Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was among the most famous Delta Blues musicians and arguably the most influential. Considered by some to be the "Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll," his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style influenced a range of musicians, including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, U2, Led Zeppelin, and especially Eric Clapton, who called Johnson "the most important blues musician who ever lived."

Life

Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in 1911. His wife Virginia Travis died while giving birth on April 19, 1930.

Robert Johnson recorded only 29 songs on a total of 41 tracks extant in two recording sessions in San Antonio, Texas in November 1936 and Dallas, Texas in June 1937. Notable among these tracks are "Come on in My Kitchen", "Love in Vain", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Crossoads Blues", "Terraplane Blues", and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", all of which have been covered by other artists. Two modern collections of these recordings have been particularly influential to contemporary audiences, although many editions of his limited output have been released. King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961) helped popularize the blues for crossover audiences in the 1960s, and The Complete Recordings (1990) provided his entire oeuvre on one dual-CD set.

Johnson was a private man of his time, this being a major factor in modern day speculation about his life, death and musical career. Rumor and mythology have embraced Johnson throughout history; accounts, stories and truths have been fabricated many times over to tailor the legend. However, some things are known and recollections tells us of his secrecy toward the sharing of his own work with other musicians. When recording the 29 compositions (his life's work) he sat with his face to the wall while the recording was in process. Only speculation can explain this (could have been simply to increase isolation of the microphone for the sound quality of the recording, or so other people couldn't see how he played guitar and steal his style, which was common back in that day). Johnson was also known to be a womanizer, a drinker, and a rambler who often hopped trains for transportation—the walking incarnation of a "bluesman."

Speculation and mythology are rife concerning Johnson, especially with regard to his untimely end. Recollection survives that Johnson died after drinking whiskey poisoned with strychnine, supposedly given to him by the jealous husband of a lover or his own jealous girlfriend. Fellow blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson II was present the night of Johnson's poisoning (even warning him against accepting a pre-opened bottle of whiskey) giving the account that he died whilst on his hands and knees "howling and barking like a dog". The fact is that Johnson recovered from the initial poisoning and survived at least a couple of weeks only to contract pneumonia and die on 16 August 1938 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Also, it was reported that it was believed that Johnson died from syphilis; this has no basis in medical fact. The precise cause of death remains unknown; his death certificate simply states "no doctor" under cause of death. Johnson's last words were supposedly "I pray that my redeemer will come and take me from my grave."

The most widely known legend surrounding Robert Johnson says that he sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 61 and U.S. Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi in exchange for prowess in playing the guitar. Actually, the location Johnson made reference to is a short distance away from that intersection. The legend was told mainly by Son House, but finds no corroboration in any of Johnson's work, despite titles like "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Hellhound on My Trail". With this said, the song "Cross Road Blues" is both widely and loosely interpreted by many as a descriptive encounter of Johnson selling his soul. The older Tommy Johnson (no relation, although it is speculated that they were cousins), by contrast, also claimed to have sold his soul to the Devil. The story goes that if one would go to the crossroads a little before midnight and begin to play the guitar, a large black man would come up to the aspiring guitarist, retune his guitar and then hand it back. At this point (so the legend goes) the guitarist had sold his soul to become a virtuoso (A similar legend even surrounded virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini a century before.)

There are very few images of Johnson; only two confirmed photographs exist. An eight-second film, which was thought to show Robert Johnson, was proved not to be him; an image of a poster in its background advertised a film which was released two years after his death.

Influence

Johnson is widely cited as "the greatest blues singer of all time" or even the most important musician of the 20th century, but many listeners are disappointed by their first encounter with his work. This reaction may be because of their unfamiliarity with the raw emotion and sparse form of the Delta style or because of the thin sound of the recordings when compared to modern music production standards. Johnson's guitar work was adroit and his voice was high-pitched.

The claims made for Johnson's originality and even his influence are often greatly exaggerated. He certainly did not invent the blues, which had existed on record for over fifteen years before he recorded. His primary influence was the inimitable Son House who, more than anyone else (except his friend Charley Patton), can claim to have invented what is now considered the mainstream of the Delta blues, with his rough voice and searing slide guitar riffs played on a steel-bodied National guitar.

But Johnson added to this the keening whimsy of then-obscure Skip James and the jazzy inventiveness of Lonnie Johnson. Indeed, a couple of his songs are nothing other than imitations of his famous namesake. Johnson had also listened to Leroy Carr, who was probably the most popular male blues singer of the time, and based several songs on the records of the urban blues recording stars Kokomo Arnold (source for both "Sweet Home Chicago" and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom") and Peetie Wheatstraw.

