I don't know about whether or why someone made the original recordings faster, but these links sound very nice. Not much to add -- the guitar sounds more natural and the voice -- hmmm...less supernatural....

>> I understand the '96 version of this release is somewhat speed corrected <<

thanks Mathijs - that might explain why the "slowed down" CD doesn't sound different to me

I think these sound a lot more natural and are much easier to listen to (not to mention play). It takes away some of the "supernatural" guitar playing ability at these speed. Still a great player though.

Maybe he sold his soul to the recording engineer, not the devil.

BTW, check out Rory Block as someone who does a fine job with RJ's songs - she looks good too!

Quote
Green Lady
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We'll probably never prove whether the RJ discs were too fast, or by how much - but Mathijs's point is pretty convincing: if you can get something that's straightforward to play live by slowing the record by x%, that seems a likely explanation.
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Hmm, interesting question - which maybe could be answered with analyzing and comparing the background noise. only problem is finding the reference noise.

I've pitched a couple of songs from the Dallas Recordings tonight (-3 semi tones), and yes, it's so much better to play the guitar to, but not all songs seem to have the same pitch.

I know that errors occurred in the speed of some of the recordings from this era. Check out early Mississippi John Hurt & Bukka White for good examples of this, & I've got early Leadbelly that is clearly out by a full tone

The songs were recorded at one time but would have been PRESSED at different times so speed variations might have crept in then.

You'd have to compare the tunings of the songs he did within each of the 3 recording sessions, the session he did on Thurs Nov 26 1936 doesn't count as he only recorded 32-20 Blues so there's no other reference point to check it.

Take the first session these are trax 1-13 on the Complete Recordinds cd1

These are all roughly in tune with each other, minor variations between the different takes but nothing radical, which means if you're going to change the speed of one song you're going to have to do them all & set them to one standard

The problem is what standard would he have tuned to. As there are no recordings with a fixed instrument such as harmonica or piano, he may have been close to concert pitch but not necessarily A440, this would have been exascerbated when going between the various tunings, or he may have been completely out.

We know he used a capo so this complicates things even more

I've listened to the speed corrected versions & I'm on the fence on this one.

Kindhearted & Kitchen are from the first session where he appears to be tuned down a semi-tone but capoes on the 2nd fret & plays Kindhearted using standard A & Kitchen in open A, whereas Crossroads & Walkin are from the third session which appears to be close to concert pitch (open A capoed on 2nd fret). I don't see that a 20% fix in one session would apply to the other.

One thing I did notice tho was how clean his playing was, he hit the notes precisely, distinctly, his attack was incredible.

While we're on the subject, has anyone tried the DBGDAD tuning for Dust My Broom?

all the slower versions sound better to me, also crossroads. i believe in that story.

It may be I'm not used to it, but the slowed down version sounds slowed down, if you know what I mean. Not natural in a way. The versions I got sound better slightly faster.

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

It may be I'm not used to it...

that's it, Yorkey.
just like those scratched Stones records you heard a million times and then get the CD. you're bound to think wtf - something's missing.

but it really makes sense while playing the guitar to it.

Great post, Vox.
gotta delve into it more when I have time.

My son's artist of choice these days is RJ, and he'll be blown away when I show him this- I think Crossroads sounds natural when slowed and it sounds 20% faster in the version we know- WOW

Yeah, very good post Vox.