Last Of The Great Mississippi Blues Singers

in 1936 and 37, a young musician named robertjohnson recorded 29 songs that would become some of the most influential blues music ofall time. johnson died about a year after he recordedhis music, he was only 27 years old. his life wasn’t documented very well, there’s alot that we don’t know about him. but one thing we do know is that although he’s becomea blues legend, he wasn’t always so talented. before johnson could play guitar very well,he often hung out around a juke joint where some famous blues musicians played, and beggedthem to let him play their guitars during breaks.son house, one of the bluesmen that played at the joint, recalled johnson’s first attemptat playing the guitar.

“(johnson) used to play harmonica when hewas ‘round fifteen, sixteen years old. he could blow harmonica pretty good. everybodyliked it. but heâ just got the idea that he wanted to play guitar…“so when we’d get to a rest period or something, we’d set the guitars up and goout – it would be hot in the summertime, so we’d go out and get in the cool, cooloff some. while we’re out, robert, he’d get the guitar and go bamming with it, youknow? just keeping noise, and the people didn’t like that. they’d come out and they’dtell us, ‘why don’t you… go in there and stop that boy? he’s driving everybodynuts’ … i’d say, ‘just leave the guitars alone… (but) we couldn’t break him fromit, and his father would get at him, dogged

him so much that he run away.”robert johnson disappeared for about six months. son house was playing in a juke joint withhis friend willie brown the night johnson reappeared.“me and willie, we was playing out at a little place called banks, mississippi. ilooked and i saw somebody squeezing in the front door, and i seed it was robert. i said‘bill, bill.’ he said, ‘huh.’i said, ‘look who’s coming in the door, got a guitar on his back.’he said, ‘yeah, no kidding.’ he said, ‘oh, that’s little robert.’i said, ‘yeah, that’s him.’ i said, ‘don’t say nothing.’and he wiggled his way through the crowd,

until he got over to wherewe was. i said, ‘boy, now where you going with that thing? t’annoysomebody else to death again?’ he said, ‘i’ll tell you what, too. ‘ hesaid, ‘this your rest time?’ i said, ‘well, we can make it our rest time.what you want to do, annoy the folks?’ he said, ‘no, just let me – give me atry.’ so i said, ‘all right, and you better dosomething with it, too,’ and i winked my eye at willie. so he sat down there and finallygot started. and man! he was so good! when he finished all our mouths were standing open.”robert johnson had transformed into such an incredible guitar player that some folks believedit was unnatural, even supernatural.

rumor had it, that during the six months he’dbeen away, johnson had learned some guitar from a bluesman named ike zimmerman.and they’d practiced at night in a graveyard. other people believed that robert johnsonhadn’t stopped there in his quest to master the guitar, they said he’d sold his soulto the devil to gain his talent. another bluesman explained how this process worked.“if you want to learn how to play anything you want to play and learn to make songs yourself,you take your guitar and you go where the road crosses that way, where a crossroad is.get there, be sure to get there just a little ‘fore midnight that night so you’ll knowyou be there. you have your guitar and be playing a piece there by yourself… a bigblack man will walk up there and take your

guitar, and he’ll tune it. and then he’llplay a piece and hand it back to you.” - tommy johnson (as quoted by ledell johnson)many of johnson’s own lyrics seemed to point to a supernatural force behind his music,leading many to suspect that he had gone to the crossroads and made a pact with the devil.songs like preachin blues, cross road blues, hellhound on my trail, and me and the devilblues invoke the haunting imagery of being chased by hellhounds, and answering a knockat the door to find the devil standing outside. as johnson rose to local fame, son house triedto warn him about the dangers of working in juke joints. “the women all liked robert,he was a good-looking boy, and when he got good enough to perform, i used to tell him,‘when a gal pats you on the shoulder and

says, ‘play it again, daddy,’ don’tget too excited. she’ll probably belong to someone else, and you might get yourselfkilled.’” it seems that johnson didn’t take his friend’swarnings to heart, because a short time later he passed away, quite possibly poisoned bya jealous husband or boyfriend. but even his death was tainted by strange rumors: manypeople who saw him on the day he died reported that they saw him crawling on his hands andknees, barking like a dog. those witnesses suspected that it wasn’t poison that broughtabout his demise, but the devil coming to collect his due.ten years after robert johnson’s death, his music achieved national fame. thirty yearsafter his death he was honored as a legend

at the rock and roll hall of fame.

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