100 years ago yesterday, Robert Johnson was born. Many would say he changed the course of Blues and Rock And Roll music forever during his short career.

He died a young man, at just 27 years old. He only cut a handful of songs in his life, but they have been re-recorded by countless other artists and will likely continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

According to Rob Bowman, Grammy-winning music historian and professor of ethnomusicology at York University in Toronto, “Robert Johnson’s a massive influence on blues and blues-based rock. He’s huge. If we look at the blues, there are three musicians who are absolutely seminal: Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson. Those three informed so much of the repertoire, aesthetics and playing techniques of people like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and so on. He’s incredibly important.”

His life story is so legendary, it’s hard to believe it’s true. Here’s a great telling of it by Darryl Sterdan (original at http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/06/icon-robert-johnson-remembered)

[content_box_grey width=”75%”]Johnson was born out of wedlock on May 8, 1911, in Mississippi. He spent his youth moving between parents, homes and towns, going by various surnames. Unlike many peers, he went to school. By 18, he was married. By 20, he was widowed. After his young wife died in childbirth, he abandoned family life for music. He had been playing harmonica since childhood and guitar since his teens. According to Delta blues legend Son House, Johnson was an embarrassingly bad guitarist. Then he left town — and came back with supernatural abilities. The legend — which Johnson wisely did little to refute — was that he gained his talent by selling his soul to Satan at a midnight crossroads.

The Devil didn’t toss fame and fortune into the deal. Johnson lived as an itinerant bluesman, roaming from town to town, playing juke joints, levee camps, streetcorners. He travelled to St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit and perhaps Windsor. He became a skilled performer with a keen ear, winning over audiences with pop hits of the day.

His own work was often darker and more complex — tales of devils and hellhounds, love in vain and his rambling life, voiced in his keening tenor and offset by his intricate guitar work. Remarkably, his recorded output consists of three sessions in late 1936 and early 1937. Over five days, he cut 29 original songs that would become cornerstones of blues: Sweet Home Chicago, Love in Vain, Ramblin’ on My Mind, Come on in My Kitchen, Cross Road Blues. He performed facing the corner in a San Antonio hotel room. Some claimed he was shy.

Dickinson and Bowman insist he was searching for a sound.

“I think he stumbled into it somehow, that playing into the corner of the room was going to give him much more presence on the record,” says Bowman. “And it does. Compared to other recordings from ’36 and ’37, those songs just leap out of the grooves.” Dickinson concurs: “He definitely knew what he was doing.”

He never did it again. Little over a year later, on Aug. 16, 1938, he died near Greenwood, Miss. As the story goes, he was given whiskey laced with strychnine — poisoned by the jealous husband of a woman he was wooing. He was 27. He was likely buried in a pauper’s grave; his exact resting place is disputed. Only two verified pictures of him exist. He could easily have been forgotten. Fate, however, had other plans.

Johnson’s records sold poorly during his life. But they found their way into the hands of Columbia Records producer John Hammond. In 1938, Hammond had tried to book Johnson for a Carnegie Hall revue, only to learn of his death. In 1961, he finally found a way to bring the bluesman to the masses: He convinced Columbia to release the LP King of the Delta Blues Singers.

“Hammond made sure that everyone he knew was hip to this album,” says Bowman. “Word quickly filtered from musician to musician and connoisseur to connoisseur that here was a guy who was a notch or two above his contemporaries. That got his songs circulating within the folk and blues revival scene, and eventually manifested itself in the wealth of covers performed in the late ’60s and early ’70s by a host of contemporary blues singers, as well as a whole lot of rock ‘n’ roll players like Cream, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.”[/content_box_grey]

For a list of great covers of Robert Johnson tunes, check out http://www.coversproject.com/artist/robert%20johnson/. Though they missed one of my favorites which is a Jeff Healey Band cover of “Stop Breakin’ Down” from their Cover To Cover album.

I know for myself, I’ve played several Robert Johnson tunes over the years, and I’ve always been surprised to find out that some of my favorite recordings were, in fact, covers of old Robert Johnson tunes.

Having such a short life and career and to have such an impact is something that very few artists can claim. The only other one that comes to mind is Jimi Hendrix.

One of the amazing things about Robert Johnson is the lack of documentation of his life. There are only a couple of pictures of him, but there is a video claiming to have footage of him now. I’ll let you decide…


    19 replies to "Remembering Robert Johnson"

    • dwayne oxner

      I dont believe Robert Johnson sold his soul, he lost his wife and child during child birth and after this he dedicated his life to playing guitar because it was all he had.

    • ben miller

      It is fascinating, but My money’s on Honey Boy Edwards… not Robert Johnson

    • pete browne

      Interesting, he died on August 16 as did another Mississippi legend…..Elvis Presley.

