(May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a Faustian myth. As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson enjoyed little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime.

His records sold poorly during his lifetime, and it was only after the first reissue of his recordings on LP in 1961 that his work reached a wider audience. Johnson is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly of the Mississippi Delta blues style. He is credited by many rock musicians as an important influence; Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived.”[1][2] Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “Early Influence” in their first induction ceremony in 1986.[3] In 2003, David Fricke ranked Johnson fifth in Rolling Stone ’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.[4]

Life and career

Early life

Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, possibly on May 8, 1911,[5] to Julia Major Dodds (born October 1874) and Noah Johnson (born December 1884). Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker with whom she had 10 children. Charles Dodds had been forced by a mob to leave Hazlehurst following a dispute with white landowners. Julia left Hazlehurst with baby Robert but after some two years sent him to live in Memphis with her husband, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.[6]

Around 1919, Robert rejoined his mother in the area around Tunica and Robinsonville, Mississippi. Julia’s new husband was known as Dusty Willis; he was 24 years her junior. Robert was remembered by some residents as “Little Robert Dusty,”[7] but he was registered at Tunica’s Indian Creek School as Robert Spencer. In the 1920 census he is listed as Robert Spencer, living in Lucas, Arkansas with Will and Julia Willis. Robert was at school in 1924 and 1927[8] and the quality of his signature on his marriage certificate[9] suggests that he was relatively well educated for a boy of his background. One school friend, Willie Coffee, has been discovered and filmed, recalling that Robert was already noted for playing the harmonica and jaw harp.[10] He also remembers that Robert was absent for long periods, which suggests that he may have been living and studying in Memphis.[11]

After school, Robert adopted the surname of his natural father, signing himself as Robert Johnson on the certificate of his marriage to sixteen-year-old Virginia Travis in February 1929. She died in childbirth shortly after.[12] Surviving relatives of Virginia told the blues researcher Robert “Mack” McCormick that this was a divine punishment for Robert’s decision to sing secular songs, known as ‘selling your soul to the Devil’. McCormick believes that Johnson himself accepted the phrase as a description of his resolve to abandon the settled life of a husband and farmer to become a full-time blues musician.[13]

Around this time, the noted blues musician Son House moved to Robinsonville where his musical partner, Willie Brown, lived. Late in life, House remembered Johnson as a ‘little boy’ who was a competent harmonica player but an embarrassingly bad guitarist. Soon after, Johnson left Robinsonville for the area around Martinsville, close to his birthplace Hazlehurst, possibly searching for his natural father. Here he perfected the guitar style of Son House and learned other styles from Isaiah “Ike” Zimmerman.[14] Ike Zimmerman was rumored to have learned supernaturally to play guitar by visiting graveyards at midnight.[15] When Johnson next appeared in Robinsonville, he had seemed to have acquired a miraculous guitar technique.[16] House was interviewed at a time when the legend of Johnson’s pact with the Devil was well known among blues researchers. He was asked whether he attributed Johnson’s technique to this pact, and his equivocal answers have been taken as confirmation.[5]

While living in Martinsville, Johnson fathered a child with Vergie Mae Smith. He also married Caletta Craft in May 1931. In 1932, the couple moved to Clarksdale in the Delta. Here Caletta fell ill and Johnson abandoned her for a career as a ‘walking’ (itinerant) musician.[17]

Itinerant musician

From 1932 until his death in 1938, Johnson moved frequently between large cities like Memphis, Tennessee and Helena, Arkansas and the smaller towns of the Mississippi Delta and neighboring regions of Mississippi and Arkansas.[18][19] On occasion, he travelled much further. Fellow blues musician Johnny Shines accompanied him to Chicago, Texas, New York, Canada, Kentucky, and Indiana.[20] Henry Townsend shared a musical engagement with him in St Louis.[21] In many places he stayed with members of his large extended family, or with women friends.[22] He did not marry again but formed some long-term relationships with women to whom he would return periodically. One was Estella Coleman, the mother of the blues musician Robert Lockwood, Jr. In other places he stayed with a woman seduced at his first performance.[23][24] In each location, Johnson’s hosts were largely ignorant of his life elsewhere. He used different names in different places, employing at least eight distinct surnames.[25]

Biographers have looked for consistency from musicians who knew Johnson in different contexts: Shines, who travelled extensively with him; Lockwood who knew him as his mother’s partner; David “Honeyboy” Edwards whose cousin Willie Mae Powell had a relationship with Johnson.[26] From a mass of partial, conflicting, and inconsistent eyewitness accounts,[27] biographers have attempted to summarize Johnson’s character. “He was well mannered, he was soft spoken, he was indecipherable”.[28] ”As for his character, everyone seems to agree that, while he was pleasant and outgoing in public, in private he was reserved and liked to go his own way”.[29] ”Musicians who knew Johnson testified that he was a nice guy and fairly average — except, of course, for his musical talent, his weakness for whiskey and women, and his commitment to the road.”[30]

When Johnson arrived in a new town, he would play for tips on street corners or in front of the local barbershop or a restaurant. Musical associates have said that in live performances Johnson often did not focus on his dark and complex original compositions, but instead pleased audiences by performing more well known pop standards of the day[31] – and not necessarily blues. With an ability to pick up tunes at first hearing, Johnson had no trouble giving his audiences what they wanted, and certain of his contemporaries later remarked on Johnson’s interest in jazz and country music. Johnson also had an uncanny ability to establish a rapport with his audience; in every town in which he stopped, Johnson would establish ties to the local community that would serve him well when he passed through again a month or a year later.

Fellow musician Shines was 17 when he met Johnson in 1933. He estimated Johnson was maybe a year older than himself. In Samuel Charters’ Robert Johnson, the author quotes Shines as saying:

“Robert was a very friendly person, even though he was sulky at times, you know. And I hung      around Robert for quite a while. One evening he disappeared. He was kind of a peculiar fellow. Robert’d be standing up playing some place, playing like nobody’s business. At about that time it was a hustle with him as well as a pleasure. And money’d be coming from all directions. But Robert’d just pick up and walk off and leave you standing there playing. And you wouldn’t see Robert no more maybe in two or three weeks … So Robert and I, we began journeying off. I was just, matter of fact, tagging along.”

During this time Johnson established what would be a relatively long-term relationship with Estella Coleman, a woman about fifteen years his senior and the mother of musician Robert Lockwood, Jr. Johnson reportedly cultivated a woman to look after him in each town he played in. Johnson supposedly asked homely young women living in the country with their families whether he could go home with them, and in most cases the answer was ‘yes’…until a boyfriend arrived or Johnson was ready to move on.

In 1941, Alan Lomax learned from Muddy Waters that Johnson had performed in the Clarksdale, Mississippi area.[32] By 1959, historian Samuel Charters could only add that Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Band remembered Johnson had once briefly played with him in West Memphis, Arkansas.[33] In the last year of his life, Johnson is believed to have traveled to St. Louis and possibly Illinois, and then to some states in the East.

In 1938, Columbia Records producer John H. Hammond, who owned some of Johnson’s records, had record producer Don Law seek out Johnson out to book him for the first “From Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. On learning of Johnson’s death, Hammond replaced him with Big Bill Broonzy, but still played two of Johnson’s records from the stage.[34]

Recording sessions

In Jackson, Mississippi, around 1936, Johnson sought out H. C. Speir, who ran a general store and doubled as a talent scout. Speir put Johnson in touch with Ernie Oertle, who offered to record the young musician in San Antonio, Texas. The recording session was held on November 23, 1936 in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio,[35][36][37] which Brunswick Records had set up to be a temporary recording studio. In the ensuing three-day session, Johnson played sixteen selections, and recorded alternate takes for most of these. Johnson reportedly performed facing the wall, which has been cited as evidence he was a shy man and reserved performer. This conclusion was played up in the inaccurate liner notes of the 1961 album King of the Delta Blues Singers. Ry Cooder speculates that Johnson played facing a corner to enhance the sound of the guitar, a technique he calls “corner loading”.[38]

Among the songs Johnson recorded in San Antonio were “Come On In My Kitchen“, “Kind Hearted Woman Blues“, “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” and “Cross Road Blues“. The first songs to appear were “Terraplane Blues” and “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”, probably the only recordings of his that he would live to hear. “Terraplane Blues” became a moderate regional hit, selling 5,000 copies.

His first recorded song, “Kind Hearted Woman Blues”, was part of a cycle of spin-offs and response songs that began with Leroy Carr‘s “Mean Mistreater Mama” (1934). According to Wald, it was “the most musically complex in the cycle”[39] and stood apart from most rural blues as a through-composed lyric, rather than an arbitrary collection of more-or-less unrelated verses.[40] In contrast to most Delta players, Johnson had absorbed the idea of fitting a composed song into the three minutes of a 78 rpm side.[41] Most of Johnson’s “somber and introspective” songs and performances come from his second recording session.[42]

In 1937, Johnson traveled to Dallas, Texas, for another recording session in a makeshift studio at the Vitagraph (Warner Brothers) Building, 508 Park Avenue, where Brunswick Record Corporation was located on the third floor.[43] Eleven records from this session would be released within the following year. Johnson did two takes of most of these songs and recordings of those takes survived. Because of this, there is more opportunity to compare different performances of a single song by Johnson than for any other blues performer of his time and place.[44]. By the time he died, at least six of his records had been released in the South as race records.

Playback issues in extant recordings

The accuracy of the pitch and speed of the extant recordings has been questioned. In The Guardian‘s music blog from May 2010, Jon Wilde states that “the common consensus among musicologists is that we’ve been listening to [Robert] Johnson at least 20% too fast;” i.e., that “the recordings were accidentally speeded up when first committed to 78 [rpm records], or else were deliberately speeded up to make them sound more exciting.”[45] He does not give a source for this statement. Former Sony music executive Lawrence Cohn, who won a Grammy for the label’s 1991 reissue of Johnson’s works, “acknowledges there’s a possibility Johnson’s 1936–37 recordings were speeded up, since the OKeh/Vocalion family of labels, which originally issued the material, was ‘notorious’ for altering the speed of its releases. ‘Sometimes it was 78 rpms, sometimes it was 81 rpms,’ he says. It’s impossible to check the original sources, since the metal stampers used to duplicate the original 78 discs disappeared years ago.”[46]

Death

Johnson died on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27, near Greenwood, Mississippi. He had been playing for a few weeks at a country dance in a town about 15 miles (24 km) from Greenwood. Differing accounts and theories attempt to shed light on the events preceding his death. A story often told is that one evening Johnson began flirting with a woman at a dance, the wife of the juke joint owner, according to rumor, unaware that the bottle of whiskey she gave to Johnson had been poisoned by her husband. In another version, she was a married woman unrelated to the juke joint owner. Johnson was allegedly offered an open bottle of whiskey that was laced with strychnine. Fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson allegedly advised him never to drink from an offered bottle that had already been opened. According to Williamson, Johnson replied, “Don’t ever knock a bottle out of my hand.” Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey, also laced with strychnine, and accepted it. Johnson is reported to have begun feeling ill the evening after drinking from the bottle and had to be helped back to his room in the early morning hours. Over the next three days, his condition steadily worsened and witnesses reported that he died in a convulsive state of severe pain—symptoms which are consistent with strychnine poisoning.

