May the 8th is possibly the centenary of the birth of Robert Johnson. He was an itinerant musician who died at the age of 27 and recorded less than 30 sides. His influence on Blues and consequently rock and roll is difficult to express without recourse to lazy superlatives. This, largely, was thanks to the release of King of the Delta Blues Singers in 1961.
There is a theory that these recordings were 'speeded up' .
The evidence on which this is based and examples of slowed down versions can be found here.
The Search for Robert Johnson (1991) is a good watch. It's on YouTube.
It's said that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical ability. I think we got the best deal out of that transaction!
ReplyDeletea bargain!
ReplyDeleteOn the speed thing. The 20% too fast theory is almost certainly wrong.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.elijahwald.com/johnsonspeed.html
That said, the slowed versions at global groove sound great. He didn't go a full 20% slower.
http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/search?q=Robert+Johnson
Good stuff icastico- thanks for that
ReplyDelete