What Johnson did with these and other diverse influences was create a new sound that was at once immediate and artful. His use of the bass strings to create a steady, rolling rhythm can be heard on songs like "Sweet Home Chicago". His penchant for strange snatches of melodic invention on the upper strings, mingling with a quite different vocal line, appears on "Walking Blues". Johnson played with the young Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson II, and allegedly trained his own stepson, Robert "Junior" Lockwood, as well.

There is a direct line of influence from Johnson to rock music. However, scholars feel that Johnson's major influence is on rock itself—particularly on white rock. Blues musician and historian Elijah Wald has written the controversial appraisal that "As far as the evolution of black music goes, Robert Johnson was an extremely minor figure, and very little that happened in the decades following his death would have been affected if he had never played a note."[1] His vastly exaggerated status as "the most important blues musician of all time," Wald demonstrates convincingly, came from the rock musicians and fans who wanted with the best of intentions to expand Johnson's reputation past its enormous impact on rock. The truth was that Johnson, although well traveled and always admired in his performances, was little heard by the standards of his time and place, and his records even less so. ("Terraplane Blues," sometimes described as Johnson's only hit record, outsold his others but was still a very minor success at best.) If one had asked black blues fans about Robert Johnson in the first twenty years after his death, writes Wald, "the response in the vast majority of cases would have been a puzzled 'Robert who?'"

Years after his death, however, Johnson's recordings saw a wide release and a fan club grew around them, including rock stars such as Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. When Keith Richards was first introduced to Johnson's music by his band mate Brian Jones, he replied, "Who is the other guy playing with him?", not realizing it was all Johnson playing on one guitar. Clapton described Johnson as "the most important blues musician who ever lived. ... His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice". The song "Crossroads" by British blues rock/psychedelic band Cream is a cover version of Johnson's "Cross Road Blues", about the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at the crossroads, although Johnson's original lyrics ("Standin' at the crossroads, tried to flag a ride") suggest he was merely hitchhiking rather than signing away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for being a great blues musician.

An important aspect of Johnson's singing, and indeed of all Delta Blues singing styles, and also of Chicago blues guitar playing, is the use of microtonality — his subtle inflections of pitch are part of the reason why his singing conveys such powerful emotion.

Johnson's recordings have remained continuously available since John Hammond convinced Columbia Records to compile the first Johnson LP, King of the Delta Blues Singers, in 1961. A sequel LP, assembling the rest of what could be found of Johnson's recordings, was issued in 1970. An omnibus two-CD set (The Complete Recordings) was released in 1990.

John P. Hammond (the son of the aforementioned John Hammond) produced a documentary in the early 1990s about Johnson's life in the Delta area.

In the summer of 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed Johnson at number five in their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time [2]

Major artists influenced by Johnson

Many artists have recorded Johnson's songs. The following musicians have been heavily influenced by him, as evidenced by recording several of his songs:

• Eric Clapton released in 2004 an album consisting solely of covers of Johnson's songs, Me and Mr. Johnson. In addition, he had previously performed or recorded I'm a Steady Rolling Man, Cross Road Blues, Malted Milk, From Four Until Late, and Ramblin' On My Mind.
• Led Zeppelin (Traveling Riverside Blues)
• Cream (Crossroads)
• The Rolling Stones (Love in Vain, Stop Breaking Down)
• Bob Dylan (Kindhearted Woman Blues, Milkcow's Calf Blues, Rambling On My Mind, I'm A Steady Rolling Man)
• Fleetwood Mac (Hellhound On My Trail, Kind Hearted Woman, Preachin' Blues, Dust My Broom, Sweet Home Chicago)
• Peter Green Splinter Group (all 29 songs)
• Keb' Mo (Come On In My Kitchen, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Kindhearted Woman Blues, Love In Vain)
• John Hammond Jr. (32-20 Blues, Milkcow's Calf Blues, Traveling Riverside Blues, Stones In My Passway, Crossroads Blues, Hellbound Blues [Hellhound On My Trail], Me And The Devil Blues, Walking Blues, Come On In My Kitchen, Preaching Blues, Sweet Home Chicago, When You Got A Good Friend, Judgement Day, Rambling Blues)
• Rory Block (Come On In My Kitchen, Hellhound On My Trail, If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day, Rambling On My Mind, Walking Blues, Cross Road Blues, Walking Blues, Kindhearted Man [Kindhearted Woman Blues], Terraplane Blues, When You Got a Good Friend, Me and the Devil Blues, Stones in my Passway, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Traveling Riverside Blues)
• Robert "Junior" Lockwood (32-20 Blues, Stop Breakin’ Down Blues, Little Queen Of Spades, I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom, Ramblin’ On My Mind, Love In Vain Blues, Kind Hearted Woman Blues, Walking Blues, I’m A Steady Rollin’ Man, Sweet Home Chicago)
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "They're Red Hot" as the last track on their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. John Frusciante, the guitarist of the group, has said that he listened to Johnson every single night throughout the writing and recording of the album. It had a heavy influence on his subsequent solo work in particular.
• The White Stripes covered "Stop Breaking Down Blues," dropping "Blues" in the title, on their eponymous debut album. They have also recorded Stop Breaking Down Blues as the b-side to their 2002 single, Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground. They have covered many Robert Johnson songs on stage, including Stones In My Passway.