Musicologist Robert “Mack” McCormick claims to have tracked down the man who murdered Johnson, and to have obtained a confession from him in a personal interview. McCormick has declined to reveal the man’s name, however.[47]

In his book Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, Tom Graves uses expert testimony from toxicologists to dispute the notion that Johnson died of strychnine poisoning. He states that strychnine has such a distinctive odor and taste that it cannot be disguised, even in strong liquor. He also claims that a significant amount of strychnine would have to be consumed in one sitting to be fatal, and that death from the poison would occur within hours, not days. This observation was also noted in a recent Guitar World comment from contemporary David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who said that it couldn’t have been strychnine, since he would have died much sooner than the three days he suffered.

Gravesite

The exact location of his grave is officially unknown; three different markers have been erected at possible church cemetery burial sites outside of Greenwood.[48]

Research in the 1980s and 1990s strongly suggests Johnson was buried in the graveyard of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church near Morgan City, not far from Greenwood, in an unmarked grave. A one-ton cenotaph in the shape of an obelisk, listing all of Johnson’s song titles, with a central inscription by Peter Guralnick, was placed at this location in 1990, paid for by Columbia Records and numerous smaller contributions made through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund.

In 1990 a small marker with the epitaph “Resting in the Blues” was placed in the cemetery of Payne Chapel near Quito, by the cemetery’s owner. This alleged burial site, in an apparent attempt to strengthen a claim, happens to be located in the center of Richard Johnson’s family plot.

More recent research by Stephen LaVere (including statements from Rosie Eskridge, the wife of the supposed gravedigger) indicates that the actual gravesite is under a big pecan tree in the cemetery of the Little Zion Church, north of Greenwood along Money Road. Sony Music has placed a marker at this site.

An interviewee in the documentary The Search for Robert Johnson (1991) suggests that due to poverty and lack of transportation Johnson is most likely to have been buried in a pauper’s grave (or “potter’s field“) very near where he died.

Devil Legend

According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Robert Johnson was branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician. He was “instructed” to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The “Devil” played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This was in effect, a deal with the Devil mirroring the legend of Faust. In exchange for his soul, Robert Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous. [49]

Various accounts

This legend was developed over time, and has been chronicled by Gayle Dean Wardlow,[50] Edward Komara[51] and Elijah Wald, who sees the legend as largely dating from Johnson’s rediscovery by white fans more than two decades after his death.[52] Son House once told the story to Pete Welding as an explanation of Johnson’s astonishingly rapid mastery of the guitar. Welding reported it as a serious belief in a widely read article in Down Beat in 1966.[53] Other interviewers failed to elicit any confirmation from House and there were fully two years between House’s observation of Johnson as first a novice and then a master.

Further details were absorbed from the imaginative retellings by Greil Marcus[54] and Robert Palmer.[55] Most significantly, the detail was added that Johnson received his gift from a large black man at a crossroads. There is dispute as to how and when the crossroads detail was attached to the Robert Johnson story. All the published evidence, including a full chapter on the subject in the biography Crossroads by Tom Graves, suggests an origin in the story of Blues musician Tommy Johnson. This story was collected from his musical associate Ishman Bracey and his elder brother Ledell in the 1960s.[56] One version of Ledell Johnson’s account was published in David Evans‘s 1971 biography of Tommy,[57] and was repeated in print in 1982 alongside Son House’s story in the widely read Searching for Robert Johnson.[58]

In another version, Ledell placed the meeting not at a crossroads but in a graveyard. This resembles the story told to Steve LaVere that Ike Zimmerman of Hazelhurst, Mississippi learned to play the guitar at midnight while sitting on tombstones. Zimmerman is believed to have influenced the playing of the young Robert Johnson.[59] Recent research by blues scholar Bruce Conforth uncovered Ike Zimmerman’s daughter and the story becomes clearer. Johnson and Zimmerman did practice in a graveyard at night because it was quiet and no one would disturb them, but it was not the Hazlehurst cemetery as had been believed. Johnson spent about a year living with and learning from Zimmerman, who ultimately accompanied Johnson back to the Delta to look after him. Conforth’s article in Living Blues magazine goes into much greater detail.[60] There are now tourist attractions claiming to be “The Crossroads” at Clarksdale and in Memphis.[61]

His own account

Most musicians who knew Johnson well, such as Johnny Shines, never heard him claim that he had sold his soul to the Devil. Different accounts give contradictory information in this regard, but there is no conclusive evidence one way or another.

“Me And The Devil” begins, “Early this morning when you knocked upon my door/Early this morning when you knocked upon my door/And I said, ‘Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go,’” and continues with, “You may bury my body down by the highway side/You may bury my body down by the highway side/So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.”

Johnson’s lyrics to “Cross Road Blues” (“Standin’ at the crossroads, tried to flag a ride”) suggest he was hitchhiking rather than selling his soul to the Devil.

Interpretations

The Devil in these songs may not solely refer to the Christian story of Satan, but equally to the African trickster god, Legba, himself associated with crossroads—though author Tom Graves deems the connection to African deities tenuous.[62] As folklorist Harry M. Hyatt discovered during his research in the South from 1935–1939, when African-Americans born in the 19th or early-20th century said they or anyone else had “sold their soul to the devil at the crossroads,” they had a different meaning in mind. Ample evidence indicates African religious retentions surrounding Legba and the making of a “deal” (not selling the soul in the same sense as in the Faustian tradition cited by Graves) with this so-called “devil” at the crossroads.[63]

The Blues and the Blues singer has really special powers over women, especially. It is said that the Blues singer could possess women and have any woman they wanted. And so when Robert Johnson came back, having left his community as an apparently mediocre musician, with a clear genius in his guitar style and lyrics, people said he must have sold his soul to the devil. And that fits in with this old African association with the crossroads where you find wisdom: you go down to the crossroads to learn, and in his case to learn in a Faustian pact, with the devil. You sell your soul to become the greatest musician in history.”     Bill Ferris, American Public Media: The Story with Dick Gordon[64]

Folk tales of bargains with the Devil have long existed in African-American and European traditions and were adapted into literature. Two well-known examples are Washington Irving‘s “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824 and Stephen Vincent Benet‘s “The Devil and Daniel Webster” in 1936. In the 1930s Hyatt recorded many tales of banjo players, fiddlers, card sharks, dice players, guitarists, and one accordionist selling their souls at crossroads. Folklorist Alan Lomax considered that every African American secular musician was “in the opinion of both himself and his peers, a child of the Devil, a consequence of the black view of the European dance embrace as sinful in the extreme”.[65]

Musical style

Robert Johnson is today considered a master of the blues, particularly of the Delta blues style; Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones said in 1990, “You want to know how good the blues can get? Well, this is it.”[66] But according to Elijah Wald, in his book Escaping the Delta, Johnson in his own time was most respected for his ability to play in such a wide variety of styles—from raw country slide guitar to jazz and pop licks—and to pick up guitar parts almost instantly upon hearing a song.[67] His first recorded song, “Kind Hearted Woman Blues,” in contrast to the prevailing Delta style of the time, more resembled the style of Chicago or St. Louis, with “a full-fledged, abundantly varied musical arrangement.”[68] Unusual for a Delta player of the time, a recording exhibits what Johnson could do entirely outside of a blues style. “They’re Red Hot,” from his first recording session, shows that he was also comfortable with an “uptown” swing or ragtime sound similar to the Harlem Hamfats but, as Wald remarks, “no record company was heading to Mississippi in search of a down-home Ink Spots … [H]e could undoubtedly have come up with a lot more songs in this style if the producers had wanted them.”[69]

“To the uninitiated, Johnson’s recordings may sound like just another dusty Delta blues musician wailing away. But a careful listen reveals that Johnson was a revisionist in his time . . Johnson’s tortured soul vocals and anxiety-ridden guitar playing aren’t found in the cotton-field blues of his contemporaries.”            Marc Myers, Wall Street Journal[70]

Voice

An important aspect of Johnson’s singing was his use of microtonality. These subtle inflections of pitch help explain why his singing conveys such powerful emotion. Eric Clapton described Johnson’s music as “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.” In two takes of “Me and the Devil Blues” he shows a high degree of precision in the complex vocal delivery of the last verse: “The range of tone he can pack into a few lines is astonishing.”[71] The song’s “hip humor and sophistication” is often overlooked. “Generations of blues writers in search of wild Delta primitivism,” writes Wald, have been inclined to overlook or undervalue aspects that show Johnson as a polished professional performer.[72]

Johnson is also known for using the guitar as ‘the other vocalist in the song’, a technique later perfected by B. B. King and his personified guitar known as ‘Lucille’:[73]

“. . in Africa and in Afro-American tradition, there is the tradition of the talking instrument, beginning with the drums . . the one-strand and then the six-strings with bottleneck-style performance; it becomes a competing voice . . or a complementary voice . . in the performance . .”        Bill Ferris, American Public Media: The Story with Dick Gordon[64]

Instrument

Johnson mastered the guitar, being considered today one of the all-time greats on the instrument. His approach was highly complex and extremely advanced musically. When Keith Richards was first introduced to Johnson’s music by his band mate Brian Jones, he replied, “Who is the other guy playing with him?”, not realizing it was Johnson playing on one guitar. “I was hearing two guitars, and it took a long time to actually realize he was doing it all by himself,”[74] said Richards, who would later add “Robert Johnson was like an orchestra all by himself.”[70]

“As for his guitar technique, it’s politely reedy but ambitiously eclectic—moving effortlessly from hen-picking and bottleneck slides to a full deck of chucka-chucka rhythm figures.”     Marc Myers, Wall Street Journal[70]

Lyrics

In The Story with Dick Gordon,[75] Bill Ferris of American Public Media said:

“Robert Johnson I think of in the same way I think of the British Romantic poets, Keats and Shelley, who burned out early, who were geniuses at wordsmithing poetry.”

and:

“The Blues, if anything. are deeply sexual. You know, ‘my car doesn’t run, I’m gonna check my oil’ … ‘if you don’t like my apples, don’t shake my tree’. Every verse has sexuality associated with it.”

