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The Original Guitar Wizard | 
| Artist: Lonnie Johnson
Label: Proper
Category: Music
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £11.98
You Save: £5.01 (29%)
New (8) from £11.98
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 41734
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 5.1 x 2.1
UPC: 805520020817
EAN: 0805520020817
ASIN: B0006ZRX5O
Release Date: January 24, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Deep Blue Sea Blues | | • | No More Women Blues | | • | Im So Tired Of Living All Alone | | • | Crowing Rooster Blues | | • | Broken Levee Blues | | • | Careless Love | | • | Tootache Blues, Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Misty Mornin | | • | Two Tone Stomp | | • | Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues | | • | It Feels So Good, Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Jet Black Blues | | • | Guitar Blues | | • | Blue Guitars | | • | Bulldog Moan | | • | Sundown Blues | | • | The New Fallin Rain Blues | | • | You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Hot Fingers | | • | Blue Room Blues | | • | Shes Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight | | • | Another Woman Booked Out And Bound To Go |
Disc 2
| • | Deep Blue Sea Blues | | • | No More Women Blues | | • | Im So Tired Of Living All Alone | | • | Crowing Rooster Blues | | • | Broken Levee Blues | | • | Careless Love | | • | Tootache Blues, Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Misty Mornin | | • | Two Tone Stomp | | • | Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues | | • | It Feels So Good, Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Jet Black Blues | | • | Guitar Blues | | • | Blue Guitars | | • | Bulldog Moan | | • | Sundown Blues | | • | The New Fallin Rain Blues | | • | You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now Pts 1 & 2 | | • | Hot Fingers | | • | Blue Room Blues | | • | Shes Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight | | • | Another Woman Booked Out And Bound To Go |
Disc 3
| • | I Got The Best Jelly Roll In Town, Pts 1 & 2 | | • | The Dirty Dozen | | • | I Just Cant Stand These Blues | | • | Deep Sea Blues | | • | Long Black Train | | • | I Have To Do My Time | | • | No More Troubles Now | | • | Youre Getting Old On Your Job | | • | Dont Wear It Out | | • | Got The Blues For Murder Only | | • | Let All Married Women Alone | | • | Beautiful But Dumb | | • | Sleepy Water Blues | | • | Uncle Ned, Dont Use Your Head | | • | Im Nuts About That Gal | | • | Racketeers Blues | | • | Swing Out Rhythm | | • | Why Women Go Wrong | | • | Jersey Belle Blues | | • | The Loveless Blues | | • | Im Just Dumb | | • | Get Yourself Together | | • | Crowning Rooster Blues |
Disc 4
| • | Thats Love | | • | Lazy Woman Blues | | • | In Love Again | | • | Hes A Jelly-Roll Baker | | • | When You Feel Low Down | | • | The Victim Of Love | | • | Watch Shorty | | • | Keep What You Got | | • | Love Is The Answer | | • | Tomorrow Night | | • | What A Real Woman | | • | Falling Rain Blues | | • | Working Mans Blues | | • | Playing Around | | • | Trouble Aint Nothing But The Blues | | • | Blues Stay Away From Me | | • | Little Rocking Chair | | • | Nothing But Trouble | | • | Why Should I Cry | | • | It Was All In Vain | | • | You Only Want Me When Youre Lonely | | • | Me And My Crazy Self | | • | Im Guilty | | • | Just Another Day | | • | You Cant Buy Love | | • | Cant Sleep Any More |
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| Customer Reviews:
 great but a bit overwhelming October 18, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Regarded now as one of the great early blues artists, Lonnie Johnson embarked on a recording career largely consisting of blues primarily because in 1925 he won a blues contest in which the prize was a recording contract with Okeh Records, and blues was what Okeh expected him to record. But he was equally at home in the company of jazz musicians, as evidenced here by 3 sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, one with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and numerous spectacular guitar duets with Eddie Lang.
Unlike the great country blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton or Skip James, Lonnie Johnson was a city boy from New Orleans. He was adept on numerous instruments and while he mostly played guitar, there are a couple of examples of his violin playing on this set.
As a vocalist, he may take a bit of getting used to for modern ears - unlike the raw but often extremely powerful vocal styles of his country blues contemporaries, which have, via the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, influenced singers right up to the present day, the 1920s urban blues/jazz style he used throughout his career sounds much more "proper" and old-fashioned - people haven't sung like this for several decades. But this is by no means to disparage his voice, which is technically very good - merely to warn that anyone expecting raw or "primitive" blues singing should not be surprised by this very sophisticated musician. His even more sophisticated guitar playing, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to, and here, on some tunes at least, you can hear that he quite probably did influence the likes of Robert Johnson.
The actual content covers the years 1925 to 1952, and is far from exhaustive - Lonnie Johnson was a highly prolific recording artist and often a couple of tracks may be included from a session that produced 8, for instance. Quite a few tracks in the earlier years feature him backing or duetting with other artists including "classic" blues singers Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, country blues singer Texas Alexander (his 2 tracks are particularly fine) and the previously mentioned Armstrong, Ellington and Lang.
His own material, the bulk of the set, includes both accompanied (there's some very fine piano playing on quite a few tracks) and unaccompanied recordings, and towards the end of the period covered he took up electric guitar, though to be honest it doesn't sound that different from his acoustic material. His songwriting (and there aren't many covers on here) covers the usual blues subjects of cheating women, sex (several songs feature bawdy double entendres), drinking, floods etc., though with far more intelligible lyrics than with most country blues artists. The guitar playing is frequently dazzling, particularly on the earlier (1925-1932) material that makes up the bulk of the collection.
For me his later years show him trying to fit into current styles and ending up sounding like a slightly watered-down version of himself and are less compelling than the earlier material, but there is more than enough fine stuff here to make the box worthwhile. Tastes will vary, but while his reputation now is most strongly based on the duets with Eddie Lang and some equally dazzling solo instrumentals, many of the songs are also excellent and it's worth persevering until you become used to the singing style.
The sound quality is a joy - the vast majority of this set comes from the first decade of electrical recording, and in view of this the sound is quite excellent - the surface noise is not intrusive on the vast majority of tracks and the timbre of the guitar is usually so well reproduced that at a decent volume it sounds very close to having him playing in the same room as the listener.
The quantity of material in these Proper boxes can be a bit daunting for anyone new to the artist or genre in question - these recordings were never meant to be collected together or listened to at such length, and while there is enough variety on the first couple of discs to maintain interest it can be a bit overwhelming. But persevere because there's a lot of fantastic music on here and Lonnie Johnson was one of the greatest, most influential and most original musicians of his day and we're very lucky that so much of his music has survived 80 years on in such amazing quality.
 GUITAR GENIUS! June 29, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Lonnie Johnson was probably the first really brilliant guitarist and in my opinion, there are not many, even now, his equal. Lonnie was a truly great blues/Jazz musician and a mentor to many including Robert Johnson. Just listen to his guitar work and blues vocals on the tracks and if you own any of Robert Johnson's cds you will recognise how big an influence he was. This box set is a must for any blues enthusiast or anyone who admires superb guitar playing. Whatsmore, the sound quality is excellent!
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