Samples

• • Songs

    The entire collection is available on The Complete Recordings (1990, 2004)

    • ".32-20 Blues"
    • "Come on in My Kitchen" [two versions]
    • "Cross Road Blues" [two versions]
    • "Dead Shrimp Blues"
    • "Drunken Hearted Man" [two versions]
    • "From Four Till Late"
    • "Hellhound on My Trail"
    • "Honeymoon Blues"
    • "I'm a Steady Rollin' Man"
    • "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"
    • "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day"
    • "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" [two versions]
    • "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
    • "Little Queen of Spades" [two versions]
    • "Love in Vain" [two versions]
    • "Malted Milk"
    • "Me and the Devil Blues" [two versions]
    • "Milk Cow's Calf Blues" [two versions]
    • "Phonograph Blues" [two versions]
    • "Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)"
    • "Rambling on My Mind" [two versions]
    • "Stones in My Passway"
    • "Stop Breakin' Down Blues" [two versions]
    • "Sweet Home Chicago"
    • "Terraplane Blues"
    • "They're Red Hot"
    • "Traveling Riverside Blues" [two versions]
    • "Walkin' Blues"
    • "When You Got a Good Friend" [two versions]

    Books about Robert Johnson

    • Blues World - Booklet No.1 - Robert Johnson - Four Editions, First published 1967
    • Booklet accompanying the Complete Recordings box set, Stephen LaVere, Sony Music Entertainment, 1990
    • Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, Alan Greenberg, Stanley Crouch, Martin Scorsese, 1994, ISBN 030680557X
    • Searching for Robert Johnson, Peter Guralnick , 1998, ISBN 0452279496
    • Robert Johnson: Lost and Found, Barry Lee Pearson, Bill McCulloch, 2003, ISBN 025202835X
    • Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Elijah Wald, 2004, ISBN 0060524235
    • Hellhound on My Trail: The Life of Robert Johnson, Bluesman Extraordinaire, Robert Wolf, 2004, ISBN 1568461461
    • Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture, Patricia R. Schroeder, 2004, ISBN 0252029151

    Films about Robert Johnson

    • Crossroads, 1986 (loosely based on the theme of a blues artist selling his soul to the devil)
    • The Search for Robert Johnson, 1992
    • Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life and Music of Robert Johnson, 1997
    • Hellhounds On My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson (2000). Directed by Robert Mugge.

    Other

    • "Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson," a CD from Yazoo records, includes many of the records Johnson himself heard and learned from.
    • Currently, a manga running in the Japanese magazine Afternoon called 俺と悪魔ブルーズ(Me and the Devil Blues) is clearly influenced by events of Johnson's life, and the protagonist is named "RJ". However, it is not attempting to be a biography.
    • The Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? contains a character named Tommy Johnson who co-opts the appearance of Robert Johnson in the iconic Studio Portrait photograph and their parallel devil story, while performing the music of their contemporary Skip James.
    • The Sherman Alexie novel "Reservation Blues" has a fictional account of Robert Johnson faking his death and hiding out on an Indian reservation.
    • The webcomic Achewood has portrayed Robert Johnson as a resident of Hell, performing nightly in the Brookside Lounge of Hell's Best Western, despite its being closed. [3]

    External links

    • The Official Robert Johnson Website
    • The Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum & Gallery (dedicated to the Life and Music of Robert Johnson)
    • Website at the University of Virginia
    • Currently available recordings
    • 'Trail of the Hellhound' website by the National Park Service
    • Use of microtones in the vocals of Robert Johnson
    • Site for "Escaping the Delta," with links to related material
    • Delta Guitar Player Robert Johnson
    • Robert Johnson at Find-A-Grave
    • Video profile on Robert Johnson, a member of the Club of 27 - music artists who died at the age of 27

    
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