Influences

Johnson fused approaches specific to Delta blues to those from the broader music world. The slide guitar work on “Rambling on My Mind” is pure Delta and Johnson’s vocal there has “a touch of … Son House rawness,” but the train imitation on the bridge is not at all typical of Delta blues, and is more like something out of minstrel show music or vaudeville.[76] Johnson did record versions of “Preaching the Blues” and “Walking Blues” in the older bluesman’s vocal and guitar style (House’s chronology is questioned by Guralnick). As with the first take of “Come On In My Kitchen,” the influence of Skip James is evident in James’s “Devil Got My Woman”, but the lyrics rise to the level of first-rate poetry, and Johnson sings with a strained voice found nowhere else in his recorded output.[77]

The sad, romantic “Love in Vain” successfully blends several of Johnson’s disparate influences. The form, including the wordless last verse, follows Leroy Carr’s last hit “When the Sun Goes Down”; the words of the last sung verse come directly from a song Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded in 1926.[78] Johnson’s last-ever recording, “Milkcow’s Calf Blues” is his most direct tribute to Kokomo Arnold, who wrote “Milkcow Blues” and who influenced Johnson’s vocal style.[79]

“From Four Until Late” shows Johnson’s mastery of a blues style not usually associated with the Delta. He croons the lyrics in manner reminiscent of Lonnie Johnson, and his guitar style is more that of a ragtime-influenced player like Blind Blake.[80] Lonnie Johnson’s influence on Robert Johnson is even clearer in two other departures from the usual Delta style: “Malted Milk” and “Drunken Hearted Man”. Both copy the arrangement of Lonnie Johnson’s “Life Saver Blues”.[81] The two takes of “Me and the Devil Blues” show the influence of Peetie Wheatstraw, calling into question the interpretation of this piece as “the spontaneous heart-cry of a demon-driven folk artist.”[72]

Legacy

Robert Johnson has had enormous impact on music and musicians, but outside his own time, place, and even genre for which he was famous. His influence on his contemporaries was much smaller, due in part to the fact that he was an itinerant performer—playing mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances—who worked in a then undervalued style of music, and who died young after recording only a handful of songs. Johnson, though well-traveled and admired in his performances, was little noted in his own time and place; his records even less so. “Terraplane Blues“, sometimes described as Johnson’s only hit record, outsold his others but was still only a minor success.

If one had asked black blues fans about Robert Johnson in the first twenty years after his death, writes Elijah Wald, “the response in the vast majority of cases would have been a puzzled ‘Robert who?’” This lack of recognition extended to black musicians:

“As far as the evolution of black music goes, Robert Johnson was an extremely minor figure, and very little that happened in the decades following his death would have been affected if he had never played a note.”[82]

With the album King of the Delta Blues Singers, a compilation of Johnson’s recordings released in 1961, Columbia Records introduced his work to a much wider audience—fame and recognition he only received long after his death.

Rock and roll

Johnson’s major influence has been on genres of music that weren’t recognized as such until long after his death: rock and roll and rock. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included four of his songs in a set of 500[83] they deemed to have shaped the genre:

“Sweet Home Chicago” (1936)

“Cross Road Blues” (1936)

“Hellhound on My Trail” (1937)

“Love in Vain” (1937)

Johnson recorded these songs a decade and a half before the recognized advent of rock and roll,[84] dying a year or two later. The Museum inducted him as an “Early Influence” in their first induction ceremony in 1986, almost a half century after his death. Marc Meyers of the Wall Street Journal wrote that, “His ‘Stop Breakin’ Down Blues’ from 1937 is so far ahead of its time that the song could easily have been a rock demo cut in 1954.”[70]

Rock music and related genres

Many of the artists who claim to have been influenced by Johnson the most, injecting his revolutionary stylings into their work and recording tribute songs and collections are prominent rock musicians. His impact and influence on these future star musicians from England—who would then come to develop and define both the rock and roll and rock music eras—resulted not from personal appearances or direct fraternization. Instead, the artistic power of his exceptional talents and original compositions would be relayed across the Atlantic many years after his death through the compilation of his works released in 1961 by Columbia Records (King of the Delta Blues Singers).

Sam Dunn‘s documentary Metal Evolution cites that Robert Johnson was the “great grandfather to all things heavy metal” with members of Rush and Slipknot agreeing that he played a major role in the future of rock music.

Examples of the influence he had on major musicians include:

Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin referred to him on NPR‘s Fresh Air (recorded in 2004) as “Robert Johnson, to whom we all owed our existence, in some way.” His group recorded “Traveling Riverside Blues“, a song that drew from Johnson’s original and quoted a number of Johnson’s songs in the lyrics.

To Eric Clapton, founder and member of many legendary groups, Johnson was “the most important blues musician who ever lived.”[74] He recorded enough of his songs to make Me and Mr. Johnson, a blues-rock album released in 2004 as a tribute to the legendary bluesman (also made into the film Sessions for Robert J). He’d earlier recorded “Crossroads”, an arrangement of “Cross Road Blues“, with Cream in 1969, leading some to consider him “the man largely responsible for making Robert Johnson a household name.”[85]

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones introduced bandmate Keith Richards to his first Robert Johnson album. The blues master’s recordings would have as much impact on him as on Mick Jagger. The group would perform his “Walkin’ Blues” at the Rock and Roll Circus in 1968. They arranged their own version of “Love in Vain” for their album Let It Bleed; recording “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues” for Exile on Main Street.

He was a strong influence on Fleetwood Mac in the group’s early years as a British blues band. Guitarist Jeremy Spencer contributed two covers of Johnson-derived songs to the group’s early albums, and lead guitarist Peter Green would later go on to record Johnson’s entire catalog over the course of two albums, The Robert Johnson Songbook and Hot Foot Powder.

Alexis Korner, referred to as “the Founding Father of British Blues”, co-wrote and recorded a song entitled “Robert Johnson” on his The Party Album released in 1978.

Guitar playing

His revolutionary guitar playing has led contemporary experts, assessing his talents through the handful of old recordings available, to rate him among the greatest guitar players of all time:

In 1990 Spin Magazine rated him 1st in its 35 Guitar Gods listing—on the 52nd anniversary of his death.[86]

In 2008 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 5th on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time—70 years after he died.[4]

In 2010 Guitar.com ranked him 9th in its list of Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time—72 years after he died.[87]

Musicians who proclaim his profound impact on them, i.e., Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, all rated in the top ten with him on each of these lists. The boogie bass line he fashioned for “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” has now passed into the standard guitar repertoire. At the time it was completely new, a guitarist’s version of something people would only ever have heard on a piano.[88]

Lifetime achievement

The Complete Recordings, a double-disc box set released by Sony/Columbia Legacy on August 28, 1990, containing almost everything Robert Johnson ever recorded, with all 29 recordings (and 12 alternate takes) won a Grammy Award for “Best Historical Album” that year. In 2006 he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (accepted by his son Claud).[89]

Problems of biography

“The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend.”                                             *Martin Scorsese, Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson

Very little is known of Johnson’s early life with any certainty. Two marriage licenses for Johnson have been located in county records offices. The ages given in these certificates point to different birth dates, as do the entries showing his attendance at Indian Creek School, Tunica, Mississippi. That he was not listed among his mother’s children in the 1910 census[8] casts further doubt on these dates. Carrie Thompson claimed that her mother, who was also Robert’s mother, remembered his birth date as May 8, 1911. The 1920 census suggests he was born in 1912. Five significant dates from his career are documented: Monday, Thursday and Friday, November 23, 26, and 27, 1936, at a recording session in San Antonio, Texas. Seven months later, on Saturday and Sunday, June 19–20, 1937, he was in Dallas at another session. His death certificate was discovered in 1968, and lists the date and location of his death.[90]

The two confirmed images of Johnson were located in 1973, in the possession of the musician’s half-sister Carrie Thompson, and were not widely published until the late 1980s. A third photo, purporting to show Johnson posing with fellow blues performer Johnny Shines, was published in the November 2008 edition of Vanity Fair magazine.[91] The same article claims that other photographs of Johnson, so far unpublished, may exist.

“We don’t know much, really . . there’s so little known about this musician, other than these recordings that were made, and the fact that he died early, poisoned by the jealous husband of a woman he was hanging out with.”           *Bill Ferris, American Public Media: The Story with Dick Gordon[64]

Johnson’s records were greatly admired by record collectors from the time of their first release and efforts were made to discover his biography, with virtually no success. Noted blues researcher Mack McCormick began researching his family background, but was never ready to publish. McCormick’s research eventually became as much a legend as Johnson himself. In 1982, McCormick permitted Peter Guralnick to publish a summary in Living Blues (1982), later reprinted in book form as Searching for Robert Johnson.[92] Later research has sought to confirm this account or to add minor details. A revised summary acknowledging major informants was written by Stephen LaVere for the booklet accompanying the compilation album Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings (1990), and is maintained with updates at the Delta Haze website.[93] The documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson contains accounts by Mack McCormick and Gayle Dean Wardlow of what informants have told them: long interviews of David Honeyboy Edwards and Johnny Shines, and short interviews of surviving friends and family. These published biographical sketches achieve coherent narratives, partly by ignoring reminiscences and hearsay accounts which contradict or conflict with other accounts.

A relatively full account of Johnson’s brief musical career emerged in the 1960s, largely from accounts by Son House, Johnny Shines, David Honeyboy Edwards and Robert Lockwood. In 1961, the sleeve notes to the album King of the Delta Blues Singers included reminiscences of Don Law who had recorded Johnson in 1936. Law added to the mystique surrounding Johnson, representing him as very young and extraordinarily shy.

