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Slow down those blues
Eric Clapton once described Robert Johnson as "The most important blues singer that ever lived". Eric's not alone in his opinion...in fact, it's fair to say that the recordings Johnson made between 1936 and 1937, collected in two volumes entitled King of the Delta Blues Singers, stand among the most influential recordings of all time.
And now, nearly 50 years after Columbia Records first released the recordings, we discover that we've been listening to these immortal songs at the wrong speed all along. Either the recordings were accidentally speeded up when first committed to 78, or else they were deliberately speeded up to make them sound more exciting. Whatever, the common consensus among musicologists is that we've been listening to Johnson at least 20% too fast.
Several helpful souls have slowed down Johnson's best-known work and provided samples so that, for the first time, we can hear Johnson as he intended to be heard.
Check out the results here
Source: The Guardian 
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Artist Biography
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician, among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend,...
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Comments
Adelaide muso Jesse Deane-Freeman suspected this back in '06. Check this out and scroll about halfway down until you see Mr Johnsons picture.
http://www.jessedeanefreeman.com/historyofblues.html
Amazing development, and very astute of Jesse to make the discovery back in the days of '06. Will the clamour for a re-release of King of the Delta Blues will be commencing forthwith??
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