    • Ray Hayes

      Bill Morrissey passed away a couple weeks back. He has a song I really like that fortunately is on YouTube, about Robert Johnson.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsuVHd0e0P0

    • Rob from Australia

      Hi Catfish Hunter,
      I believe Hal Leonard publish ” Robert Johnson – The new transcriptions”. Hope this helps.
      I would also like to say Thanks to Griff for BGU and also all the extra free stuff he puts out there for us. I for one appreciate your efforts immensely.
      Regards Rob

    • Catfish Hunter

      Hey Griff, I have been researching Robert Johnson for a few years now. I was wondering if you are familiar with his songs? Do you know if there are tabs or if his original songs were ever transcribed as to the way he actually played? I am looking for the transcription or tabs to the song “Malted Milk”. He does some pretty fancy fingering in that one. I would appreciate any help or info you could possibly give me. Thanks Catfish

    • Pepe Vazquez

      WOW! I know that Robert Johnson died in 38 and this footage was taken in 41 or 42, but the resemblant is huge. Might be a brother or close relative. Could be? I am a Blues and Jazz player in Mexico City and I have a big collection of records from almost every blues singer/player but I don’t recognize this guy unless he actually is Robert Johnson, who made a pact with Satan and maybe he came back to life and he is still amongst all of us. Don’t you think so?
      Kind regards,
      Pepe.

    • SPEEDYONE

      My suggestion would be get this out on the net every where? Also, does it have sound to the recording? that would really catch more eyes and ears. I,m just starting to learn blues an,it would be something to tell my children an grandchildren. GOOD LUCK !!!!!!!

    • RUTH HOUSMAN

      Hi, I heard his grandson recently at House of Blues in Boston. He was awesome. This was a Robert Johnson Memorial Concert. Honey Boy played and he is ninety three and going strong. Another guitarist, whose name I can’t remember came on stage and he dragged a oxygen contraption but he too, was fabulous. It’s NEVER too late and there must be something about music because they got the House rocking.

    • john slegr

      anyone with a good eye could see that johnsons fingers gave him his talent.he probably got into a groove one night while drunk and progressed from there.

    • Chaliq

      Gotta stay away from the married ones I’m sure he had plenty of single woman folling him. But there is something to be said for the danger of gettin caught. I used to have that very same afflliction myself until I found the lady I’d been searchin for my whole life.

    • Chaliq

      Too bad no sound even for such a quick piece If it was Johnson I think there would have been more footage of him playing, he was a very famous guitarist & well known in the Black community.

    • John Campbell

      Does not Robert ‘Junior’ Lockwood claim to be Robert Lockwood’s son, (or perhaps step-son)? Aside from the obvious problem with the date of the movie clip, I should think Robert Junior would know.

      Thanks for bringing us this informative video.

    • wilbert Jennings

      Robert Johnson died very young just as did a lot of other future stars. Its seems strangs that this happened just as it did with Hank Williams Senior. We have probably been deprieved of great entertainment that we will have to wait until we get to heaven to hear their true potential.

    • Richard Kent

      I have the set ” Robert Johnson ” ” The Complete Recordings ” it is in 2 compact disk. All 41 Recordings of him. On the inside of the rectangal box the 2 disk came in, it has the story of him with more pictures of others.In the back, it has the lyrics of all 41 songs.The first picture of Robert Jonhson does look like him, with this man playing with harmonica. I was checking out his eyebrows,nose and if it is not him, he sure looks like Robert J. The guitar that is on the cover of my set, isn’t the same as the one showing in this film, but who knows if he played with other guitars. But if the film is from ’42 I guess it’s not him.

    • Garry Reynolds

      Hi Griff.
      The timeline is wrong for it to be Robert Johnson,he died in ’38 and the film is from ’42 plus the Bluesman say it isn’t him either so I’m with them!
      Case Closed.
      🙂

      It is an amazing piece of film though it shows how America has changed when compared to today.

      G.

    • Barry Ruhl

      I don’t if that was him in that old film. I do know that he is jamming with the devil right now.

    • Bill

      Thanks Griff, I’ve been researching Robert Johnson lately and though it does look somewhat like Robert, I’d have to say it probably is not. The man was an absolute genius on the guitar and have hoping you will give some lessons in his style. His music is and has been an inspiration for many of the the great Blues and Rock and Roll artists. Maybe someday we’ll meet him at the “Crossroads,” eh?
      Bill

    • alvaro

      thank you Griff. you have got me working hard on those bends, it hurts dude 🙂 joke! Thank you for reminding where our playing roots come from.

      Cheers and speak soon,

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