Discography

Eleven Johnson 78s were released on the Vocalion label during his lifetime, with a twelfth issued posthumously.[94] All songs are copyrighted to Robert Johnson, and his estat. Johnson’s recordings were released on several labels: “Milkcow’s Calf Blues” on Perfect Records, “Love in Vain Blues” on Vocalion Records, and “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” by Conqueror Records (bottom)

In 1961, Columbia Records released King of the Delta Blues Singers on vinyl, the album representing the first modern-era release of Johnson’s performances. To say that the 16 songs included on the album had a major impact would be an understatement, King of the Delta Singersfiring the imagination of young British musicians like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Keith Richards and others, jump-starting the British blues-rock boom of the 1960s. The album would have a profound effect on American musicians like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix as well, and would go on to be successfully reissued in various incarnations in the decades to come, including a second volume in 1970 with unreleased songs. Digging up every extant Johnson recording, Sony Music released The Complete Recordings as a two-disc set in 1990, earning the producers a Grammy™ Award and selling a truckload of copies.  By Reverend Keith A. Gordon  http://blues.about.com/od/cddvdrevi3/fr/Robert-Johnson-The-Centennial-Collection-2011.htm

      King Of The Delta Blues Singers (Volume 2)
             King Of The Delta Blues Singers (Volume 2)


The Complete Recordings: A double-disc box set was released on August 28, 1990, containing almost everything Robert Johnson ever recorded, with all 29 recordings, and 12 alternate takes. (There is one further alternate, of “Traveling Riverside Blues,” which was released on Sony’s King of the Delta Blues Singers CD and also as an extra in early printings of the paperback edition of ElijahWald‘s “Escaping the Delta.”)[95]

Compilation album by Robert Johnson
Released	August 28, 1990
Recorded	November 1936 and June 1937
Genre	Blues
Length	104:53
Label	Columbia
Producer	Don Law (original recordings), Beryl Cohen Porter (compilation), Frank Driggs(Reissue Producer)

To celebrate Johnson’s 100th birthday, May 8, 2011, Sony Legacy released a re-mastered 2 CD set of all 42 Robert Johnson recordings extant, entitled Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection.[96] In addition, there were two brief fragments: one where Johnson can be heard practicing a guitar figure; the second when Johnson can be heard saying, presumably to engineer Don Law, “I wanna go on with our next one myself.”[96] Reviewers commented that the sound quality of the 2011 release was a substantial improvement on the 1990 release.[97][98]

Recreated in the historical look and feel of the twelve 10” 78rpm discs that originally carried Robert Johnson’s music into the world in 1936 and 1937 (only playing at 45rpm), this Limited Edition collector’s set will be individually numbered to 1000.  Housed in an actual 78rpm album book – each “page” being a sleeve holding a single disc – each vinyl disc is outfitted with reproductions of the original record labels.  Also included is a unique booklet with new essays telling the updated story of Robert Johnson, photos and more!

The Complete Original Masters – Centennial Edition

Special Limited Edition Limited Collector’s Edition, Box Set

Awards and recognitions

Grammy Awards

Year	Category	Title	Genre	Label	Results
1990	BestHistoricalAlbum	The Complete      Recordings	Blues	Sony/ColumbiaLegacy	Winner

 

Grammy Hall of Fame

Year Recorded	Title	Genre	Label	Year Inducted
1936	Cross Road         Blues	Blues (Single)	Vocalion	1998

 

National Recording Registry

The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson (1936–1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress‘ National Recording Registry in 2003.[99] The board selects songs in an annual basis that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included four songs by Robert Johnson in the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.[100]

Year Recorded	Title
1936	Sweet Home Chicago
1936	Cross Road Blues
1937	Hellhound on My Trail
1937	Love in Vain

 

The Blues Foundation Awards

Robert Johnson: Blues Music Awards[101]
Year	Category	Title	Result
1991	Vintage or Reissue Album	The Complete Recordings	Winner

 

Honors and inductions

On September 17, 1994, the U.S. Post Office issued a Robert Johnson 29-cent commemorative postage stamp.[102]

Year	Title	Results	Notes
2006	Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award	Winner	accepted by son Claud Johnson[89]
2000	Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame[103]	Inducted
1986	Rock and Roll Hall of Fame	Inducted	Early Influences
1980	Blues Hall of Fame	Inducted

Tribute albums

There have been a number of tribute albums by guitar virtuosi, including

Artist	Album	Year
Eric Clapton	Me and Mr. Johnson	2004
Peter Green Splinter Group	The Robert Johnson Songbook	1998
Peter Green Splinter Group	Hot Foot Powder	2000
Peter Green Splinter Group	Me and the Devil	2001 (A 3-CD set consisting of The Robert JohnsonSongbook and Hot Foot Powder with 1 CD of originalRobert Johnson recordings)
John Hammond	At the Crossroads	2003
Todd Rundgren	Todd Rundgren’s Johnson	2010
Big Head Blues Club	100 Years of Robert Johnson	2011
Rory Block	The Lady and Mr Johnson	2006 (2007 Acoustic Blues Album of the year)
Thunder (band)	Robert Johnson’s Tombstone	2006

 

Films and other media

• The 1986 film Crossroads is about a young white blues guitarist’s search for Johnson’s “missing” 30th song and the theme of blues artists selling their souls to the devil.
• Stones in My Passway: The Robert Johnson Story (1990), a biographical film by Martin Spottl.
• The Search for Robert Johnson (1991), UK documentary hosted by Blues musician John P. Hammond, son of John H. Hammond.
• Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life and Music of Robert Johnson (1997)
• Hellhounds On My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson (2000, directed by Robert Mugge)
• Eric Clapton – Sessions for Robert Johnson (2004, documentary)
• Me and the Devil Blues: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson (published in 2008) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Hiramoto. It is a phantasmagoric reimagining of Johnson’s life.
• Celebration of the music and legend of Robert Johnson: Show 502 WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Rory Block and Scott Ainslie discuss Johnson and play his music. Taped 2008-09-29; 60 minutes audio (WMA, MP3), 88 minutes video (WMV).
• To commemorate Johnson’s 100th birthday, Dogfish Head Brewery released “Hellhound on My Ale”, a limited edition beer, in collaboration with Sony’s Legacy Recordings division.^[104]
• Crossroads by Radio Lab the myth of what happened to Robert Johnson at the crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Biography: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson#cite_note-9)

References

1. ^ “The 50 albums that changed music”. The Observer (UK). July 16, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2008
2. ^ Booklet accompanying the Complete Recordings box set, Stephen LaVere, Sony Music Entertainment, 1990, Clapton quote on p. 26
3. ^ “Robert Johnson Inducted at: The 1986 Induction Ceremony”. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc.
4. ^ a b “100 Greatest Guitarists”. Rolling Stone. November 28, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
5. ^ a b Wardlow
6. ^ Guralnik pp. 10–11
7. ^ Guralnik p.11
8. ^ a b Freeland (2000)
9. ^ Wardlow (1998) p. 201
10. ^ Hellhounds on my Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson quoted in Wald (2004) p.107
11. ^ Pearson & McCulloch p. 6.
12. ^ Wald (2004) p. 108
13. ^ The Search for Robert Johnson, 1992 film.
14. ^ Pearson & McCulloch, p. 7.
15. ^ Pearson & McCulloch, p. 94.
16. ^ Guralnick p.15
17. ^ Pearson & McCulloch p. 7
18. ^ Pearson & McCullock p.12
19. ^ Gioia p. 172
20. ^ Neff & Connor p 56
21. ^ Townsend p. 68
22. ^ ref Guralnik p. 28
23. ^ Guralnik p.24
24. ^ Gioia p. 175
25. ^ Gioia p. 172-173
26. ^ Edwards p. 100
27. ^ Schroeder p. 22
28. ^ Guralnik p. 29
29. ^ Wald p. 112
30. ^ Pearson & McCulloch p. 111
31. ^ Sisario, Ben (February 28, 2004). “Revisionists Sing New Blues History”. The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
32. ^ Lomax (1993)
33. ^ Charters (1959)
34. ^ Jazz by Mail – Various Artists (From Spirituals to Swing)
35. ^ San Antonio Express-News, November 30, 1986, “Blues wizard’s S.A. Legacy”, p. 1-J
36. ^ ”The History of Dallas 1926–1950—1937: Robert Johnson Singer left mysterious legacy at 508 Park Ave” by Thor Christensen, 7/3/2002, The Dallas Morning News.
37. ^ Beal Jr., Jim (August 16, 2009). “Mellencamp honors the past at historic locale”. www.mysanantonio.com. San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
38. ^ “Ry Cooder – Talking Country Blues and Gospel”. Jasobrecht.com. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
39. ^ Wald (2004), p. 131.
40. ^ Wald (2004), p. 132, 176.
41. ^ Wald (2004), p. 132.
42. ^ Wald (2004), p. 167.
43. ^ Eric Clapton – Sessions for Robert Johnson, 2004 documentary and 1937 Worley’s Dallas City Directory
44. ^ Wald (2004), p. 130.
45. ^ Jon Wilde (May 27, 2010). “Robert Johnson revelation tells us to put the brakes on the blues”. The Guardian. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
46. ^ Christopher Morris (May 28, 2010). “Phonograph blues: Robert Johnson mastered at wrong speed?”. Variety. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
47. ^ The Search for Robert Johnson, 1992 film.
48. ^ Blackstone, E. H. (2008). “One of three supposed resting places known for Blues legend Robert Johnson. Near Greenwood 2008″ (Javascript photo gallery). blackstone.carbonmade.com. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
49. ^ Radiolab Crossroads, The myth of what happened to Robert Johnson at the crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
50. ^ Wardlow pp. 196–201
51. ^ Wardlow pp 203–4
52. ^ Wald. pp 265–276
53. ^ Whelan
54. ^ Marcus (1975)
55. ^ Palmer (1981)
56. ^ Wardlow (1998)
57. ^ Evans (1971)
58. ^ Guralnik (1982)
59. ^ Wardlow (1998) p. 197
60. ^ Living Blues: Issue #194, Vol. 39. #1, February 2008 pp. 68–73
61. ^ Wardlow (1998) p. 200
62. ^ Bhesham S. Sharma, Poetic devices in the Songs of Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Transcultural Music Review No.3 (1997).
63. ^ Hyatt, Harry. Hoodoo—Conjuration—Witchcraft—Rootwork, Beliefs Accepted By Many Negroes and White Persons. Western Publications 1973
64. ^ a b c ”From The Diddy Bow To Bo Diddley” interview on ‘The Story’ with Dick Gordon; November 04 2011.
65. ^ Lomax p. 365.
66. ^ “The salt of the earth: 1930s–1940s—Pre-electric non-Chicago blues” from liner notes to Johnson’s The Complete Recordings, released on Columbia in 1990.
67. ^ Wald (2004), p. 127
68. ^ Wald (2004), p. 133.
69. ^ Wald (2004), p. 152–154.
70. ^ a b c d ”Still Standing at the Crossroads” by Marc Myers, Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2011.
71. ^ Wald (2004), p. 178–179.
72. ^ a b Wald (2004), p. 177.
73. ^ ”From The Diddy Bow To Bo Diddley” Dick Gordon interviewing Bill Ferris on ‘The Story’ with Dick Gordon; November 04 2011.
74. ^ a b Buncombe, Andrew. (2006-07-26). “The grandfather of rock’n'roll: The devil’s instrument” The Independent.
75. ^ ”From The Diddy Bow To Bo Diddley” Bill Ferris in interview on ‘The Story’ with Dick Gordon; November 04 2011.
76. ^ Wald (2004), p. 139.
77. ^ Wald (2004), p. 171–172.
78. ^ Wald (2004), p. 183.
79. ^ Wald (2004), p. 184.
80. ^ Wald (2004), p. 170–171, 174.
81. ^ Wald (2004), p. 175.
82. ^ Wald, 2004
83. ^ “Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 2007.
84. ^ 50′ The Beginnings of Rock and Roll Education Department, Saatchi Gallery Contemporary Art in London.
85. ^ ”Bo Diddley’s ‘Before You Accuse Me’ influential as the master” Listen to the Story, KPLU 88.5; March 23, 2012.
86. ^ ”35 Guitar Gods”, August 1990, SPIN magazine.
87. ^ “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time – 10 to 1″. Gibson.com. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
88. ^ Wald (2004), p. 136.
89. ^ a b “2006 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award – presented to Robert Johnson, accepted by son Claud Johnson”. Robert Johnson Blues Foundation. 2006.
90. ^ Wardlow and Komara, 1998, p. 87
91. ^ Frank Digiacomo, “Searching for Robert Johnson”, Vanity Fair, November, 2008
92. ^ Guralnick
93. ^ ”Robert Johnson – Bio”. www.deltahaze.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
94. ^ Komarma (2007) pp. 63–68
95. ^  Awards List for Robert Johnson. The Awards Insider; Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
96. ^ a b LaVere, Stephen C., Liner notes for Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection, Legacy Recordings, 2011, pp. 20–21.
97. ^ Marsicano, C. J. (April 26, 2011). “Review Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection”. The Groove Music. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
98. ^ Gordon, Rev. Keith A. (April 26, 2011). “Robert Johnson – The Centennial Collection (2011)”. About.com. Retrieved August 15, 2011.

