Complete Recorded 1 [Import]

Big Joe Williams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 2, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1935
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Document
• ASIN: B000000JI3
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #124,153 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrific collection for the serious blues fan, March 27, 2006

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Recorded 1 (Audio CD)

Equipped with the unwieldy handle of "Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order volume 1 (1935 - 1941) - Break 'Em On Down", this is the best collection of Big Joe Williams' early recordings.
Joe Williams' vocals are stronger and more focused than on his 60s "rediscovery" waxings, and while the original 1935 recordings of Williams' all-time classic songs "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Highway 49" are certainly interesting, the 1941 re-recordings, which feature John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson on harmonica, are simply the definitive recordings of those two songs by ANY artist.
John Lee Williamson plays harmonica on a total of ten songs, including a magnificent performance on the mid-tempo shuffle "North Wind Blues".

Big Joe delivers a potent rendition of "Crawlin' King Snake", and covers like "Break 'Em On Down" (a version of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down") and "Someday" (originally by Sleepy John Estes) are equally powerful.
The sound is notably better on the 1941 recordings than on the prewar sides, but the '30s waxings aren't terrible by any means, and you get a chance to hear Big Joe Williams playing with his mid-30s two-man backing band, washboard player Chasey Collins and fiddler "Dad" Tracy.
Sonny Boy Williamson (I) shows up on both the 1937 sides and the December, 1941 sides, and on the 1937 recordings a certain Robert Lee McCoy shows up as well, playing second guitar. Robert Nighthawk had yet to go electric (as had almost everybody at the time), but he and Williamson flesh out the sound wonderfully on terrific, muscular blues tunes like "I Know You're Gonna Miss Me" and "I Won't Be In Hard Luck No More".

If you've only heard Big Joe's rediscovery recordings, you may be surprised at how sophisticated and melodic many of these songs are, and what a great instrumentalist Joe Williams actually was. 1941-recordings like "I'm Getting Wild About Her", "Throw A Boogie-Woogie" and "Meet Me Around The Corner" are not among his best-known songs, but they're certainly among his best. Check out "Meet Me Around The Corner", and you'll hear where Howlin' Wolf got the idea for "Meet Me Down In The Bottom".

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shut up suckers, March 14, 2005

By 

Heath Edan Combs "heath" (north carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Recorded 1 (Audio CD)

I don't know that reading these other reviews is going to tell you that much. But, if you're a big joe fan, this is a must buy, but you may want to get some of his 60s stuff first. Jumping into this album head first without really knowing who Big Joe is will really confuse the average country blues fan. I'd recommend "Piney Woods Blues" which really is great, or if you're a little braver, the first one I got was "These are my blues" which absolutely blew the back end out of my brain on first play. (Most of the album at least)

While Big Joe covered a bunch of Robert Johnson tunes on his album "Classic Delta Blues," --(He plays six string on that album, and suprisingly is just as good, if not better on the six than the nine string)-- this (1935-41) group of recordings is in no way mimicry of Johnson's playing. First off, Big Joe personally knew Charley Patton, Leadbelly and Jimmy Rodgers, among others, he personally mentored Johnny Shines (also mentored by johnson) and Honeyboy Edwards, and muddy waters to some extent, among many others and he either knew or played with the vast majority of recorded and unrecorded blues men of the delta and much of the south. Not to mention that he recorded one live album in the 60s with Lightnin Hopkins, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. So while everybody's heard of robert johnson because eric clapton and all these brits drop his name like he's the second coming, just about every important old black blues musician who's never heard of Led Zeppelin is likely to know of big joe and his reputation. So, dumb white people, stop acting like RJ is the measuring stick and the watermark for what the blues is. He's not. Go buy a Charley Patton or Tommy Johnson album, or even this album if you want to get a real idea of what the blues is and where it came from.

These recording represents most of the songs big joe built his career as a rambling musician around. After the first eight or so, big joe has finally come up with the nine string and is featured with Sonny Boy Williamson (1), and Robert Nighthawk. The pieces on here like "Please don't Go," "Break em' on Down" and "Peach orchard mama" are great. Also "Crawlin King Snake" which Big Joe (not john lee hooker) wrote (well, who knows who really wrote it, at least big joe first claimed it as his own in print), is recorded here for the first time ever. Big Joe is definetly the most violent and perverted blues musician I've heard, but you gotta let yourself hear it. There's an incredible amount of sexuality that comes across on these recordings, if not from the nine string, than from the learned moan of Sonny Boy's revolutionary harmonica voice. Big Joe, to me at least, is kind of the missing link between Chicago Blues and Delta Blues, which is first evidenced by these recordings and is better evidenced by the second in this series of Document Recordings.

So yes, buy this album. It's worth it. But only buy it used. As usual, a new document recording costs way too much.

Heath E. Combs

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! How'd he do that?, March 1, 2005

By 

"Ian Herrick" "PapaIan" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Recorded 1 (Audio CD)

From the first notes of "Little Leg Woman" this album had me hooked! I have several other albums by Po' Joe or featuring him -- all wonderful -- but there is something about these early recordings that totally stuns me. Some of the guitar work has me scratching my head wondering how he achieved that -- and I know how he tuned his guitar and can play many of the rhythms he did! Guitarwork isn't the only reason to listen to this; Joe's vocals are wonderful, his lyrics fresh and interesting even now. Then there is the interplay between the other musicians -- Henry Townsend's guitar blends seemlessly with Joe's on one track, and listening to the version of "Baby Please Don't Go" with Sonny Boy Williamson on it has me wondering if Joe and John Lee shared some sort of telepathic bond.