Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings (1990)

"The Complete Recordings" is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released August 28, 1990 on Columbia Records. The album's recordings were recorded in two sessions in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas for the American Record Company (ARC) during 1936 and 1937. Most of the songs were first released on 78rpm records in 1937. "The Complete Recordings" contains every recording Johnson is known to have made, with the exception of an alternate take of "Travelling Riverside Blues".

Prior to his death in 1938, through the help of H. C. Speir Johnson recorded 29 songs for the American Record Company (ARC). His complete canon of recordings includes these 29 masters, plus 13 surviving alternate takes, all recorded at two ARC sessions held in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas. The Mississippi Delta two hundred miles of fertile lowlands stretching from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south was one of the primary locales in which the blues originated and developed. He is said to have been heavily influenced by early blues artists like Skip James, who was recorded in 1931, around the same time that Johnson amazed his elders with his mastery of the guitar. James's eerie, distinctive style is reflected throughout Johnson's recordings, most notably in "32-20 Blues," which he adapted from James's "22-20 Blues." "The Complete Recordings" has sold more than a million copies, and won a Grammy Award in 1991 for "Best Historical Album."In 1992, the Blues Foundation inducted the album into the Blues Hall of Fame. It also was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2003. The board selects recordings in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Disc one

01.  "Kind Hearted Woman Blues"  - 2:49

02.  "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" (alternate take) - 2:31

03.  "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"  - 2:56

04.  "Sweet Home Chicago"  - 2:59

05.  "Ramblin' on My Mind" (alternate take) - 2:51

06.  "Ramblin' on My Mind"  - 2:20

07.  "When You Got a Good Friend"  - 2:37

08.  "When You Got a Good Friend" (alternate take) - 2:50

09.  "Come On in My Kitchen" (alternate take) - 2:47

10.  "Come On in My Kitchen"  - 2:35

11.  "Terraplane Blues"  - 3:00

12.  "Phonograph Blues"  - 2:37

13.  "Phonograph Blues" (alternate take) - 2:35

14.  "32-20 Blues"  - 2:51

15.  "They're Red Hot"  - 2:56

16.  "Dead Shrimp Blues"  - 2:30

17.  "Cross Road Blues"  - 2:39

18.  "Cross Road Blues" (alternate take) - 2:29

19.  "Walkin' Blues"  - 2:28

20.  "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"  - 2:39

Disc two

01.  "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)"  - 2:50

02.  "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day"  - 2:34

03.  "Stones in My Passway"  - 2:27

04.  "I'm a Steady Rollin' Man"  - 2:35

05.  "From Four Till Late"  - 2:23

06.  "Hellhound on My Trail"  - 2:35

07.  "Little Queen of Spades"  - 2:11

08.  "Little Queen of Spades" (alternate take) - 2:15

09.  "Malted Milk"  - 2:17

10.  "Drunken Hearted Man"  - 2:24

11.  "Drunken Hearted Man" (alternate take) - 2:19

12.  "Me and the Devil Blues"  - 2:37

13.  "Me and the Devil Blues" (alternate take) - 2:29

14.  "Stop Breakin' Down Blues" (alternate take) - 2:16

15.  "Stop Breakin' Down Blues"  - 2:21

16.  "Traveling Riverside Blues"  - 2:47

17.  "Honeymoon Blues"  - 2:16

18.  "Love in Vain" (alternate take) - 2:28

19.  "Love in Vain"  - 2:19

20.  "Milkcow's Calf Blues" (alternate take) - 2:14

21.  "Milkcow's Calf Blues"  - 2:20

Released:  August 28, 1990

Recorded:  November 1936 and June 1937

Genre:  Blues

Length:  104:53

Label:  Columbia

Producer:  Beryl Cohen Porter (original recordings), Don Law(compilation), Frank Driggs(Reissue Producer)

Personnel

Robert Johnson – acoustic guitar, vocals