99.   ^ The National Recording Registry 2003. Library of Congress.

100. ^ “The 500 Songs That Shape Rock And Roll G-J”. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and           Museum, Inc.. 500. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008.

101.  ^ “Awards Search”. The Blues Foundation. (Javascript required.)

102.  ^ http://usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=98f84f30eb40d50691c968cb71dcaa1225c1dced&st=&ss=&t=&s=2492&syear=&eyear=

103.   ^ “Mississippi Hall of Fame inducts trio of famed Gibson artists” (Press release). Gibson Musical Instruments. April 4, 2000. Archived from the original on August 19, 2000.

104.    ^ “Hellhound On My Ale | Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales”. Dogfish.com. Retrieved   2011-12-30.

Bibliography

• Blues World – Booklet No.1 – Robert Johnson – Four Editions, First published 1967
• Blesh, Rudi (1946) “Jazz Begins” quoted in Marybeth Hamilton (below).
• Charters, Samuel B (1959). The Country Blues. Rinehart.
• Charters, Samuel B (1967). The Bluesman. The story of the music of the men who made the Blues. Oak Publications.
• Charters, Samuel B (1973). Robert Johnson. Oak Publication. ISBN 0-8256-0059-6
• Edwards, David Honeyboy (1997). The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing. The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-368-8
• Evans, David (1971). Tommy Johnson. Studio Vista. SBN 289 70150
• Freeland, Tom (2000). Robert Johnson: Some Witnesses to a Short Life in Living Blues no. 150 March/April 200 p. 49
• Gioia, Ted (2008). Delta Blues. The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-33750-1
• Graves, Tom (2008). Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson. DeMers Books, ISBN 978-0-9816002-1-5
• Greenberg, Alan (1983). Love in Vain: The Life and Legend of Robert Johnson. Doubleday Books, ISBN 0-385-15679-0  The 1994 revised edition retiled Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, with foreword by Martin Scorsese, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80557-X

• Guralnick, Peter (1989). Searching for Robert Johnson (1989). E. P. Dutton hardcover: ISBN 0-525-24801-3, Plume 1998 paperback: ISBN 0-452-27949-6
• Komara, Edward (2007). The Road to Robert Johnson, The genesis and evolution of blues in the Delta from the late 1800s through 1938. Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-00907-9
• Marcus, Greil (1975). Mystery Train. E.P. Dutton.
• Hamilton, Marybeth (2007). In Search of the Blues. Black Voices, White Visions. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06018-X
• Lomax, Alan (1993). The Land Where the Blues Began. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-67850-4
• Neff, Robert & Anthony Connor (1975). Blues. David R Godine. Quoted in Pearson & McCulloch p. 114.
• Palmer, Robert (1982) paperback edition. Deep Blues. Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-34039-6
• Pearson, Barry Lee; McCulloch, Bill (2003). Robert Johnson: Lost and Found. University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-02835-X
• Schroeder, Patricia R. (2004). Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture. University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-02915-1
• Russell, Tony (2004). Country Music records, A Discography, 1921–1942. Oxford. ISBN 0-19-513989-5
• Townsend, Henry (1999). A Blues Life. As told to Bill Greensmith. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02526-1
• Wald, Elijah (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. Amistad. ISBN 0-06-052423-5
• Wardlow, G., & Komara, E. M. (1998). Chasin’ that devil music: searching for the blues. San Francisco, Calif: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-652-1
• Welding, Pete (1966). Robert Johnson. Hell hound on his trail. In Down Beat Music ’66: 73–76, 103
• Wolf, Robert (2004) Hellhound on My Trail: The Life of Robert Johnson, Bluesman Extraordinaire. Mankato, MN: Creative Editions. ISBN 1-56846-146-1

External links

• The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation
• Robert Johnson Mount Zion Memorial Fund
• 1980 Hall of Fame Inductee at The Blues Foundation
• The Robert Johnson Notebooks. Courtney Danforth and Adriana Rissetto. University of Virginia. 1997-07-07/2003-11-03.
• Robert Johnson Death Certificate. State of Mississippi.
• Robert Johnson at Find-A-Grave
• Robert Johnson recordings. Three Perfect Minutes – Milestone Recordings in American Music. Bryan Mangum. User-generated reviews of each of Johnson’s tracks.
• Robert Johnson at Allmusic
• Works by or about Robert Johnson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Articles

• 75 Aniversario de Robert Johnson Pablo Huguet Monfort, Mone Monkey. February 15, 2012. 75 Aniversario de Robert Johnson
• Bluesman’s Son Gets His Due Ellen Barry, Los Angeles Times. June 2, 2004. Johnson legal battle.
• Portrait of a Phantom – Searching for Robert Johnson. Frank DiGiacomo, Vanity Fair. November 2008. Purported new photo of Robert Johnson with Johnny Shines.
• Steady Rollin’ Man – A Revolutionary Critique of Robert Johnson. John Gibbens, Touched Press Books. About speed adjustments.
• Escaping the Delta/Robert Johnson Elijah Wald. About the book, w/links to related material.
• Delta Guitar Player Robert Johnson. Guitarz For Ever. 2004. (Portion copied from ezinearticles.com)
• Deal with the Devil: Understanding Robert Johnson, His Music and His Impact. D.A.N. Soul of Rock ‘n’ Roll. 2007-04-06

 

(April 4, 1915 – April 30, 1983) Born in the Rolling Fork Mississippi, rural area that spawned the first and greatest recorded bluesmen–Charley Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson–Muddy Waters electrified the sounds of rural blues and brought them to Chicago. At his peak in the 1950s, he was the undisputed King of the Blues, a moniker he went so far as to have printed on his calling cards. His name eventually became synonymous with the Chicago blues, and by the time of his death he was the most famous and beloved bluesman in the world.

Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, deep within cotton country. Sometime as a boy he was given the nickname Muddy Waters, for reasons no longer known. His sharecropper father, Ollie, played guitar but Muddy never had the chance to learn anything from him. After his mother’s early death, he was sent away to be raised by his grandmother in Clarksdale. Muddy worked the farm as a boy, but music was his real interest. “I always thought of myself as a musician,” he said. “If I wasn’t a good musician then, I felt that sooner or later I would be a good musician. I felt it in me.”

Muddy’s first instrument was the harmonica, which he took up when he was around 13. He played country suppers for tips and food with a guitarist friend. Guitars were all around him in the Mississippi Delta country, however, and while still a teenager Muddy saw greats Charley Patton and Son House perform. House was an especially strong influence on Muddy’s playing. He showed the youngster the rudiments of playing slide guitar with a bottleneck and impressed young Muddy with his powerful, emotional singing. Muddy began playing guitar when he was 17.

He learned quickly and was soon playing local events. In the early 1940s, he joined a group that included the singer Big Joe Williams that played around town. Muddy Waters’ encounter with destiny took place in summer 1941 when Alan Lomax and John Work, two folklorists from the Library of Congress came to Clarksdale. The two men were looking for the legendary blues guitarist, Robert Johnson. Johnson, however, was dead, murdered years before. Instead, on Son House’s recommendation, they found Muddy Waters at Stovall’s plantation. Muddy recorded two songs for the Library of Congress, “I Be’s Troubled” and “Country Blues.”

