[78-L] Robert Johnson records claimed to be recorded 20% slow

[Jeff Lichtman]

When I found the following article several weeks ago I paid it little 
attention, as it seemed like a crackpot theory. The claim is that 
Robert Johnson's records were originally recorded three semitones 
slower than how they're typically played back (i.e. people have been 
playing them back about 19% too fast). Assuming that they're usually 
played at 78.26 RPM, that would mean the proper playback speed would 
be around 65.8 RPM. Here is the article, along with samples of the 
recordings slowed to the speed the author believes is correct:

http://www.touched.co.uk/press/rjnote.html

Now I see that this article has gotten attention from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/may/27/robert-johnson-blues

and something called The Daily Swarm:

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/everything-you-know-about-robert-johnson-wrong/

I think the idea is nonsense. I can believe that the correct playback 
speed for Johnson's records is something other than 78.26, but I 
highly doubt that the difference is three semitones.

Thoughts?


                        -        Jeff Lichtman
                                 jeff at swazoo.com
                                 Check out Swazoo Koolak's Web Jukebox at
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