Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vintage Guitar magazine review:, February 9, 1999
By A Customer
Here is an amazing album with an amazing history. It begins as a tale of two musicians in the best of times and the worst of times. The story starts with Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, a fabled musician who lived a haunted life. According to the most romantic of myths, he sold his soul at a country crossroads at midnight in order to play guitar and sing the blues. He died young at the hands of a jealous husband who poisoned Johnson's whiskey, leaving behind but a handful of songs. The legend of Robert Johnson has grown stronger---and certainly more fanciful---with time, but there's no denying the astounding music that he made, music that has influenced everyone from Muddy Waters to Eric Clapton. And Peter Green. Green grew up in England as Peter Greenbaum, a good Jewish boy who dreamed of playing the blues. He may not have sold his soul, but he was obsessed with music and practiced until he could play like the devil. The young guitar prodigy made his name in the early, blues incarnation of Fleetwood Mac before moving on to replace Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Green's command of the blues won him renown equal in the minds of some fans to Mike Bloomfield and Duane Allman. Peter Green could bend the right note at the right time. But Green's pursuit of guitar star fame came to a troublesome end in the early 1970s. One story states that he was spiked with bad LSD---a story uncannily akin to Johnson's---and went off the deep end; other tales blame mental imbalance or stress for his downfall. Either way, Green left the music world and became a recluse; some accounts liken him to a character out of a Charles Dickens novel, an unkempt wanderer with scarily long fingernails. But it's here that the stories of Robert Johnson and Peter Green diverge. Green was staying with his friend Nigel Watson in the summer of 1995, when Watson began playing a Robert Johnson song on his old guitar. The song struck Green like lightning---or enlightenment. Watson's wife trimmed Green's fingernails for him, and he picked up the guitar again. The result is this new CD. Beyond the story of Peter Green's music redemption through the music of Robert Johnson, one of the things that makes this CD so good is that Green doesn't try to ape the originals. Instead, he plays the songs his way. Sure, there's Johnson telltale slide licks and copped vocal inflections at times, but in the end, this is a Peter Green record. The album includes covers of many Johnson greats, featuring Green and Watson on slide and fretted guitar. Most of the songs are acoustic with electric guitar added to some; bass, piano, drums, and backing vocals enhance several cuts. In the end, this CD not only has a history but will certainly become a historic album.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delta Blues, London Style, April 15, 2004
I bought this CD back when it was issued but hadn't listened to it much until recently when Peter Green's fellow British guitar wizard Eric Clapton issued his own tribute to Robert Johnson called Me and Mr. Johnson. Although the two CDs are very different in both approach and sound, I like them both. The one I would pick as the "best" would depend on my mood on any given day. But if its "authenticity" you seek, then Green's Robert Johnson Songbook comes closest to the Delta Blues sound.Since I have not actually heard most of Johnson's own work, I won't inject myself into the "what would Johnson do?" speculations. I have a feeling that he would be pleased and amused that so many white boys see him as a blues god and want to cover his music. However, I have heard all these songs before covered by a variety of artists from across the rock and blues spectrum, so I can comment on their relative merits.
There is a lot to like here. Green and his sidekick Nigel Watson put their hearts into this recording and serve up some very tasty Delta Blues, London style. I like the whole CD, but my favorite renditions here are of Phonograph Blues, a gospel-flavored Last Fair Deal Gone Down, a slow, Stones-like Love in Vain Blues, the mournful Stones In My Passway, the macho I Believe I'll Dust My Broom, and the swinging Sweet Home Chicago.
The CD comes with an informative booklet that compares and contrasts the lives of Robert Johnson and Peter Green. It also offers some intimate observations on how the idea for this tribute was born. If you like the blues in general and aren't a stickler for note-for-note authenticity, then I recommend The Robert Johnson Songbook highly. And for the record, some reviewers mentioned erroneously that Peter Green had been away from recording since his Fleetwood Mac days. Not so. He made a number of albums, some of them quite good, during the late 70s and the 80s. If you were unaware of that, its because none of his albums were given proper promotion.
Some of that period's music is available here on this site, mostly in compilation form.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice, Surprising Effort by Green, October 14, 2001
To be quite honest, I originally bought this album b/c my curiousity got the best of me. As a fan of Peter Green in his Mayall & Mac days, & being quite aware of his situation, I knew I wasn't going to be getting this disc to hear that tone out of his Les Paul that KNOCKED me out. And I was right. But I also enjoyed this album considerably. No tone, no Les Paul, but this is a great disc if you really enjoy the acoustic blues like I do. It might be me, but this is some of the CLOSEST covers of Robert Johnson one will likely hear...anywhere. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was blown away by the actual "feel" they achieved to the original recordings of Po' Robert in the 30's, which is a challenge in its own right. I really don't know what Green played on these sessions, & from what I hear, he enjoys playing the harp & some guitar while Nigel Watson handled much of the soloing. But again, that isn't a bad thing. His voice has aged exceptionally well through the years (especially for the material they played).... & it was just great to hear that Peter Green was back playing & making music again. But make no mistake: the music is excellent on this album. Very ironic that Peter Green makes his way back, playing Robert Johnson songs...
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