Talk:The Complete Recordings (Robert Johnson album)

mono or stereo
well, the headline says it all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.173.225.226 (talk) 09:24, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Late 1990s remastering
Wasn't this remastered in the late 1990s? I distinctly reading somewhere how they had discovered better masters of these recordings and reissued them. I heard the reissue awhile after this and it sounded considerably better than my 1990 reissue box set. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.241.229 (talk) 06:53, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Every recording
The lede states 'The Complete Recordings contains every recording Johnson is known to have made, with the exception of an alternate take of "Travelling Riverside Blues".', which implies that since the album has 41 tracks, he made 42 recordings. However, the booklet included with my copy lists 63 recordings, followed by this note: "*These takes remain unfound, if ever issued; destroyed after being recorded (if ever); or otherwise unknown to collectors. In any event they do not appear in this or any other album or collection." Of the 63 recordings, 20 are marked with an asterisk (there should be 22, because only one each, of the three takes of "Stones in My Passway" and the three takes of "I'm a Steady Rollin' Man" bears an asterisk, instead of two each). I would therefore suggest that the lede be altered to read 'The Complete Recordings contains every one of Johnson's recordings that was known to exist at the time that the album was released.' -- Red rose64 (talk) 20:28, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Me and the Devil Blues
The shorter version of "Me and the Devil Blues" is described in the track listing as the alternate take, yet the Robert Johnson discography implies that the shorter version was the one issued, with the longer version as the alternate.

Is the track listing incorrect on the CD, or are the timings, which are similar, no guide?

Stananson (talk) 10:32, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The CD does not indicate either one as the "alternate take" - indeed, none of the 41 tracks are so described, they're merely "take 1", "take 2", etc. As for the "issued" version, both takes of "Me and the Devil Blues" are shown as issued on Vocalion 04108, a number also shown against both takes of "Little Queen of Spades". I suspect that the 78 had one take of each song, and the CD booklet writers were unable to determine which one of the two pairs was the actual issued version. I expect that take 2 of "Me and the Devil Blues" was the issued version, because take 1 is comparatively muffled. Apart from that, and their timings (on my copy, take 1 is 2:35, and take 2 is 2:29), the two takes of "Me and the Devil Blues" are easily distinguishable because the third verse differs very slightly: take 1 has "She say you don't see why / that you will dog me round", whereas take 2 has "She say you don't see why / that I will dog her round" (my emphasis). This difference is not a misprint on the lyric transcription: Johnson actually sings them differently. We therefore need somebody with Vocalion 04108 to listen to it, and report on which words are sung. -- Red rose64 (talk) 12:01, 18 April 2011 (UTC)