As
I 've wrote in the first post, my first contact with the Delta Blues
came some years ago when I accidentally “discovered” Robert
Johnson, this legendary figure of the Blues. Although I already had a
contact with the genre, this “return to the roots” was something
truly amazing. Robert Johnson was a musician who changed, in his 27
years of his life, the history of blues music. With that in mind the
first subject that will occupy us in deltacrossroads naturally will
have to do with the great grandfather of rock. This “tribute” to
Robert Johnson has been divided in three parts. In the first part
there will be a short bio of his life and the second will regard his
music. Finally in the third and last part we will see his legend and
how these survive until today. In the third part we shall also see
the myth of his contract with the Devil.
The
Life of Robert Johnson
Robert
Leroy Johnson was born in May the 8th of 1911 in Hazlehurst
Mississippi. His parents were Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson.
When Robert was seven years old his mother and him moved in
Robinsonville. During that period his mother was married again with
Dusty Willis who was twenty four years younger! Robert went to school
in Robinsonville. An old classmate later stated he had already had a
connection with music whilst he played the harmonica. Johnson almost
right after school was married, according with the customs of his
times. His wife was Virginia Travis. But Johnson wasn't meant to live
a normal and quiet life...Shortly after his marriage he became a
widower. His wife and child died in labor and Robert was left alone.
This incident as naturally devastated him.
Around
this time in Robinsonville arrived one of the pioneers of the Delta
blues; Son House and with his friend Willie Brown were playing the
blues in the juck joints of Robinsonville and Johnson started playing
with them, or better tried to play, since his skills were very
limited at the time. Son House later remembered Johnson as “a child
who followed him trying to copy his style. Some other sources report
that he used to fill in when House and Brown took a break. In fact we
have a source that says that one time a customer told him to stop
because his was “intolerable”. However these reports are disputed
because as we know from other sources he had already moved back in
Hazlehurst where he was married for the second time. Then Johnson
disappeared with his wife in the Delta for eight months and when he
came back he had transformed in a tremendous bluesman. This fact had
later fueled the legend that he sold his soul to the Devil in order
to acquire his skills in the guitar. According with the myth Robert
Johnson bittered from his wife death traded his soul, but the myth
will concern us in the last part of this short tribute...
After
his return from the Delta he started playing in various places in
Mississippi and other states, a fact that forced his wife to leave
him. After this turn of events Johnson is transformed into a tireless
traveling musician, a lifestyle that hold on to it until the end of
his turbulent life. During his travels he recorded twenty nine songs
which
helped making him
the
legend he is today. These recording took place in hotel rooms in two
sessions. Meanwhile
he continued his journeys in the American south but also reached
places like New York and further north like Chicago and even Ontario
Canada.
When he first came to a town he played sometimes in the streets and
other times in juck joints, whilst
we used to stay in relatives, because his extended family was very
large, or in some girlfriends house.
Inside one of these joints his met his death under mysterious
circumstances. Johnson renowned for his lust for women was flirting
with the owners wife. The owner blinded by jealousy poisoned his
liqueur with strychnine. Johnson in a matter of days was dead in
terrible pains and agony in the age of twenty seven...
Robert
Johnson died young but he left behind something better than just the
reputation of a great musician; he left behind him a legend that it
continues until today. Robert Johnson may left this world young but
his music will be around for many more years to come.
