I got a tip from a fellow bluesman that Todd Rundgren is making a tribute CD to Robert Johnson. All I have to say is WHY! Why do we need another tribute disc to Robert Johnson. I Mean, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, and John Hammond all have CDs already out, do we really need one more. Seriously how about a Charlie Patton, Skip James, or Tommy Johnson tribute?? Or perhaps a Son House, Johnny Shines, or R L Burnside tribute???
Seriously Todd, lets spread the love around! There are plenty of great songs by great delta blues artists that you could record. In fact the family of Bukka White would love for you to cover his songs so that they could see some money.
We all love Robert, and I have blogged a lot about him over the years, but please, lets give some other old bluesman some LOVE!
4 comments:
I understand your frustration. The idea for Todd to do a CD of Robert Johnson covers wasn't Todd's idea at all. Truth is that when Todd negotiated a deal with a label for his "Arena" album, the label wanted a package deal. They would distribute "Arena" and Todd would have to come up with a set of covers of Robert Johnson tunes. As I understand it, Todd would do Johnson songs in his own special way......unlike other covers of Johnson. The label apparently owns the rights to the Johnson catalog and as a result, the label is anticipating some new interest in the songs. In return, some of Todd's own tunes may be covered by others on the label, thus generating some income for both Todd and the Label. Todd is launching a tour for this CD and the band is being billed as "Todd Rundgren's Johnson". We shall all see how well this goes over.
Peter Green did them his own way too, (Hot Foot Powder) which I happen to like a lot.
Just curious how the label ended up with the rights to Johnson's songs when his son won those rights quite awhile ago.
I certainly hope the PR people come up with a different name for the tour. The double meaning is hardly original and just makes me dislike the whole project even more.
Blues Historian, pull the stick out--
Hey anonymous
Nope. I stand by what I said, and it is obvious from previous comments that this was all driven by profit.
Tom
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