in Music | May 26th, 2026 Leave a Comment
Robert Johnson died at just 27 years old, some say as a consequence of selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads. But before his time came, he managed to record 29 songs, a scant body of work that nevertheless secured his artistic immortality as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. It’s unfortunate that his recordings, all of them made between 1936 and 1937 in less-than-ideal studio conditions even for the time, leave something to be desired in the audio quality department. But now, some 90 years later, sound restorer Nick Dellow has been uploading relatively crisp digitized “test pressings” of Johnson’s songs to YouTube: last month, for example, we featured one of “Cross Road Blues” here on Open Culture.
In the video above, you’ll find a similarly higher-quality version of “Come On in My Kitchen,” a song acknowledged as an early demonstration of the young Johnson’s otherworldly musical power. You may notice that the title labels this particular recording as “take one.” Johnson also recorded a much different second take, which his label Vocalion Records released in 1937, possibly because it sounded less mournful and thus — according to record-industry logic — more viable as a hit.
