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Product Description
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This brief but absorbing meditation on Johnson's life and art, originally published in 1989 in anticipation of the first release of his complete recordings, benefits from the detective work of earlier blues scholars, most notably Mack McCormick, who began piercing the veil surrounding Johnson's life in the '60s. By the '80s, reminiscences from the bluesman's contemporaries, more solid evidence of his shadowy lineage, and even the belated discovery of photographs added more dimension to McCormick's "phantom" Johnson. Yet, possibly by his own design, Robert Johnson remained more outline than flesh, still explained more lucidly in the fevered nightmares and earthy imagery of his songs than by the scattered details of his life.
Guralnick succeeds in conveying the power of Johnson's music and delineating both its origins and, ultimately, singular genius. His debts to delta blues avatars Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson are solidified, yet, more crucially, Guralnick roots Johnson's artistic growth in the specific context of this rural corner of Mississippi, at this particular moment between the world wars. He also frankly addresses the potency of Johnson's myth and an early death that only glorifies the brief, bright arc of his work. No less crucial is Guralnick's ability to convey the dark beauty of the music itself, giving Searching for Robert Johnson a broader sweep as an essential blues primer. --Sam Sutherland
Book Description
WHEN I WAS A FRESHMAN in college, in 1961-62, my most precious possessions were my blues records and a portable stereo phonograph which my mother had uncharacteristically purchased with green stamps. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story, but nothing new,
By Jay Hardaway (Abilene, Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" (Paperback)
The recent packaging of the Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson has shown this bluesman to be one of the most influential musicians in American history. He is more popular now than he ever was in his lifetime. It is his life, rather than his legacy, that is the subject of music historian Peter Guralnick's book. Little is know about Johnson's life, but Guralnick brings what little there is to light in a fascinating work that is more like a ghost story than a biography.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vivid description of the blues great,
By A Customer
This review is from: Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" (Paperback)
The 96 pages of this book are pack full of information about legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Virtually everything that is known about Mr. Johnson is vividly detailed in this work. Makes for excellent reading.
2.0 out of 5 stars
searching for robert,
By A Customer
This review is from: Searching For Robert Johnson (Hardcover)
It is to bad that someone so capable of telling a good tale could take a dive with such vivid subject matter at his disposal. It is extremely over priced for such a dismal read. Anyone who has purchased the Box set has read pretty much the same info given in this minute pamplet of wash. We need a vision of this man not a paint by numbers acount of times,places and song verses. Then again If you do not know the tale of johnson then this is the book for you. let me also highly recomend Robert palmers book Deep Blues. Also the finest attempt to give an acurate portrayal of such a god is the book LOVE in VAIN by Alan Greenberg...
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