Fats Domino was one artist who used such speed alterations to his piano tracks to screw up the would-be copycats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxaRd8nvtn4

Instant knock-off near-versions of their material was the bane of the early singles-oriented R’n'R artists: and adding speed variations to or in the underlying instrumental tracks was one way they tried to combat that evil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZeqwdWoeo

…or at least he used to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFtnuUL9C7E

…that is a version of a Robert Johnson song, is it not?

Of course it is….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOXXh24HnmY

… his stuff is more influential than ever, seems to me.

Also, Woid’s comment makes a really good point – given the technology at the time, it’s highly unlikely that both recording sessions would have been sped up in the exact same way, even if that was was they were trying to do.

But here’s a clincher: we don’t only have one set of Robert Johnson recordings, we have two. A single session’s recordings might have been altered, though it’s doubtful — but two sessions, done in different settings at different times by different people?

I’ll bet somebody someplace has a high-tech technique that could analyze the recordings and settle this stubborn speculation.

*Former Sony music executive Lawrence Cohn, who won a Grammy for the label’s 1991 reissue of Johnson’s works, “acknowledges there’s a possibility Johnson’s 1936-37 recordings were sped up, since the OKeh/Vocalion family of labels, which originally issued the material, was ‘notorious’ for altering the speed of its releases. ‘Sometimes it was 78 rpms, sometimes it was 81 rpms,’ he says. It’s impossible to check the original sources, since the metal stampers used to duplicate the original 78 discs disappeared years ago.*

I could live with this statement but for one word: “NOTORIOUS”. According to dictionary.com the definition for notorious is “widely and unfavorably known as in a particular trait” and “well known for some bad and unfavorable quality” and “widely acknowledged”.

Simply put: “It is more likely than not the Robert Johnson recordings were sped up based on the recording traits Brunswick Records were widely known to utilize”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_(musician)

Johnson is, and always will be, an enigma.

I guess this story is about the mystery, not the answers, though. Certainly, you’ve looked into that already.

My first question is, if his recordings were deliberately *sped up* 20% for release, how exactly was this accomplished? Either they slowed the cutting disc down during the original recording, or they played a disc an re-recorded it using the same technique. I think its fair to rule out the latter as they would produce some unlistenable results. As for the former, it is certainly possible and many recordings or this period vary in pitch and sometimes seem to “speed up” during the recording if equipment failure caused the motors to slow down during the recording.

This leads to my second question: why? Speeding the final playback up by 20% would not yield that much more music per side. I would seem a simpler solution to just ask the performer to limit his performance to 3 minutes or cue him when his recording time is up. Considering that this would have to have been done on both recording sessions the same way, I am going to weigh in and say that this is unlikely.

I think that the limited bandwidth of the early recordings combined with the fact that signing vibratos today are much slower on average than they were in the early 20th century, combine in this instance to create the illusion of artificially increased speed int he recording.

My $.02 anyway…

PS Eric Clapton can suck it.

everyone from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards to generations of lesser performers and enthusiasts.

I have kind of a big problem with the “commercial success equals quality” assumptions that seem to be inherent in that statement.

The 120hz hum that another person mentioned confirming 78.26rpm — this is most likely the byproduct of duplication. So called “Masters” had to be produced at some point from the original “Mother” discs and used for all further duplication. The “mother” discs designed for making the recordings would not stand up to repeated play. Thus, those “masters” would serve as the basis for all further duplication and remastering.

Here’s an accurate version of what Crossroads sounded like in reality http://youtu.be/snLe-f1g8IY

22-20 Blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obW2spw51qc

Devil Got My Woman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijvn6wFdE6Y

That said, the very first time I heard Robert Johnson, knowing little about the blues or early recording techniques, I thought the pitch had been raised. It just sounded wrong to me. Since then I have always just assumed the recordings were wrong, the same way old silent movies are all sped up; I just accepted it, but secretly hoped one of the various remastered collections would fix it.

Cheers!