This month, as with many other months lately, I haven't had time to do any substantial new music writing. One excuse I have this month is my new radio show. Since it's weekly and I have to do at least some of the recording myself (basically for the last few shows I've been recording my spoken parts and the songs, but someone else is taking care of the final editing and mixing), it's been taking up a fair amount of time, and of course I still have my regular parttime job and have had many other things going on, including giving a talk on censorship of Taiwanese popular music in the past century at a coffee shop and going to Taidong (Taitung) on the east coast to do more research on the popular music of the Taiwanese aboriginal people. I thought about posting lists of the songs I played on my radio show over the past month, but I'm more inclined to set up a separate avenue for doing that, as this is mostly an English-language blog and most of the songs I play are in one of the various Chinese languages (mostly Mandarin, sometimes Hoklo/Minnan, and occasionally Hakka) and even the songs in aboriginal languages, which make up a large proportion, often have only Chinese titles, since tradtionally aboriginal songs didn't have set names and the record companies would just give them titles in Chinese. I could theoretically translate the titles, but I don't have time to do that. So instead I'm doing what I've done more than once before and pulling out an old compilation that I did many years ago and just posting its tracklist here. This one is at least fairly appropriate, because as it happens in my radio show for this week and next (the latter has already been recorded), I played covers of classic Taiwanese songs, mostly aboriginal but also some non-aboriginal, by contemporary artists, then played original or early versions of the same songs from decades earlier for comparison. This particular composition of songs by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is organized similarly, in this case with his version coming first, followed by a much later recording of the same song by a well known artist.
Of course some of Johnson's most famous admirers are present here, such as Eric Clapton (on his own and with Cream and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) and the Rolling Stones, along with later blues artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King (the later doing a song that was reworked and popularized by fellow bluesman Elmore James), but also more suprising artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (doing the atypical Johnson song "They're Red Hot"). While Cream's version of "Crossroads" is the best known cover here, there are a lot of other interesting ones, and each artist has a completely different take on Johnson's songs. The compilation also included a couple of Johnson songs without corresponding cover versions (the final one, "Terraplane Blues", is said to be the one regional hit song Johnson had in his brief lifetime), plus three extra tracks by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe and Lead Belly, all three also being songs that have well known versions by other artists. The Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe song of course was covered by Led Zeppelin. The Lead Belly songs were not original to him, having been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century. The first, also known as "In the Pines", was most prominently covered by Nirvana, who was apparently largely following Lead Belly's version. The second is best known as "The House of the Rising Sun" and has been covered by numerous artists under that title and others.
I've included the orginial track details (and a brief list of additional Johnson covers) that I wrote back when I put this together, with a few edits. I wrote them under the assumption that the readers actually had the CD to listen to, and recognized the songs. While I can't make that assumption here, I imagine most of these tracks can be heard on YouTube (my apologies for not having time to provide links).
The Robert Johnson Legacy
1 Cross Road Blues Robert Johnson 2:40
2 Crossroads Cream 4:15
3 Kind Hearted Woman Blues Robert Johnson 2:51
4 Kind Hearted Woman Muddy Waters 2:37
5 Ramblin' On My Mind Robert Johnson 2:52
6 Ramblin' On My Mind John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers 3:08
7 I Believe I'll Dust My Broom Robert Johnson 2:59
8 Dust My Broom B.B. King 3:21
9 Traveling Riverside Blues Robert Johnson 2:46
10 Travelling Riverside Blues Led Zeppelin 5:12
11 Walkin' Blues Robert Johnson 2:30
12 Walkin' Blues Eric Clapton 3:37
13 Love In Vain Robert Johnson 2:25
14 Love In Vain The Rolling Stones 4:22
15 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Robert Johnson 2:37
16 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Taj Mahal 2:39
17 Malted Milk Robert Johnson 2:22
18 Malted Milk Eric Clapton 3:36
19 They're Red Hot Robert Johnson 2:58
20 They're Red Hot Red Hot Chili Peppers 1:11
21 Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) Robert Johnson 2:51
22 Terraplane Blues Robert Johnson 3:00
Bonus Tracks:
23 When The Levee Breaks Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe 3:11
24 Where Did You Sleep Last Night Lead Belly 3:02
25 New Orleans Lead Belly 3:17
Cross Road Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by the Allman Brothers Band
Crossroads
From Wheels of Fire (1968)
Also contains lines from "Traveling Riverside Blues"
Kind Hearted Woman Blues
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Johnny Winter and Eric Clapton
Kind Hearted Woman
Recorded in the late 1940s
From More Real Folk Blues (1967)
Ramblin' On My Mind
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Note the train sound effect
Ramblin' On My Mind
From Blues Breakers John Mayall with Eric Clapton (1966)
This is Eric Clapton's first lead vocal on record
I Believe I'll Dust My Broom
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, ZZ Top and many other bluesmen
Dust My Broom
Arranged by Elmore James
From B.B. King The Collection
Traveling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Travelling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 24, 1969
From BBC Sessions
A studio version is available on the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set
This version contains several lines from "Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
This song was clearly the inspiration for Zeppelin's "The Lemon Song"
Walkin' Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Bonnie Raitt on her eponymous 1971 album
Walkin' Blues
From Unplugged (1992)
Love In Vain
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Love In Vain
From Let It Bleed (1969)
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded December 3, 1965
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Malted Milk
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Malted Milk
From Unplugged (1992)
They're Red Hot
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
They're Red Hot
From Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This song has some of Johnson's fanciest guitar playing
Terraplane Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This was Johnson's most successful record in his lifetime,
selling several thousand copies
All songs written by Robert Johnson
Other covers of Robert Johnson songs:
Sweet Home Chicago (as "Baby Don't You Want to Go?") Tommy McClennan
(this was aupposedly the first Johnson cover, recorded in 1939)
When You've Got A Good Friend Johnny Winter
From Four Until Late Cream (from Fresh Cream)
Stop Breaking Down The Rolling Stones (from Exile on Main Street)
Come On In My Kitchen Allman Brothers Band
I'm A Steady Rolling Man Eric Clapton (from 461 Ocean Boulevard)
Bonus Tracks:
When The Levee Breaks (J. McCoy[Kansas Joe]/M. McCoy [Memphis Minnie])
Recorded June 29, 1929
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Covered by a certain famous hard rock band
(though they did alter it a great deal)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Huddie Ledbetter [Actual authorship unknown, though it certainly predates Lead Belly])
Recorded February 17, 1944
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by Nirvana and Kyle
New Orleans (J. Lomax/A. Lomax/G. Turner [Actual authorship unknown, though it definitely wasn't written by
John Lomax and his son Alan, who somehow got credited on Lead Belly's version])
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by lots of people (mostly under another name, of course)
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