The songs impressed Lomax and Work enough that they returned to Stovall’s two years later and recorded Muddy again. His ambition and perhaps his confidence spurred by his two recording experiences, Muddy got his first job as a professional musician, playing harmonica in the Silas Green Carnival for a short time. Clarksdale couldn’t satisfy the Muddy’s needs though, and in May 1943 he packed his bags and took the train north to Chicago.

Times were good in Chicago and Muddy quickly found work and an apartment. Big Bill Broonzy, who had been part of the Chicago music scene for years, introduced him around. With Jimmy Rodgers, a guitarist and harp player, he began playing house parties around the South Side. “Little Walter, Jimmy Rodgers and myself,” Muddy later recalled, “we would go around looking for bands that were playing. We called ourselves The Headhunters, ’cause we’d go in and if we got a chance we were gonna burn ‘em.”

Muddy’s New Sound

It was three years before Muddy was finally able to record in Chicago. But the results of the sessions were just warmed over versions of the urban jump blues that were already a decade old and the record companies, 20th Century and Columbia, did not release any as records. Muddy got another chance when pianist Sunnyland Slim, with whom he had been performing around Chicago, was offered a session with Leonard Chess’ Aristocrat Records. According to legend, Muddy was delivering venetian blinds when he heard that Slim wanted him to play the session. Muddy is said to have told his boss that he needed the rest of the day off–his cousin had been found dead in an alley. Slim and Muddy recorded two numbers each.

The music wouldn’t have gone anywhere, except for the presence of a black music scout who arranged for another session, which resulted in a record for Muddy, “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “I Feel Like Going Home.” The songs were nothing like the smooth blues that had been popular in Chicago. Backed only by Muddy’s electric bottleneck guitar and Big Crawford’s bass, they were raw, the delta blues transplanted to the city. Leonard Chess didn’t like it. “I can’t understand what he’s singing,” he complained to his partner. She insisted that the music had some indefinable something and pushed for its release.

The single, “Aristocrat 1305,” came out on a Saturday in April 1948. It was a smash hit. By 2 o’clock in the afternoon the first pressing had sold out completely. Muddy Waters went down to a record store on Chicago’s Maxwell Street, he found his record being sold for $1.10 instead of the list price 79¢. To make matters worse, the record was so popular the store would only sell customers one copy, despite Muddy’s protestation “But I’m the man who made it!”

The unexpected success of the record forced Len Chess to reconsider his opinion of Muddy’s music. Muddy was playing Chicago clubs regularly with Jimmy Rodgers and Baby Face Leroy. Chess did not want to give up a good thing. When new sessions were arranged, they were with Muddy and Big Crawford again. They produced a string of classics nonetheless, including “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” “Little Geneva,” and “Rollin’ Stone.” When Muddy recorded with groups it was on the records others were making. He played on Baby Face Leroy’s popular “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” for example. When Leonard Chess found out he was incensed–he had hoped to keep Muddy’s trademark slide sound restricted to Aristocrat Records. He responded by having Muddy record his own version of the song.

Got Mojo Workin’

In 1950 Aristocrat Records became Chess Records, and Little Walter, perhaps the greatest blues harp player in history, joined the Muddy Waters band. Mike Rowe, in his history of the Chicago blues, Chicago Breakdown, wrote “The Muddy Waters records of 1950 and 1951 represent the purest and most successful strain of the new country blues.” The songs they made include “Louisiana Blues,” “Early Morning Blues,” “Sad Letter Blues,” and “Long Distance Call.” Muddy’s sound continued to evolve, however. He and Rodgers refined the interaction of their two guitars, Junior Wells replaced Little Walter on harp, Otis Spann came in to play piano.

By the middle 1950s, he had all but abandoned the spare instrumentation of his earlier hits and replaced it with the rollicking sound of the songs that would come to be most closely associated with Muddy: “Hootchie Cootchie Man,” “Mannish Boy,” and “I Got My Mojo Workin’.” The first record sold 4000 copies in its first week in stores and stayed at the top of the charts for most of summer 1954.

The middle 1950s represented Muddy Waters’ peak as a recording artist. The musicians he recorded with during that period are a roster of the greats of the Chicago blues: harp players Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells, and James Cotton, guitarists Buddy Guy and Matt Murphy, pianists Otis Spann and Pinetop Perkins, drummer Fred Below and bass player Willie Dixon. Dixon was responsible for composing many of the songs Muddy recorded in the latter half of the fifties.

New Audiences, New Sidemen

With the rise of rock and roll, Muddy’s music–and blues music in general–entered a period of decline that would last until the end of his life. He continued to perform and make records during the 1960s. His performance at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival was electrifying and showed off his music to a whole new audience of young, white fans. He would continue to direct his music at this new audience and his 1960s albums, like The London Sessions which saw him team up with British rock musicians, like Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, and Fathers and Sons , with Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield, reflected his new focus.

Muddy’s career experienced a kind of renaissance in the 1970, when blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter became his manager. Recording and touring with Winter, Muddy cut four albums that recaptured some of the old excitement, in particular a live effort, Muddy “Mississippi” Waters, mostly on the Columbia label. When Muddy Waters died suddenly of a heart attack in Chicago on April 30, 1983 an era in the blues came to an end forever. Muddy was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1987

by Gerald Brennan

Muddy Waters’ Career

Performed with Big Joe Williams, Buddy Bradey, Louis Ford, Son Sims and Percy Thomas in Clarksdale, Mississippi in early 1940s; recorded for Library of Congress, 1941 and 1943; played first Chicago club gigs with Jimmy Rodgers 1943-44; first record, “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” released April 1948; appeared at Newport Folk Festival 1960.

Muddy Waters’ Awards

Inducted to Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, 1980; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1987.

