Or so the legend goes but the truth was every bit as extraordinary - a country blues singer with a career shrouded in mystery, who died in his twenties, whose entire recorded output number only twenty nine songs which hardly sold during his short lifetime. And yet he has become to be regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century.
The legend goes that Johnson was told that if he took his guitar down to the crossroads outside Dockery's Plantation (Charley Patton's old stamping ground) at midnight and strummed out a tune, the Devil (or Legbra, an African derivative of Satan) would pick up the guitar and tune it so that he would be able to play anything he wanted and all Johnson would ever have to offer in return was his everlasting soul. Johnson took up this offer and returned as the ultimate blues artist.
A fanciful tale maybe but it is an interesting way to explain the almost supernatural talents of Johnson given that the facts about his life are so sparse. He was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in 1911. The birth was out of wedlock and his mother quickly married Charles Spencer who acted as the young Rob
ert's father. In fact Robert was known as Robert Spencer at the time. He would find out when he was seventeen that Noah Johnson was his real father and he quickly changed his name. Sometime around this period Robert married a sixteen year old girl who soon fell pregnant.It was then that Johnson developed an interest in music and he learned to play the harmonica. He came into contact with local blues legends such as Son House and Willie Brown. He would pester them.
As Son House said - "He wanted to play guitar. He'd sit at our feet and play during the breaks. Such a racket you never did hear. He had no skill on the guitar at all."
Johnson's wife would die in childbirth and the heartbroken young men left town and simply disappeared. Where he went or what he was up to nobody knew but when Son House saw him again, playing guitar and singing at a juke joint in the Banks area of Mississippi things had changed somewhat.
"When he finished playing,' Son House said. 'All our mouths were hanging open. I never did see anyone learn to play so fast."
As reports of his skill with the guitar spread the devil theory developed and soon became folklore. In 1936 Johnson signed to Columbia and recorded his entire songbook over a two four day periods. This included only 29 songs and a few alternative versions and incredibly all of them are considered blues classics. Johnson's playing involved a complicated picking style that made it sound as if there was more than one guitarist playing. An infectious bass line usually accompanied by a dazzling display of lead lines is Johnson's trademark.
"The blues is a low down aching chill. If you ain't ever had em, I hope you never will." Robert Johnson
All of Johnson's recordings were made in those four day sessions in 1936 and 1937. The following year he was dead - murdered after drinking a bottle of poisoned whiskey, probably supplied by the jealous husband of one of Johnson's many secret lovers.
Maybe the devil got his soul but we got his music. And we had by far the better deal.
3 comments:
Another trademark of Johnson that many or most later bluesmen copied was his habit of doubletiming a repeated line. It sounds so natural nowadays we don't notice it, but Johnson started it, I believe.
Sometimes he'd jump a line up an octave, too, which was less copied, unless the frequent use of sounds effects such as howling or train noises in blues descended from that.
Reminds me of 'Crossroads'. Not the soap - the Ralph Macchio movie.
I reread your post again. Got goosebumps from your lovely retelling of his legend.
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