviously he put in the work and did succeed. His Music will long outlast many times the 70 years to current times, long after we here now are all dead and gone. This is The Real!
The syncopation of the vocals and guitar is amazing.
Robert Johnson is at the base of the rock and roll family tree
Really there’s such a diversity of secular African-American styles of music in Mississippi pre 1930’s. The wealth of musical styles in just one state really shows the variety of influences from west /central Africa Celtic and Mediterranean Europe as manifested in the choice of instruments, singing styles , rhythms and song choices that once existed throughout America before the radio came into widespread use. I mean like did Robert Johnson pick up that modern shuffle rhythm from a fellow musician, or did he hear it on a record or the radio?