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According to legend he sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of highways 49 and 61 in Mississippi. Could the MS. DOT have been responsible for all of this?
Johnson was a better guitar player than most of his contemporaries, and could play popular early jazz tunes the most of the other's couldn't. His high, keening vocal style was more common, but the two together made him really popular, and popularity breeds imitation. Later bluesmen took up his style.
In truth, Johnson was pretty much forgotten until the young Brits discovered him in the early 60s. Without Eric Clapton, Eric Burdon, and the Rolling Stones, Johnson would be just a minor historical mention now.
Muddy Waters was the blues guy who rocked. So was Bo Diddley. Neither knew Robt. Johnson for Adam's off ox.
The crossroads legend is ancient. It goes all the way back to pre-Christian celtic tales, and was carried over here by the Scots-Irish protestants who settled in both the north and south. It's the same story used to hang witches up north, and down south, the slaves enjoyed a good spooky tale as much as anybody, and it matched similar stories told in mother Africa.
For the white southerners, it was the fiddlers or banjo players who made the deal with the devil. For the black folks, it was the bluesman. Both races had rambling musicians back then, who walked into town, played for whoever paid them pocket change or better, carried a pistol, drank bad whiskey, and rambled on.
Dock Boggs, the white banjo player, packed the same story with him that Johnson had. And like Johnson, Boggs had a voice that makes your hair stand straight up, and a reputation of hard drinking, fighting, and stealing another man's woman.
The only big difference between them was Johnson got killed early due to his misbehavior, and Boggs quit music and went down in the mines when he married. He managed to survive long enough to be rediscovered during the folk music craze of the early 60's, and became re-known while he was still alive.
Mississippi John Hurt was another early bluesman who lived long enough to be re-discovered, as was Bukka White, and Son House, the REAL guy who made a deal with the devil. If you listen to Son House sing Hellhound, your blood is guaranteed to run cold and your face will turn pale. House knew Johnson, and was the guy who carried House's case around. Until Ralph Rinzler found him, he had been thought to be dead for almost 30 years.
That belief was really common. Johnson and all the others weren't old men when they recorded, but their records all sounded ancient and very strange to white folks who had never been south. That many were recorded at all was a lucky break.
A couple of guys from a small record company learned there was a regional market for old songs in the south. That picture of Johnsaon looking all natty, holding his guitar, was taken at the same hotel that took the first picture of the Carter family, Johnny Cashes in-laws.
In one recording session over 4 days in that same hotel, Robert Johnson, the father of the blues, the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Dock Boggs, and a bunch of others, all cut their first recordings. All in the same room, one after the other. Every one of them got $50 a song, more money than they ever saw in one place in their lives. All had read the same newspaper ad, and showed up in Bristol, Tennessee at the same time.
If the recording machine had broken, we would have known nothing about any of them.
Every single one of those records sold big, and sold as much in the northern cities as in the south. Lots of rural southerners moved to the north because that's where the jobs were, but they hungered for the music of their roots.
Last edited by banjomike; 11-07-2013 at 11:42 PM..
According to the Rock n Roll hall of fame, he was the "bedrock" upon which rock was built.
According to legend he sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of highways 49 and 61 in Mississippi. Could the MS. DOT have been responsible for all of this?
What do you think?
yes, MDOT was definitely responsible for the perils of rock n' roll decadence
Johnson was a better guitar player than most of his contemporaries, and could play popular early jazz tunes the most of the other's couldn't. His high, keening vocal style was more common, but the two together made him really popular, and popularity breeds imitation. Later bluesmen took up his style.
In truth, Johnson was pretty much forgotten until the young Brits discovered him in the early 60s. Without Eric Clapton, Eric Burdon, and the Rolling Stones, Johnson would be just a minor historical mention now.
Muddy Waters was the blues guy who rocked. So was Bo Diddley. Neither knew Robt. Johnson for Adam's off ox.
The crossroads legend is ancient. It goes all the way back to pre-Christian celtic tales, and was carried over here by the Scots-Irish protestants who settled in both the north and south. It's the same story used to hang witches up north, and down south, the slaves enjoyed a good spooky tale as much as anybody, and it matched similar stories told in mother Africa.
For the white southerners, it was the fiddlers or banjo players who made the deal with the devil. For the black folks, it was the bluesman. Both races had rambling musicians back then, who walked into town, played for whoever paid them pocket change or better, carried a pistol, drank bad whiskey, and rambled on.
