Customer Reviews

Complete Recordings of Blind Willie Johnson

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Simply put, Blind Willie Johnson was one of the best musicians of all time.

Although he's considered to be a blues musician, I myself hesitate to call him that. I tend to think of him as the most intense gospel musician ever. He has the total package... great voice, superb guitar playing (oh that slide work!), and for the most part, a great repertoire.

If there's anything that you may either love or hate, it's his voice. He at times posessed a snarling growl (best in "blues" history for my money) that would make you think this is music about Satan, not about God. I hate to scare people off by saying that about his voice though. He is one of my very favorite singers. I have never liked Howlin' Wolf's voice but Wolf was obviously extremely influenced by Willie Johnson. I'll put it this way... if you like Howlin' Wolf's voice (or if you don't but you're familiar with it) and if you like Don Van Vliet's (Captain Beefheart's) voice, you'll like Blind Willie Johnson's voice because his is the most intense and emotive of all of them... with Captain Beefheart's voice being a close second.

One bit of advice... there is a single-disc package called "Dark Was The Night" (I think that is the name). I don't have it but I know it's out there. On this complete set that I am reviewing there is indeed a lull in the "greatness factor". In 1929 Willie did some songs with an unknown female vocalist and quite honestly, that stuff pales in comparison to everything else contained in this set. I never checked out the Dark Was The Night single-disc set, but I am guessing that it's the 1929 "unknown vocalist" stuff that was left out to make that a one-disc package. If that is indeed the case then that cd wouldn't be a bad one to get rather than getting this 2-disc complete recordings. If you're reading this and you're curious, feel free to e-mail me and I'll go look at that disc, or I'll tell you the names of all the absolutely essential Willie Johnson performances and if one or more of those isn't on that one-disc package I would tell you to purchase this complete package instead.

If there's one thing I can say for sure, it's that Eric Clapton did the music world a huge disservice by constantly touting Robert Johnson as the greatest blues musician ever. Not that Robert wasn't great, but way too many people mistakenly think that pre-war blues began and ended with Robert, and thus, brilliant musicians of that general era such as Blind Willie Johnson are all too often forgotten, overlooked, or just unknown. That's quite a shame, because Willie's best stuff is easily the equal (or better) of Robert's best stuff. Completely different styles, but Willie was an emotional powerhouse, the likes of which the world will never be graced with again.

Maybe you're interested in Blind Willie Johnson because a number of his songs ("Nobody's Fault ut Mine", "Motherless Children", "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond") have been recorded by varius rock stars annd blues artists.

Maybe you read how Ry Cooder believes that "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" is the most soulful piece of music ever comitted to wax and are curious to hear it for yourself.

Maybe you're aware that Johnson is considered among the finest slide guitar players of all time.

Whatever it is that got you here, the point is this: You're about to discover just about the purest music ever. Wonderful, awesome stuff. Please get it and take the time to appreciate this rare beauty.

Try listening to this on a rainy night with the lights out, maybe a few candles burning, and be transported to a place beyond space and time. To paraphrase Sam Philips when he first heard Howlin' Wolf, "THIS IS WHERE THE SOUL OF MAN NEVER DIES."

When people blithely gas of bad rock stars "taking risks" with their latest CD filler they don't know the pre-Depression record biz, which sent producers out in the field to capture the latest in country and "race" music. Thanks to this enlightened practice we have the thirty imperishable tracks of Blind Willie Johnson, of whom we know little otherwise, except that he only lived to his forties, and died after a fire. (The cover photo from a Columbia ad is the only one we have of him.) And what music it is -- raw, searing, with an uncompromising vision, sung with a voice that pebbles gravel against the haunting riffs of his slide guitar. I do not know why the twenties blues has such peculiar power -- possibly because so much of it was sung by people who came from nowhere, tragically to go back to nowhere, or maybe it's the sound quality that seems almost sui generis to this music, that muffled sound that lends a certain eloquence and distance not readily explainable. Whatever the case, Blind Willie's isn't everyday music, or music to rest by, but it is music to open your heart, and to make you think.