Discography

• 	Muddy Waters Sings “Big Bill” Chess/1964
  	FOLK SINGER Pye International/1964
  	Muddy, Brass & The Blues Chess/1966
  	More Real Folk Blues Chess/1967
  	Muddy Waters At Newport Marble Arch Records/1967
  	Bo Diddley , Muddy Waters & Little Walter - Super Blues Chess/1967
  	Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters & Bo Diddley - The Super Super Blues Band Checker, Chess/1967
  	Muddy, Brass & The Blues Chess/1967
  	Electric Mud Cadet Concept Records/19681968
  	After The Rain Cadet Concept Records/1969
  	The Real Folk Blues Chess/1969
  	Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Michael Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Donald “Duck” Dunn  & Sam Lay - Fathers And Sons  Chess/1969
  	“Live” (At Mr. Kelly’s) Chess/1971
  	Back In The Early Days Volumes 1 And 2 Syndicate Chapter/1971
  	Rare Live Recordings Vol. 2 Python/1972
  	The London Muddy Waters Sessions Chess/1973
  	Mud In Your Ear Muse Records/1973
  	Can’t Get No Grindin’ Chess/1973
  	“Unk” In Funk Chess/1974
  	Muddy Waters & Howlin’ Wolf - London Revisited  Chess/1974
  	The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album Chess/1975
  	Hard Again Blue Sky/1977
  	I’m Ready Blue Sky/1978
  	Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live Blue Sky/1979
  	Mississippi Cleo/1980
  	King Bee Blue Sky/1981
  	Rolling Stone Chess/1982
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Blue Sky/1983
  	Chess Masters – Vol 3. Chess/1983
  	B.B. King & Big Mama Thornton & Muddy Waters - Live At Newport Blue Moon/1984
  	B.B. King & Big Mama Thornton & Muddy Waters - Live At Newport Tobacco Road/1984
  	I Can’t Be Satisfied Showcase/1985
  	Live In Antibes, 1974 France’s Concert/1988
  	Muddy Waters K West/1989
  	“Live” (At Mr. Kelly’s) Chess/1992
  	GOIN’ HOME (LIVE IN PARIS 1970) Fan Club/1992
  	Chicago Blues Orbis/1994
  	Muddy Waters Versailles/1995
  	Muddy Waters WMO/1996
  	Muddy Waters Featuring Dizzy Gillespie - Muddy Waters Blues Band LaserLight Digital/1996
  	CHAMPION JACK DUPREE / MUDDY WATERS - ME AND MY MULE TKO Collectors/1999e And My Mule TKO Collectors/1999
  	THE REAL FOLK BLUES / MORE REAL FOLK BLUES MCA Records/2002
  	MUDDY “Mississippi” WATERS LIVE Blue Sky/Epic/2003
  	MUDDY WATERS – LIVE/FILLMORE AUDITORIUM – SAN FRANCISCO (11/04-06/1966) Chess/2009
  	STEPPING STONE Properbox UK/2009
  	BLOW BLUES BLOW Music Avenue/2010
  	THE ROLLING STONES & MUDDY WATERS - CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE, LIVE CHICAGO 1981 Eagle Vision/2012
  	HARD AGAIN Music On Vinyl/2012
  	MUDDY WATERS AT NEWPORT 1960 Vinyl Passion/2012
  	SIXTO RODRIGUEZ / MUDDY WATERS - COME GET IT I GOT IT SAMPLER 13 Amp Recordings/
  	HONEY BEE Wolf Records/
  	DOWN ON STOVALL’S PLANTATION Testament Records/
  	ROCK ME Cleo/
  SINGLES & EPs
  	Just Make Love To Me / Oh! Yeh Chess/1954
  	I’m A Natural Born Lover / Loving Man Chess/1954
  	Manish Boy Chess/1955
  	Mississippi Blues London Records/1956
  	She’s Got It / I Won’t Go On Chess/1958
  	She’s Nineteen Years Old / Close To You Chess/1958
  	Got My Mojo Working / Woman Wanted Chess/1960
  	I Feel So Good Chess/1960
  	Read Way Back / I’m Your Doctor Chess/1960 (Promo)
  	You Shook Me / Muddy Waters Twist Chess/
  	Tough Times / Going Home Chess/1962
  	Muddy Waters Pye International/1963
  	The Same Thing / You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had Chess/1964
  	I’m Ready Chess/1965
  	I Feel So Good / Going Home Chess/1970
  	Can’t Get No Grindin’ Chess-Bellaphon/1973
  	Mannish Boy Epic/1988
  	Hobo (2) Featuring Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man BMG Ariola Hamburg GmbH/1997
  	Sugar Sweet/Diamonds At Your Feet Chess/2010
  	Take The Bitter With The Sweet / She’s Into Something Chess/
  	Got My Mojo Working / Tiger In Your Tank Chess/
  	Take The Bitter With The Sweet / She’s Into Something Chess/ (Promo)
  	Going Back To Memphis / Black Night Chess/
  	Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley - The Red Rooster – Part 1 & 2 Chess
  	I Can’t Be Satisfied Aristocrat/
  	Two Steps Forward / Making Friends Chess/
  	Muddy Waters / Willie Mabon - I’m Your Hoochy Coochy Man/Poison Ivy Collectables/
  	When The Eagle Flies / Birdnest On The Ground Chess/
  	Muddy Waters / Jackie Brenston - Got My Mojo Working / Rocket 88 Collectables
  	Forty Days & Forty Nights Chess
  COMPILATIONS
  	The Best Of Muddy Waters Chess/1957
  	They Call Me Muddy Waters Vogue, Chess/1970
  	Muddy Waters - Little Walter - Howlin’ Wolf - We Three Kings Syndicate Chapter/1971
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Bellaphon/1971
  	Good News Volume 3 Syndicate Chapter/1971
  	Experiment In Blues Bellaphon/1976
  	Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf - Super Blues Session     Bellaphon/1976
  	Chess Blues Masters Series Chess/1976
  	Chess Masters…Muddy Waters Chess/1981
  	Profile Chess/1981
  	Blues Roots Vol. 11 – I’m A Country Boy Chess/1982
  	Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf - Muddy & The Wolf Chess/1982
  	In Memoriam Chess/1983
  	Sweet Home Chicago Astan/1984
  	Rare And Unissued Chess/1984
  	Billie Holiday · John Lee Hooker · Muddy Waters - American Blues  Astan/1984
  	The Original Hoochie Coochie Man Astan/1984
  	The Collection 20 Blues Greats Deja Vu/1985
  	They Call Me Muddy Waters, Featuring Mannish Boy, 20 Blues Classics Blue City/1988
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Epic/
  	Trouble No More (Singles 1955-1959) MCA Records/1989
  	The Chess Box MCA Records, Chess/1989
  	Rollin’ Stone Green Line Records/1989
  	Mannish Boy – 16 Greatest Hits Route 16/1989
  	They Call Me Muddy Waters Instant/1990
  	Muddy Waters Roots/1990
  	They Call Me Muddy Waters That’s Blues/1990
  	Muddy Waters Мелодия/1990
  	Blues Anthology LaserLight Digital/1990
  	Blues Collection Object Enterprises/1990
  	Rollin’ And Tumblin’ Zafiro/1991
  	Rock Me Charly R&B/1992
  	The Complete Plantation Recordings Chess/1993
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Charly Records/1993
  	Collection The Collection/1993
  	Got My Mojo Workin’ Castle Communications/1994
  	Greatest Hits Galaxy Music/1994
  	The King Of Chicago Blues Charly Records/1994
  	Muddy Waters / Memphis Slim - Chicago Blues Masters Volume One: Muddy Waters & Memphis Slim Capitol Records/1995
  	Hoochie Coochie Man LaserLight Digital/1996
  	His Best 1947 To 1955 ChChess, Universal Records/1997
  	One More Mile – Chess Collectibles Volume 1 Chess/1997
  	King Of The Electric Blues Epic, Legacy/1997
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Blue Dog Records/1997
  	Muddy’s Blues LaserLight Digital/2000
  	Mojo The Live Collection Music Club/2000
  	The Essential Collection Spectrum Music/2000
  	The Anthology (1947-1972) MCA Records/2001
  	Master Of The Blues Music Bank/2001
  	The Chronological Muddy Waters: 1941-1947 Classics Records/2001
  	Rolling Stone 1941 – 1950 Frémeaux & Associés/2001
  	Blue Skies The Best Of Epic/2002
  	Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues Hip-O Records/2003
  	Muddy Waters Centurion Jazz, Weton-Wesgram, Flex Media Entertainment/2004
  	Original Hits Sony Music Media, Sony Music Media/2004
  	Blues Archive – The Story Of The Blues Chapter 15 Membran Music Ltd./2004
  	Screamin’ And Cryin’ Universe/2004
  	Hoochie Coochie Man: The Complete Chess Masters Volume 2, 1952-1958 Hip-O Select, Chess/2004
  	The Chronological Muddy Waters: 1950-1952 Classics Records/2004
  	Hoochie Coochie Man CMG/2005
  	I Can’t Be Satisfied Blue Label (SPV)/2006
  	Baby Please Don’t Go Weton-Wesgram/2007
  	Gold Universal/2007
  	Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter & James Cotton - Breakin’ It Up, Breakin’ It Down Epic, Legacy/2007
  	Natural Born Lover 1954 – 1958 Saga/2009
  	Willie Dixon / Muddy Waters - Python – Snakebite III Retroworld/2009
  	Singing The Blues 1954 – 1959 Doxy Music/2010
  	The Voice & The Guitar Of McKinley Morganfield 1947-1954 Doxy Music/2010
  	Blues Greats Universal Music Group International/2011
  	Hoochie Coochie Man Not Now Music/2011
  	Muddy Waters Chess
  	Rock Me Cleo
  	20 Reflective Recordings Audio Archive, Tring International PLC
  	Country Blues History
  	The Original Hoochie Coochie Man Cleo
  Videos
  	Live BMG Video/1993
  	Muddy Waters With Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Messin’ With The Blues Warner Music Vision, Classic Pictures Entertainment/2004
  Miscellaneous
  	Hoochie Coochie Man – Muddy Watersin Elämä Ja Teot Epic/2004 (Promo)

Further Reading

Sources

• Erlewene, Michael, Vladímir Bogdana, Chris Woodstra, and Cub Koda. All Music Guide to the Blues , San Francisco: Freeman Books, 1996
• Herzhaft, Gérard. Encyclopedia of the Blues , 2nd edition, Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997
• Rowe, Mike. Chicago Breakdown , New York: Da Capo, 1979

Read more: Muddy Waters Biography http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002286/Muddy-Waters.html#ixzz21w3pRe1B

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002286/Muddy-Waters.html

(6/10/1910 – 1/10/1976) Born Chester Arthur Burnett, June 10, 1910, in West Point, MS; died of complications from kidney disease January 10, 1976, in Chicago, IL; son of Dock and Gertrude Burnett (plantation workers); married first wife c. l930s; married wife, Lillie, c. 1950s; children: (second marriage) Barbara, Betty Jean. Religion: Southern Baptist. Blues singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. Toured with fellow bluesmen, including Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson c. 1930s. Worked as singer, producer, and advertising salesman at KWEM Radio in West Memphis, TN. Released first album in 1951 on Chess Records; toured the U.S. and Europe, with Chicago as his primary venue, 1952-c. 1976. Appeared in short film Wolf, 1971. Military service: U.S. Army, stationed in Seattle, WA.

Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett in West Point, Mississippi, was awarded an honorary doctor of arts degree from Chicago’s Columbia College in June of 1972; it read: “Premiere man of American Music, you have sung and made songs of hard-time blues and mighty joys that cry to make the world fair.” Howlin’ Wolf–along with Muddy Waters–revolutionized urban blues in Chicago after World War II.

The raw, rasping, guttural power of Wolf’s fierce voice, combined with his imposing physical presence and wild stage abandon, made him unforgettable. His influence stretched far beyond the realm of the blues; British rock performers Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds merged Wolf’s blues with white rock and roll in songs like “Smokestack Lightning,” “Ain’t Superstitious,” “Back Door Man” and “Little Red Rooster.” Wolf was an experimental bluesman who formulated a wide range of moods and possibilities for his songs. He was also notably consistent: Throughout his career he retained the style, vigor, and flavor of the Mississippi Delta blues of his early years.

Howlin’ Wolf was born on June 10, 1910. He grew up one of six children on the Young and Myers cotton plantation, where both of his parents worked. The Delta farmlands were rife with the blues, which were part of most social gatherings. When Wolf was a child his grandfather would tell him stories of wolves in Mississippi. Once, something frightened the young Chester and he ran howling upstairs, which prompted his family to dub him the Howlin’ Wolf. Wolf adopted this name for himself early on, and–at 6′ 3″ and 300 pounds–lived up to it as an adult.

Wolf’s father presented him with his first guitar when the bluesman was 18. With the exception of the World War II years, during which he served in the Army–stationed in Seattle, Washington–Wolf spent most of his adult life, until the age of 38, farming in Arkansas and Mississippi. It wasn’t until his father’s death in 1949 that he devoted himself entirely to the blues.

Throughout his young life Wolf had his pick of blues greats for mentors: Charlie Patton lived on a nearby plantation and taught Wolf much about showmanship. Sonny Boy Williamson married Wolf’s stepsister Mary in the early thirties and showed Wolf the ins and outs of the harmonica during the courtship. Wolf himself was married briefly to Willie Brown’s sister. Wolf’s childhood idol was singer Jimmie Rodgers, who was noted for his “blues-yodel.” Wolf tried to emulate the yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. “I couldn’t do no yodelin’,” Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, “so I turned to howlin’. And it’s done me just fine.” Wolf met legendary Delta blues singer Robert Johnson in Robinsonville, Mississippi, and they played together briefly. Shortly thereafter Johnson was poisoned–by a jealous girlfriend or husband. “This is all part of the blues,” Wolf reportedly remarked on hearing the news of his colleague’s demise.

In 1948 Wolf formed his first band in Memphis, Tennessee. “That’s where I got my break,” he recounted in the New York Times. “Back in the country the people weren’t able to pay you too much. Sometimes you’d work all night for a fish sandwich, glad to get it, too.” At first Wolf played gigs by himself, often earning only $50 working from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. He decided that it would be better to have some other musicians help take the load off of him. His first band featured Willie Steele on drums, Willie Johnson and M. T. Murphy on guitars, Junior Parker on harmonica, and Destruction on piano. Wolf would alternate between harmonica and guitar–he had taken up electric when he was in the Army–but usually concentrated on singing.

Wolf sold advertising spots at this time for the thirty-minute planter’s broadcast he had secured for himself on station KWEM in West Memphis. The radio show was what eventually earned him a recording contract, as he had gone as far as he could by word-of-mouth reputation. Wolf grabbed the attention of Ike Turner, then a young Artists & Repertoire man for West Coast-based RPM Records. Turner produced the first Howlin’ Wolf sides for that label, which in turn were used to secure a contract with Sam Phillips’s Sun Records. Wolf’s first hits were “How Many More Years” and “Moanin’ at Midnight.” The masters cut for Sun were then sold to Chicago’s Chess Records; Wolf went to Chicago in 1952, leaving his band behind in Memphis. He opened a small club there on 13th and Ashland to showcase local blues talent, his own included.