Dock Boggs, the white banjo player, packed the same story with him that Johnson had. And like Johnson, Boggs had a voice that makes your hair stand straight up, and a reputation of hard drinking, fighting, and stealing another man's woman.
The only big difference between them was Johnson got killed early due to his misbehavior, and Boggs quit music and went down in the mines when he married. He managed to survive long enough to be rediscovered during the folk music craze of the early 60's, and became re-known while he was still alive.
Mississippi John Hurt was another early bluesman who lived long enough to be re-discovered, as was Bukka White, and Son House, the REAL guy who made a deal with the devil. If you listen to Son House sing Hellhound, your blood is guaranteed to run cold and your face will turn pale. House knew Johnson, and was the guy who carried House's case around. Until Ralph Rinzler found him, he had been thought to be dead for almost 30 years.
That belief was really common. Johnson and all the others weren't old men when they recorded, but their records all sounded ancient and very strange to white folks who had never been south. That many were recorded at all was a lucky break.
A couple of guys from a small record company learned there was a regional market for old songs in the south. That picture of Johnsaon looking all natty, holding his guitar, was taken at the same hotel that took the first picture of the Carter family, Johnny Cashes in-laws.
In one recording session over 4 days in that same hotel, Robert Johnson, the father of the blues, the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Dock Boggs, and a bunch of others, all cut their first recordings. All in the same room, one after the other. Every one of them got $50 a song, more money than they ever saw in one place in their lives. All had read the same newspaper ad, and showed up in Bristol, Tennessee at the same time.
If the recording machine had broken, we would have known nothing about any of them.
Every single one of those records sold big, and sold as much in the northern cities as in the south. Lots of rural southerners moved to the north because that's where the jobs were, but they hungered for the music of their roots.
Very interesting information! Thanks.
Note that said legend is featured in the wonderful movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou".
The Ralph Baccio movie 'Crossroads' was based on the Robt. Johnson legend as well.
Crossroads and intersections are always good for a scare. Back in the day when all roads were dark at night, approaching a crossroads could be terrifying in a number of ways. A traveller couldn't see who may be approaching from the other direction, so skullduggery could happen. Taking the wrong road could get a person very lost and in trouble. Crossroads were good places for strangers to trade with each other, and a good place to share news and stories.
Criminals were left hanging on gibbets as warnings, because there is a lot of traffic at a crossroads.
All kinds of stuff. I always thought the Johnson legend was passed around as a warning. He was a good looking guy, got to be well known, drank heavily, had a reputation as a rake-hell, and died young.
Mothers and fathers would caution their young men to avoid such a life when the kid was striking out on his own. There are many cautionary tales that are warnings.
Hansel and Gretel, for example, cautioned young children not to wander too far from home, because it was common for young children to wander into the woods and become lost forever. Little Red Riding Hood is a warning to young girls to stay away from strange men. If you start thinking about them this way, most of the Grimm brother's stories are warnings.
He left town a bad guitar player, found a good player to teach him, returned home a great player. That according to his descendents.
Yup. That guy was Son House. House was only a few years older than Johnson, but he started playing younger. He also lived a lot longer life; like many of them, he eventually quit the road and spent most of his life sharecropping and only playing at home. I think he died in his early 70s.
Son used a barlow knife for a slide, a technique Johnson rarely used, but Son taught him what to do with his right hand, and Son had a powerful sense of rhythm. He also used a lot of volume dynamics, where he would play very hard, then back way off and play softly. Johnson picked all this stuff up.
The early blues men often traveled in pairs, mostly because it was safer. Some were blind, like Blind Lemon Jefferson, and he always had some kid who wanted to learn with him. Jefferson may have also been an influence on Johnson, as he was a more sophisticated player who knew a lot of chords and little tricks with his left hand.
All those guys, white and black, were a pretty small bunch. They all knew each other by and large and probably swapped tunes on occasion, even if they really didn't hang out with each other.
Not all were guitar players. Some were fiddlers, and some played the banjo. Some would pick up a drummer or a fife player sometimes. The African fife was a common home made instrument. Jugs were sometimes used as a bass, and washboards instead of drums. After the kazoo was invented, a lot of them used kazoos to imitate horns.
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