Customer Reviews

Searching for Robert Johnson

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The 96 pages of this book are pack full of information about legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Virtually everything that is known about Mr. Johnson is vividly detailed in this work. Makes for excellent reading.

Excellent book. Interesting prospective not only of Robert Johnson, but of his contemporaries.

It has been a while since I have read this book. From what I remember, I was disappointed in the book in some ways but loved it in others. It wasn't the read I expected it to be. I was hoping for more info on Robert Johnson but there wasn't. I did however like how the book was written and I liked the info that the book did have. I suppose there isn't very much info on Robert Johnson anyway, but I have heard more on TV shows and magazine articles than what was written in this book. Absolutely worth the read though for Robert Johnson fans.

Robert Johnson may be better known for the mysteries surrounding his short life than for the music he recorded. Even people who are not blues music enthusiasts have at least a passing familiarity with his legend. As good as his recordings are, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the reverence in which they are held by the faithful. In this slender volume, esteemed music historian Peter Guralnick sheds some light on the real Robert Johnson, both his life and his music. Like a volume in the Penguin Lives series, Guralnick blends a `just the facts' approach with enough commentary to make the book both quick and thorough. He spends just the right amount of time familiarizing the reader with Johnson predecessors and contemporaries like Charlie Patton and Son House, and provides some critical analysis of Johnson's recordings. This is a perfect book if the reader is seeking more information on Johnson, and an excellent introduction to the mythic creators of the Delta blues.

At less than 100 pages I do not think I learned more about Robert Johnson than I did after eading the notes for his Boxed Set. If Sam Cooke deserved over 700 pages, from Guralnek, in his short life, Robert Johnson deserved more than a 100 .

It is to bad that someone so capable of telling a good tale could take a dive with such vivid subject matter at his disposal. It is extremely over priced for such a dismal read. Anyone who has purchased the Box set has read pretty much the same info given in this minute pamplet of wash. We need a vision of this man not a paint by numbers acount of times,places and song verses. Then again If you do not know the tale of johnson then this is the book for you. let me also highly recomend Robert palmers book Deep Blues. Also the finest attempt to give an acurate portrayal of such a god is the book LOVE in VAIN by Alan Greenberg...