Various Artists - Covered: Robert Johnson, Volume 2: 1983-2020

Yesterday, I posted Volume 1 of the "Covered" series's focus on blues legend Robert Johnson. I think the two volumes I've made need to be appreciated together to make a whole, so here's Volume 2.

As I said in my write-up to Volume 1, Johnson only recorded 29 songs during his very short musical career in the 1930s. Since his musical influence has been so enormous and the number of songs he did is so small, I've found versions of every single one of those 29 songs. More of the famous songs were included in Volume 1. For some of the songs here, like "Photograph Blues" and "Drunken Hearted Man," I had to struggle to find any good covers at all. That said, all of Johnson's songs are worthy, and I did ultimately find good covers for all of them.

As with Volume 1, I tried hard to find covers from a variety of artists. That's why, for instance, I have a version of "Stop Break Down" here by the Jeff Healey Band instead of the more well known one by the Rolling Stones. The version of "Hellhound on My Trail" by Larkin Poe is actually unreleased. They did a version on their 2020 album "Kindred Spirits" that's frustatingly short, at only 43 seconds long! But happily, they did a two-minute long version for their "Tip O' the Hat" video series, so I used that version.

This album is about 50 minutes long, and Volume 1 has a similar length.

01 Honeymoon Blues (John Hammond)
02 Me and the Devil Blues (Cowboy Junkies)
03 They're Red Hot (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
04 Little Queen of Spades (John Mooney)
05 32-20 Blues (Bob Dylan)
06 Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Keb Mo)
07 Stop Breaking Down (Jeff Healey Band)
08 Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Beck)
09 Milkcow's Calf Blues (Robert Palmer)
10 Stones in My Passway (John Mellencamp)
11 Phonograph Blues (Pyeng Threadgill)
12 If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day (Rory Block)
13 Dead Shrimp Blues (Dan Patlansky)
14 Drunken Hearted Man (Devil Makes Three)
15 Hellhound on My Trail (Larkin Poe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17167809/COVRDROBRTJHNSN1983-2020Volum2_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MwmJcUVY

As I explained with my Volume 1 write-up, there are only three confirmed photos of Robert Johnson, and all of them are in black and white. Furthermore, all of them are in fairly bad shape, considering they're family heirlooms dating to the 1930s. I colorized this one, and made lots of little tweaks in order to make it presentable. It still has some issues, but hopefully it gives you a rough idea of what he looked like, in color.

UPDATE: On September 26, 2024, I upgraded the cover photo using the program Krea AI. I think it's pretty remarkable how that program makes this look like a detailed, clear photo of him.

Various Artists - Covered: Robert Johnson, Volume 1: 1951-1981

For the next artist in my "Covered" series, I'm going way, way back to the 1930s to look at blues legend Robert Johnson.

Johnson's musical career was unusual in many respects. He only recorded a grand total of 29 different songs in two recording sessions, one in 1937 and the other in 1938. Later in 1938, he died of unknown causes, when he was only 27 years old. He was a minor blues artist at the time without much in the way of sales or influence. But after his death, his musical stature grew and grew, particularly after most of his songs were released on an album for the first time in 1961. Eric Clapton has called him "the most important blues musician who ever lived." Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin has said it is Johnson "to whom we [as rock musicians] all owe our existence in some way." Many other famous musical acts have cited him as a major influence, including Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones. 

If you want to read more about him, here's the link to his Wikipedia page:

Robert Johnson - Wikipedia

Normally with these "Covered" albums, I usually just pick versions of the hits and other songs I especially like. But since Johnson only recorded 29 different songs, and he's had such a massive influence on music, I've included versions of every single one of those 29 songs. (That includes a few that were covers, or at least were partially inspired by other songs.) Many are famous songs, like "Crossroads" and "Sweet Home Chicago." But others are rather obscure, where I've had to scratch and scrape to find any decent cover versions. However, I'm ultimately happy that I've found good versions for every song.

As you'll see here, even though Johnson died in 1938, the first cover doesn't come from 1951, and the vast majority are from the 1960s or later. That's a reflection of what I mentioned above, that he didn't have much influence until decades after his death. I tried hard to include a range of different artists. But this has three songs sung by Eric Clapton, one when he was part of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, one when he was part of Cream, and one when he was a solo artist. Furthermore, there's another Cream song ("Four Until Late") that's not sung by him. I felt obliged to include these versions because I consider them the definitive ones.

Note that if you don't like blues music, you're probably not going to like this. This is blues through and through, without poppy crossover versions. That said, there is a lot of variety here within the blues genre, due to the wide range of different artists, plus a mix of acoustic and full band performances.

01 Dust My Broom (Elmore James)
02 Sweet Home Chicago (Junior Parker)
03 Four until Late (Cream)
04 Ramblin' on My Mind (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
05 Crossroads (Cream)
06 Love in Vain (Rolling Stones)
07 Travelling Riverside Blues (Led Zeppelin)
08 When You Got a Good Friend (Johnny Winter)
09 Walking Blues (Bonnie Raitt)
10 Come on in My Kitchen (Delaney & Bonnie)
11 Steady Rollin' Man (Eric Clapton)
12 Terraplane Blues (Foghat)
13 Malted Milk Blues (Lucinda Williams)
14 Preaching the Blues (Gun Club)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17167520/COVRDROBRTJHNSN1951-1981Volum1_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7yYNEmY9

Robert Johnson was such an obscure figure in his lifetime that there literally are only three known photos of him (and one of those only came to light in 2020). So, needless to say, my options for cover art photos were limited! All three photos are black and white, so I colorized this one. The original was also rather grainy and low-res, but I did some tinkering in Photoshop to hopefully improve the picture quality.

UPDATE: On September 26, 2024, I updated the album cover. I took the cover I'd made already and ran it through the Krea AI program. I think the result is pretty amazing. For the first time ever, we get an idea what a clear photo of Johnson could have looked like!