re: Top 5 blues players all time

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I would ASSUME that's it's simply becuase of the time period and he was doing things people hadn't heard before and was very far advanced for his time and place. And obviously he was good. I guess what I'm asking is, if he was playign music today would he still be considered as legendary without all the urban legend stuff

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Johnson was/is an enigma. That's the major draw to him at this point. And his music if you like it.

Basically, in the '60s Clapton heard of him and listened to him. Then Clapton said he was the best. Son House said, oh I remember him, he sold his sold to the devil to learn to play guitar. And the legend was born.

What really happened was Son House heard Johnson try to play the guitar when Johnson was around 16-18. Johnson stunk. Then two (2) years later house heard him again and he could really play. Well no shite. He'd been practicing for 2 years. But the legend of the devil was born.

From Wiki:

If one had asked black blues fans about Johnson in the first twenty years after his death, writes Elijah Wald, "the response in the vast majority of cases would have been a puzzled 'Robert who?'" This lack of recognition extended to black musicians: "As far as the evolution of black music goes, Robert Johnson was an extremely minor figure, and very little that happened in the decades following his death would have been affected if he had never played a note".[82] Columbia Records released the album King of the Delta Blues Singers, a compilation of Johnson's recordings, in 1961, which introduced his work to a much wider audience—fame and recognition he only received long after his death.

No Coco Montoya, no care.

It's a couple of reasons. The first is that he could essentially play both lead guitar and rhythm guitar simultaneously, which absolutely blew people's minds. The second reason plays off of the first reason. Name a prominent guitarist...it is incredibly likely that Robert Johnson inspired that person. Name a band of nearly any genre...blues, rock, country, pop, etc. It is incredibly likely that either they were inspired by Robert Johnson, or they were inspired by someone who was inspired by Robert Johnson. I consider him the father of music as we know it. Without him, we mostly likely wouldn't have almost any of the great artist that we know and love

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List me some must have records that I should get on vinyl

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OG Bobby Johnson








The rest

Clapton is not top 10, no soul and unoriginal. Clapton plays mostly lazy and uninspired. I feel like I had the best list because I put down the guys who defined the genre and will only have others try and take what they did and make something great

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This is incorrect.

Johnson was around 10 years old in 1920. 18-20 in 1930. Johnson didn't become a "musician" till around 1930-32.

They guys that were influencing Johnson were the guys spreading the blues in the '20s.

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Yeah your "age" timeline is a bit more accurate.

If there's any truth to the myth of RJ and after he made his deal with the devil, RJ became a real blues artist. My "put blues on the map" is actually correct but not with regards to selling albums but seeing live acts. RJ was a hug Son House fan and wanted to play like him but as Son said "RJ was a horrible guitar player" until almost overnight became great which makes the myth of him selling his soul seem legit.....did he? Who knows and frankly IDC, his music is the shite.

How many times have you been inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame guy?

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Johnson
BB
Freddie
SRV
Clapton... Cause I like clapton.

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Good list, I'd probably have Buddy Guy over Freddie, but to each their own, can't go wrong with any of them.

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Buddy Guy over Freddie

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Both could play and give you goosebumps, Freddie could SANG!!!!