Wolf’s animated stage presence was a departure for bluesmen at that time. He writhed, moaned, climbed up draperies, pounded on posts, rolled on the floor, and was gruff and blustery in order to hammer his songs home. His vocals were menacing and sounded unnatural at times, as though a primal force propelled them from his throat. He was tremendous in presence and voice and quickly became familiar on the Chicago blues scene. He did not merely sing words: He infused them with life and feeling, transcending the limitations of blues music through the sheer force of his voice and personality.

A legendary rivalry between Howlin’ Wolf and fellow Chicago blues giant Muddy Waters soon arose; much of it, however, has been blown out of proportion. Waters got Wolf his first job in Chicago. “I got in touch with him because I didn’t know nobody here,” Wolf reported to Peter Guralnick, as related in Feel Like Going Home. “He carried me around to the clubs and helped me get started.” They shared a grudging admiration for each other. Waters led better bands, but it was Wolf who left a unique mark on everything he touched. Some obvious evidence of the rivalry does exist: Wolf did stall and stretch out his set at Michigan’s Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 in an attempt to prevent Waters from getting onstage. And when Waters’s Electric Mud album came out in 1968, Wolf followed with his own “psychedelic” record–The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions –which never sat too well with Waters and was not perceived as great material. In fact Wolf himself viewed the release as disastrous, dismissed it as “birdshit,” and denied having had anything to do with it. The record company maintained that it was initiated at Wolf’s insistence after the success of Waters’s Electric Mud. Despite the fracas it generated, Wolf’s ill-fated excursion into psychedelics was brief. From then on he continued to evoke his traditional style: the rough vocal tone, the lyrical falsetto, and a slapdash feel. He would act out the drama of “Smokestack Lightning” by sighting the train, hopping on board, and then sadly “going down slow.”

Wolf was a fiercely domestic man, a provider, a volunteer within the Chicago community, and an investor in property in his native Delta country. He was a jealous husband, but his diminutive wife Lillie didn’t mind one bit: She knew what Wolf was like and it suited her just fine. They had two daughters, Barbara and Betty Jean, and lived simply but comfortably in a house on Chicago’s south side. Wolf was a peaceful, pensive, near-sighted man with a pipe when at home; Lillie saw little of the onstage Wolf. He had a true lust for life and his pragmatic, insightful views frequently were at odds with those trying to make a living off his talent. As a result, Wolf earned a reputation for an unpredictable and sometimes difficult temperament. He was suspicious of everyone–particularly managers–and usually for good reason. Not surprisingly, he was known to howl with rage if a situation warranted it. Wolf’s forceful, stubborn personality and solid values garnered quite a lot of respect from the people at Chess Records and from other musicians as well.

Wolf never read music. He would sit on a metal chair in the studio, wearing big horn-rimmed glasses, shirt open, cradling a beat-up guitar, playing according to what sounded right to him. According to Guralnick, Wolf would say to his longtime backup guitarist Humbert Sumlin and the studio man playing lead, “I want you playing against each other, the two parts playing against each other.” This usually addled the studio man–almost always a reading musician. Typically Wolf had to demonstrate what he wanted and run through it until his back-up players understood through sheer instinct.

After nearly a quarter century of remarkable performances throughout the U.S. and abroad–not to mention his famed Chicago act–Howling Wolf died peacefully, of complications arising from kidney disease, on January 10, 1976, in a Chicago hospital; he was 65. He had sang the blues almost until the time of his death, despite his illness; his last public appearance was with renown blues guitarist B. B. King at the Chicago Amphitheater in November of 1975. While undergoing kidney treatment in the hospital he frequently had fans smuggle forbidden foods to him. He once escaped to enjoy a full meal of meat and potatoes; no one could find him. Hours later, sated, he arrived back at the hospital licking his lips. Wolf can be heard howling his own fitting epitaph on “Smokestack Lightning”–one of the most beautiful blues songs ever written: “Fare you well, never see me here no more, oh, don’t you hear me.”

by B. Kimberly Taylor

(April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.

Career

One of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) (some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) and was known as “The Velvet Bulldozer”. He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. Although unrelated, Albert occasionally referred to himself as “B.B. King’s half brother”. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.

He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas. Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums forJimmy Reed‘s band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also, interestingly enough, Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named “Lucy”. King earned his nickname “The Velvet Bulldozer” during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.

King moved to Chicago in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records, but it was only a minor regional success. He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. It was during this period that he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar.He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit “I’m a Lonely Man” written by Bobbin Records A&R man and fellow guitar hero Little Milton, responsible for King’s signing with the label. However, it was not until his 1961 release “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong” that he had a major hit, reaching number fourteen on the U.S.Billboard R&B chart. The song was included on his first album The Big Blues, released in 1962. He then signed with jazz artist Leo Gooden’s Coun-Tree label. King’s reputation continued to grow in the Midwest, but a jealous Gooden then dropped him from the label. In 1966, he went to Memphis and signed with the Stax record label.Produced by Al Jackson, Jr., King with Booker T. & the MGs recorded dozens of influential sides, such as “Crosscut Saw” and “As The Years Go Passing By“, and in 1967 Stax released the album, Born Under a Bad Sign.The title track of that album (written by Booker T. Jones and William Bell) became King’s best known song and has been covered by many artists (from Cream to Homer Simpson). The success of the album made King nationally known for the first time and began to influence white musicians.

Another landmark album followed in Live Wire/Blues Power from one of many dates King played at promoter Bill Graham‘s Fillmore venues. It had a wide and long-term influence on Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, and later Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. During the early ’70s, he recorded an album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers, an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does The King’s Things, and a cameo on an Albert Brooks comedy album A Star is Bought.

According to Bill Graham, “Albert was one of the artists I used many times for various reasons. He wasn’t just a good guitar player; he had a wonderful stage presence, he was very congenial and warm, he was relaxed on stage, and he related to the public. Also he never became a shuck-and-jiver. One of the things that happened in the ’60s – it’s not a very nice thing to say, but it happens to be true – was that blues musicians began to realize that white America would accept anything they did on stage. And so many of them became jive. But Albert remained a guy who just went on stage and said ‘Let’s play.’”

On June 6, 1970, King joined The Doors on stage at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. He lent his distinctive guitar to blues cuts such as “Little Red Rooster,” “Money,” “Rock Me” and “Who Do You Love.”

In the 1970s, King was teamed with members of The Bar-Kays and The Movement (Isaac Hayes‘s backing group), including bassist James Alexander and drummer Willie Hall adding strong funk elements to his music. Adding strings and multiple rhythm guitarists, producers Allen Jonesand Henry Bush created a wall of sound that contrasted the sparse, punchy records King made with Booker T. & the MGs. Among these was another of King’s signature tunes ”I’ll Play the Blues For You” in 1972.

King influenced others such as Mick Taylor, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Mike Bloomfield and Joe Walsh (the James Gang guitarist spoke at King’s funeral). He also had an impact on contemporaries Albert Collins and Otis Rush. Clapton has said that his work on the 1967 Cream hit“Strange Brew” and throughout the album Disraeli Gears was inspired by King.

By the late 1980s, King began to muse about retirement, not unreasonable given that he had health problems. He continued regular tours and appearances at blues festivals, using (since the ’70s) a customized Greyhound tour bus with “I’ll Play The Blues For You” painted on the side. Shortly before his death, he was planning yet another overseas tour. His final album, Red House, was recorded in 1992 and named for the Jimi Hendrix song that he covered on it. The album was largely ignored because of bad production quality (the background instrumentals drowning out King’s guitar playing), and original copies of it are scarce.

King died on December 21, 1992 from a heart attack in his Memphis, Tennessee home. His final concert had been in Los Angeles two days earlier. He was given a funeral procession with the Memphis Horns playing “When The Saints Go Marching In” and buried in Edmondson, Arkansas near his childhood home.

Instruments

King’s first instrument was a diddley bow. Next, he built himself a cigar box guitar, before buying a Guild acoustic. The instrument he is usually associated with is a 1958 Gibson Flying V. In 1974 he began using a Flying V built by Dan Erlewine, and after 1980 also one built by Radley Prokopow.

King was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down. He used a dropped minor tuning, reportedly C♯-G♯-B-E-G♯-C♯ (but he never used the sixth string).

For amplification, King used a solid-state Acoustic amplifier, with a speaker cabinet with two 15″ speakers and a horn (“which may or may not have been operative”). Later in his career he also used a MXR Phase 90.

References

[edit]Sources

• Bowman, Rob (1997) Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-8256-7227-9
• Discography at Lycos Music

[edit]External links

• Albert King, Greg Johnson, BluesNotes, September 1999
• Albert King at Rolling Stone

Biography: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_King

Discography (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Albert+King)

Born Under A Bad Sign (Stax-1967)

Live Wire / Blues Power ( Stax-1968)

Years Gone By (Stax-1969)

King Of The Blues Guitar (Atlantic-1969)

Albert King , Steve Cropper & Pops Staples – Jammed Together Stax  1969

King Does The King’s Thing (Stax-1969)

Lovejoy  (Stax-1971)

I’ll Play The Blues For You (Stax-1972)

I Wanna Get Funky (Stax-1974)

Travelin To California (King Records-1976)

Truckload Of Lovin’ (Utopia-1976)

 Albert Live  Utopia 1977

The Pinch (Stax/EMI-1977)

King Albert (Tomato-1977)

Albert (Tomato-1978)

New Orleans Heat (Tomato-1978)

Truckload Of Lovin’ (Tomato-1978)

San Francisco ’83 Fantasy-1983

I’m In A Phone Booth Baby (Fantasy-1984)

The Lost Sessions (Stax-1986)

Blues At Sunrise (Stax-1988)

Albert Live (Tomato-1989)

Thursday Night In San Francisco (Stax Records-1990)

Red House (Essential-1991)

Crosscut Saw – Albert King In San Francisco (Stax-1992)

Albert King With Stevie Ray Vaughan – In Session (Stax-1999)

Talkin’ Blues (Thirsty Ear-2003)

Live At The Blues Festival (Parrall Record)