certainly not crap imho. if you think he is crap, i think you are crap.

Arguably overrated but not crap.

Hour_of_the_Wolf wrote:Arguably overrated but not crap.

Overrated as only someone like Dylan or Muhammad Ali can be--because he's so great and inspires such grandiloquent praise that there can't help but be a naysaying backlash.

I gotta keep movin'
I gotta keep movin'
Blues fallin' down like hail...

That's not just poetic, it's fucking biblical.

Not as scary as Skip James, not as powerful as Charley Patton, but Robert Johnson is most certainly not crap.

I'll put Son House doing "John the Revelator" against Skip James for spooky.

Not crap. I like his old stuff better, though.

He's important historically to the origins of rock, whether someone enjoys him personally or not. Your favorite classic rock band may have borrowed a song or two from him here and there.

Not crap. I like the way the guitar just stops somewhere bizarre when he's finished singing the song.

How and why could you say he was crap? You'd have to be retarded. Although I gotta admit, I think I'd take Charley Patton, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House and Bukka White over Robert Johnson 9 times out of 10.

Not crap.

There's sort of a fugatic quality to Robert Johnson's playing. It's extremely nervous, almost neurotic. Listening to those recordings, it sounds like he always wanted to leave whatever room he was in, as fast as possible.

Compare his music to that of Mississippi John Hurt, for example. It's a different world.

Johnson's playing is completely consistent with his singing, and with the words he sings. It's incredible. It really get's on my nerves at times, but in a good way. I love it.

si-maro wrote:How and why could you say he was crap? You'd have to be retarded. Although I gotta admit, I think I'd take Charley Patton, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House and Bukka White over Robert Johnson 9 times out of 10.

I think the same. Most of the same alternate guys, even.

I love Skip James.