78 RPM - Robert Johnson - Hell Hound On My Trail / From Four Until Late - Vocalion - USA

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Robert Johnson
Label:	Vocalion
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	03623
Date:	1 Aug 1937
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	6 Want
Price Guide:	$8000
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PRICE GUIDE

$8000

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Robert Johnson	Hell Hound On My Trail	Robert Johnson	Rate
B	Robert Johnson	From Four Until Late	Robert Johnson	Rate

Notes

Vocal Blues with Guitar Accompaniment.
Recorded on June 19 & 20, 1937 in Dallas, Texas.
Also issued on Perfect 7-09-56 (400 copies) and Romeo 7-09-56 (75 copies) in September 1937.

Images

Comments and Reviews


BigBadBluesMan 30th Jul 2021



BigBadBluesMan 30th Jul 2021



fixbutte 26th Aug 2014		Although "Hell Hound On My Trail" is definitely a strong song with an impressive imagery, its appreciation is apparently caused in large part by the dubious assumption that the singer intended to depict his own desperate state of mind. This was, however, most probably not the case. Johnson performed a variety of songs of different moods on his sessions, many of them dealing with the familiar blues theme of rambling, but nowhere near as anxious as here. Even here the hellhound, which had been used in several blues songs before, vanishes from the song after the first stanza, and it turns to less apocalyptic matters. And at least from the studio photograph of Robert Johnson that sometime in the 1980s appeared, you can get the impression, as said by journalist Peter Breslow, that Johnson “seemed unbothered by hellhounds, like the happy-go-lucky traveler in ‘Sweet Home Chicago’”. Anyway not much remains from this recording to support the widespread “devil legend” associated with Robert Johnson.



fixbutte 5th Aug 2014		As said before, Robert Johnson's records for Vocalion were only modest sellers, but apparently they sold well enough that he was invited for a second, two-day recording session on June 19 and 20, 1937, this time in Dallas, Texas. This was the seventh single of Johnson and the first one from the second session. Strikingly, it coupled his darkest and most troubled recording on one side with his most gentle and melodious delivery on the other side. "Hell Hound On My Trail", with its borrowing from Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman" and "Yola My Blues Away", has been praised by almost everyone as one of the greatest blues songs of all time, definitely with good reason. The lesser-known "From Four Until Late", with lines like "A woman is like a dresser / some man is always ramblin' through its drawers", is more ambivalent than the modest presentation gives reason to expect. Surprisingly, nobody has pointed out yet that Bob Dylan obviously used its melody for one of his loveliest songs, "She Belongs To Me". (Edit: After further research it looks like both songs go back to the tune of "Betty And Dupree" aka "Dupree Blues", a murder ballad from the 1920s.)

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Linked Releases

USA - Perfect - 1937