Friday 8 July 2016


It's 1978 and I'm in a wine bar in Wimbledon Village. The music playing has caught my attention and by the time of the guitar solo on track three I'm up at the bar asking the person serving "Who is this we're listening to?"
The LP cover, they showed me, was 'Close Personal Friend' by Robert Johnson. Not, it has to be said, an album or an artist that sold millions of records. In fact finding Robert Johnson has been a problem. If you 'google' him you understandably get the famous blues singer instead. Even searching for my copy of his LP caused me to look through my entire record collection without success and only on a second sweep did it come to light.
I have unearthed some of his music on YouTube, though it is rather patchy. I found the excellent 'Guide My Energy' track mentioned above but the sound was pretty poor. Most videos are just stills of the album cover, while the one I've actually picked is not even that exciting. It's 1978 again, just listen to Robert Johnson and 'Wish Upon A Star'. The riff reminds me of something, but can't quite think what it is


There's another track on this great LP called 'Leslie' that has a part that sounds very like The Shadows 'Apache'. No matter, it's all good music.
Robert Johnson did make an appearance on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' in 1978, albeit filmed in Miami, so if you want to see and hear him click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fXsqz8_78

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