The astonishing double negative of "God Don't Never Change," with its existential contradiction, sums up why this collection should be in the home of every gospel music lover in the world. Johnson's songs encompass the entire spectrum of spiritual experience from despair to hope to acceptance to mystical transcendence. & he leaves no doubt that he's been through all of it. Inspired by God's love, these songs, the singing, the guitar playing, are absolutely revelatory. Of course, Blind Willie Johnson is listened to mostly in the spirit of dispassionate appreciation by blues afficionados. Believers will have that plus the added pleasure of knowing what's really going on here. "Everybody Ought To Treat a Stranger Right" takes sound Gospel advice & makes it a request for spare change. "John the Revelator" kicks like rock & roll. "God moves on the water," indeed!

The gospel blues singer/guitarist Willie Johnson was as influential as Robert Johnson and this album contains his complete recorded output. Every song on this CD is fantastic but two stand out. "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine" is the greatest piece of slide guitar playing ever recorded by anyone and "Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground" is one of the greatest achievments in the history of any form of American music.

Buy this right now.

I've been a Blind Willie Johnson fan for a while, but I was surprised one evening while watching an episode of West Wing. The character Josh muses about how there was a poor boy of the South, blinded when he was very young by his mother who was mad at his father's infidelity, or something of that sort, and who never had a nickle and died an unknown. But today his music is one of the very few selections sent out of the solar system on Voyager. Anyhow, I checked, and sure enough.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html


Thanks everyone who made that happen. Willie deserves it.

The gospel music of Blind Willie Johnson is heartfelt, intense, at times deeply sad, moving and joyful. Some of the songs are almost impossible not to sing along with - but you don't want to because his amazing voice and slidework demand your attention.

You'll find Mr. Johnson's work in the music of other artists - Ry Cooder uses a similar lick in the Paris, Texas soundtrack as you hear on Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground. The Blasters did a version of If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down but I prefer Mr. Johnson's version. I'm sure there are other examples but I can't think of them at the moment. An amazing tribute to a man who recorded only 30 songs and died in obscurity. The music is particularly poignant in light of the few details we have of Mr. Johnson's life.

For any collector of gospel and blues music this is a must-have album and the $14.99 for a two CD set is a steal, literally.

Records like this leave blues fans like myself wondering why guitar players like Robert Johnson get all the attention from the rock and roll community. Willie Johnson's slide playing is not just a display of technical aptitude, it is a vessel for his explosive, heart-felt testaments to the human condition. His struggle with Christian spirituality is mirrored by the tension between his melody and blues, and by his deep howling voice often accompanied by a wavering backround female vocal. You won't hear much that stays in the typical 12-bar format, which will come as a relief to those who wish to hear a recording that represents the larger context of blues guitar as it actually was at the time. Blind Willie Johnson reminds us here how interesting and diverse the blues can actually be. The hard driving single string rhythmic runs of "When The War Was On" surpasses what any rock and roll band has been able to accomplish to date. "Praise God I'm Satisfied" will send chills down the spines of even the most cynical--it is no wonder this song inspired John Fahey to commit his life to playing and studying the blues. And "Everybody Ought To Treat A Stranger Right", with its syncopated chorus, will make you want to jump out of your chair, dance, and reach towards the light.

I just recently got this, and I am very sorry that I didn't sooner. If you're debating whether or not to get this CD, you probably already know a good deal about the blues. So...Blind Willie Johnson sings like Charlie Patton sometimes, and other times really softly, as in his unique "Dark was the Night..." His slide playing is great, and the female vocalist sounds great and adds intensity to his growling. He is completly different stylistically from Skip James, but you will probably like him if you like (early) James because I'd say that he is equally intense.

These are the complete recordings of an obscure but increditble artist. The restored tracks are mostly devoid of audible pops or scratches. Little is known about Johnson, but his style was unique and unforgettable. His version of "You'll Need Somebody On Your Bond" is haunting.