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The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
 
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The Complete Blind Willie Johnson

Blind Willie Johnson
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews) | More about this product
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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


Disc 1:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole 3:04$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed 3:14$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. It's Nobody's Fault But Mine 3:11$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. Mother's Children Have A Hard Time 3:23$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground 3:22$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. If I Had My Way I'd Tear The Building Down 3:10$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. I'm Gonna Run To The City Of Refuge 3:24$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. Jesus Is Coming Soon 3:13$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Lord I Can't Just Keep From Crying 3:03$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning 3:05$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Let Your Light Shine On Me 3:10$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. God Don't Never Change 2:58$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. Bye And Bye I'm Goin' To See The King 2:54$0.99 Buy Track
listen14. Sweeter As The Years Roll By 2:48$0.99 Buy Track


Disc 2:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. You'll Need Somebody On Your Bond 3:07$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. When The War Was On 3:04$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. Praise God I'm Satisfied 3:13$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. Take Your Burden To The Lord And Leave It There 2:57$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. Take Your Stand 3:02$0.69 Buy Track
listen  6. God Moves On The Water 3:01$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. Can't Nobody Hide From God 3:23$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. If It Had Not Been For Jesus 3:24$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Go To Me With That Land 3:06$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. The Rain Don't Fall On Me 3:20$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Trouble Will Soon Be Over 3:09$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. The Soul Of A Man 3:15$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. Everybody Ought To Treat A Stranger Right 3:07$0.99 Buy Track
listen14. Church, I'm Fully Saved Today 3:09$0.99 Buy Track
listen15. John The Revelator 3:18$0.99 Buy Track
listen16. You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond 3:11$0.99 Buy Track

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Biography

Seminal gospel-blues artist Blind Willie Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest bottleneck slide guitarists. Yet the Texas street-corner evangelist is known as much for the his powerful and fervent gruff voice as he is for his ability as a guitarist. He most often sang in a rough, bass voice (only occasionally delivering in his natural tenor) with a volume meant to be heard over the sounds of… Read more in Amazon's Blind Willie Johnson Store

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Frequently Bought Together

The Complete Blind Willie Johnson + The Complete Library of Congress Sessions, 1941-1942 + Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
Price For All Three: $36.97

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  • This item: The Complete Blind Willie Johnson ~ Blind Willie Johnson

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  • The Complete Library of Congress Sessions, 1941-1942 ~ Son House

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  • Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings ~ Mississippi John Hurt

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (April 27, 1993)
  • Original Release Date: April 20, 1993
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Label: Sony
  • ASIN: B0000028QB
  • Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,163 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #27 in  Music > Blues > Regional Blues > Texas Blues
    #28 in  Music > Blues > Slide Guitar
    #35 in  Music > Blues > Acoustic Blues

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the history of recorded blues and spirituals, there is no greater singer and songwriter than Blind Willie Johnson. With a vocal delivery ranging from raw rage to tenderness wedded to his talking guitar, Blind Willie's recordings are as powerful today as when he made them, from 1927 to 1930. Listen to monuments "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time," "I Just Can't Keep from Crying," "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine," and the otherworldly "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," and try to find equally visceral conviction any other place or time. His "If I Had My Way I'd Tear The Building Down" which got him arrested when Blind Willie unknowingly sang it in front of a U.S. government building in Dallas, became a '60s icon. Years later, he caught pneumonia, but when treatment was sought, he was told the hospital did not treat blind people, so he returned home and died. --Alan Greenberg


Product Description

The tradition of Texas gospel blues survives in the lore and recordings of Blind Willie Johnson.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: JOHNSON,BLIND WILLIE
Title: COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF BLIND W
Street Release Date: 04/20/1993
Domestic
Genre: BLUES TRADITIONAL

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Customer Reviews

39 Reviews
5 star:
 (34)
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 (3)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars It's nobody's fault but yours if you don't own this =), September 20, 2001
By Pharoah S. Wail (Inner Space) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
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.

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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars PURE, TOTALLY PURE, November 18, 2002
By adam david (new york) - See all my reviews
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."

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Searing, June 12, 2004
By Gene DeSantis (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Masterpiece
To hear hear these songs is to hear the voice of a Holy Ghost Minstrel of the Lord. Nothing and nobody comes close to the Spirit invoked Bottleneck picking and powerful singing of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mark D.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, otherworldly gospel blues
All I can add to the superlatives already heaped on Blind Willie Johnson's music in this forum is "Amen! Read more
Published 7 months ago by R. Plemmons

5.0 out of 5 stars The complete blind willie johnson album
I very much like this collection. Blind Willie sings with courage & conviction, plus the knowledge that came from someone who lived a life the way he did. Read more
Published 11 months ago by K. E. Meek

5.0 out of 5 stars Four and a Half Stars
A passionate voice that sounds like sandpaper and glass combine with nimble slide guitar make Blind Willie Johnson one of the greatest of all bluesmen. Read more
Published 14 months ago by squid

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed!
I really like listening to the old style rhythm and blues and this CD really delivers!
Published 15 months ago by Lisa J. Danenberg

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, The Soul of A Man
A tradition developed early, and I am not sure how, but it was very early in the 1900's of blind black men with musical ability (and probably some with none) going to the small... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Alfred Johnson

2.0 out of 5 stars Why all the fuss??
I've been a blues fan for about 40 years. Have listened to a lot of blues over the years on vinyl, cassettes, dvds, and radio. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jersey Jeff

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets
People argue over whether or not this can be called "blues" or "sprirtual" music. That doesn't matter. It is the finest music i've ever heard.
Published on April 22, 2007 by Rickie D. Vick

5.0 out of 5 stars great
Here we have somebody on a different path, but on a similar level to Robert Johnson or Skip James. An important link in the chain, and these recordings do him justice. Read more
Published on January 26, 2007 by J. Duncan

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible down-home blues
Being from the South, I love to hear the songs I used to hear as a child growing up in Tennessee. This is a must-buy!
Published on December 2, 2006 by Biographical_Book_Lover

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The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
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