Before I left that day, John Hammon gave me that Robert Johnson record. No one had ever heard any Robert Johnson songs, but they had them all in the vault. They issued that record called King of the Delta Blues and he gave me one of the first copies of it. That was early 61 … Well, the Robert Johnson at that time was astounding. What was astounding was the sheer songwriting. I hadn’t heard that before. I hadn’t heard twelve-bar blues songs that could be identifiable in their own genres. And so many different rhythms that he set up just with his one guitar. I was pretty overwhelmed, actually.
Keith Richards:
Brian Jones had the first album, and that’s where I first heard it. I’d just met Brian, and I went around to his apartment – crash pad, actually, all he had in it was a chair, a record player, and a few records. One of which was Robert Johnson. He put it on, and it was just – you know – astounding stuff… When I first heard it, I said to Brian, Who’s that? Robert Johnson, he said. Yeah, but who’s the other guy playing with him? Because I was hearing two guitars, and it took me a long time to realize he was actually doing it all by himself. The guitar playing – it was almost like listening to Bach. You know, you think you’re getting a handle on playing the blues, and then you hear Robert Johnson – some of the rhythms he’s doing and playing and singing at the same time, you think, This guy must have three brains! You want to know how good the blues can get? Well, this is it.
Eric Clapton:
Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice … it seemed to echo something I had always felt.
Notes from a Room 