When someone realize how popular still is
today, Robert Johnson's music and how many artists have been
influenced by him, he can't but wonder what is this which makes a
musician, who was born and lived nearly a century ago, so important.
Indeed Robert Johnson is one of the few Delta Blues musicians who is
recognizable even from people who have very little connection with
the genre. So, what makes his music so important and his figure so
influential so an artist like Keith Richards states “you wanna know
how much good the Blues can be? Well that's it” and a musician like
Eric Clapton to add “he was the most important Blues musician”?
In this second part of our small tribute to Robert Johnson we will be
occupied with the music part; ie his songs, his recordings and his
guitar technique’s as well. But in order to address all these we
first have to mention some general information about the Blues.
So let's begin.
The
word Blues derives from the expression “Blues Devil's” which was
used to describe the feeling of sorrow and depression. The first song
that uses this word are the “Dallas Blues”of Harry A. Wand
(1912).
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Sheet
music of "Dallas Blues"
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Although
the Blues first appeared in the beginning of the 20th century their
origins are much older. A very important date for the development of
the Blues and the American history in general is the 1st of January
of 1863. A date in which President Abraham Lincoln had signed the
Emancipation Act, amidst the harsh years of the American Civil War
(1861-65). But how a political act can influence the development of a
music genre?
After
the end of the war all the slaves in the American South were finally
liberated and their labor was therefore paid. In this particular era
places like the “Juke Joints” started to rise as recreational
places for the African Americans. It's natural that they needed music
to entertain their customers and so a new music genre was created. A
genre which came to contradiction with the gospels which were the
religious music of the African Americans. This “secular” music
eventually evolved in what we know today as the Blues. But let's add
some info about the African American music in general. African
American music has it's roots on the fusion of African tradition of
call and response shouts with the western European ecclesiastic
music. During the 18th century the slaves were converted to
Christianity and they adopted the western Christian music techniques.
Indeed the Christian hymns such as those of Isaac Watts were very
popular among the slave population.
As
it was mentioned above the end of slavery during the 19th century had
played a very important role in the development of the Blues. The
Blues were evolved in contrast with the spirituals, which were the
religious music.
Another
aspect of the
consequenses which brought
the Emancipation Act was a turn towards individualism. The liberated
slaves started to share the American national ideology which was
always based on the individual. Furthermore the economical basis of
African Americans change from slavery to small farming business,
sharecroping etc. That means that they were adopted to the capitalist
system of production than the old anachronistic slave system. If we
use a classic marxian tool of understanding how societies work on
which the basis is always the economical system· we can understand
this shift from collective songs (work songs etc) to a more
individualistic music such as the Blues. In this context the
musicians started to speak to their songs for personal matters (the
love for a woman etc). Inside this environment a new genre of music
stared to rise; the Delta Blues. So let's see how this genre evolved.
First
of all when we talk about the Delta we do not mean the Mississippi
river Delta but the area between the Mississippi and the Yazoo river
which is located in the northwestern part of the state. The people
off this region, even though it's particular fertile were very poor
and there the first form of Blues music was evolved. A basic feature
of Delta Blues is the emphasis on the rhythm and the guitar technique
of bottleneck slide which gave this very unique sound. We have to
mention that the Delta Blues doesn't have a regional characterization
and many artists were originated from areas outside the Delta· for
instance Skip James and Elmore James were born in other areas of the
American South. But allthough the history of the Delta Blues music
evolution is very interesting it exceeds this tribute to Robert
Johnson.
So
let's move on to Johnson. Although Johnson was born and raise inside
the Delta he had adopted a very unique style which is differentiates
him from other Delta Blues musicians. In his songs we can find
features which appear in later Blues styles, such as the Chicago and
New Orleans Blues. Such features can be found on songs such as “Kind
Hearted Woman Blues”. This came due to Johnson’s ability, or
better the charisma to be able to play any kind of music he heard
even if he heard it just once. This helped him adopt in his songs
elements from other music genres such as the ragtime.
Another
unique feature of Robert Johnson is the way he played the guitar.
Johnson had the ability to play at the same time the rhythm and also
play the notes of his voice, creating thus the sense that there were
two guitars playing at same time. Indeed when Keith Richards first
listen to his music he asked Brian Adams who introduce him to
Johnson’s music “who is playing the other guitar”. This
technique was later adopted and perfected by another great Blues
musician, B.B. King. Beside his guitar skills, Johnson was is well
known for his exceptional voice, which is characterized by
microtonality, something that endows his songs with a unique passion.
All these elements render Johnson as a truly pioneer of Delta Blues
and of Blues in general and justifies his reputation as a musician
who was way ahead of his time.
Johnson
left us 29 songs which he recorded in two sessions. At the first
session he recorded 13 songs. The most popular songs from this
session are “Hellhound on my Trail” and “Love in Vain”. The
second session took place during 1937 in Dallas and 16 more songs
were recorded.
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Johnsons
78rpm disk
" I believe I 'll dust my room"
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We
have to note that these sessions were made inside primitive studios
which were set up hastily inside hotel rooms. During that era there
was a trend for “race music” and many recording companies were
trying to catch the new sound which started to rise in the South.
From these sessions there were released twelve 78s on the Vocalion
label. The first eleven were released during his lifetime and another
posthumously. After his death in August 1938 Johnson disappeared from
the musical foreground and reappeared only in 1961 when Columbia
released an album, titled “King of the Delta Blues Singers”,
which was a compilation of his works. This album saw great success
and introduced Johnson to wider audiences. This album influenced
musicians such as Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and many
others and finally gave Johnson the place which he holds as one off
the greatest and most influential music artists of the 20th century.
