It’s Robert Johnson’s birthday.
More to the point, it’s his centenary.
The man known as the King of the Delta Blues was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on the 8th of May 1911 and lived a mere 27 years. That fact in itself is enough to give him notoriety, as he is generally considered the first member of the 27 Club, that growing list of musicians who had the distinct misfortune to check out at the age of 27 and remain, in the eyes of their fans, forever young. The list includes other such luminaries as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Al “Blind Owl” Wilson of Canned Heat, Pete Ham of Badfinger, and Kurt Cobain. In 1938, Robert Johnson became the club’s inaugural member.
But there was more than his untimely death that made Robert Johnson a legend. During his lifetime Johnson’s success as a recording artist was modest, at best. The record business was merely a shadow of what it would later become and as an itinerant, African-American rural Blues musician, his releases were considered Race records, aimed squarely at the local music buying public in the South.
He only recorded 29 songs and just 11 of those were issued during his lifetime. In fact, he may well have fallen into obscurity were it not for an album of his rediscovered songs that was released in 1961, under the title, ‘King Of The Delta Blues Singers’. The album is now considered one of the most influential Blues albums ever released.
"King Of The Delta Blues Singers"
That influence touched on many of our contemporary music heroes including Fleetwood Mac founder, Peter Green, who has recorded every song in Johnson’s legacy. Robert Plant was another. That whole “squeeze my lemon, til the juice runs down my leg” line from Led Zeppelin’s “Lemon Song” was straight out of Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside Blues”.
“Traveling Riverside Blues” – Robert Johnson
Brian Jones introduced Keith Richards to that Johnson album as well, prompting Keith to ask, “Who’s the other guy playing with him?” before coming to realise that there was only one person playing the guitar. The Rolling Stones would go on to record the best contemporary versions of two of Johnson’s songs, “Stop Breaking Down” on ‘Exile On Main Street’ and two outstanding versions of “Love In Vain” on both ‘Let It Bleed’ and the live album, ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’
“Love In Vain” – The Rolling Stones (1969)
The staunchest advocate for Robert Johnson, however, has always been Eric Clapton. At various times in his career, Clapton has described Johnson as “the greatest Bluesman who ever lived” and his music as being “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really..”. In his recent autobiography, Clapton confessed that he had once been such a snob about it, “..if you didn’t know who Robert Johnson was, I wouldn’t speak to you”.
Eric Clapton on Robert Johnson’s guitar technique.
Clapton has recorded pretty much all of Johnson’s music as well, either as a solo artist or in his days with Cream or John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Most famously, perhaps was that live version of “Crossroads” from Cream’s ‘Wheels Of Fire’ album. It was probably that song, more any other, that alerted me to the magic of Robert Johnson’s music. I also suspect that it was largely through being such a fan of Clapton at the time that I was motivated to find out more about this mysterious character who loomed so large, both in the history of the Delta Blues and the age modern Rock that I was then growing up in.
Much of Robert Johnson’s life is steeped in mystery and shadowy myth, with the most compelling tale, largely fostered by other Blues musicians like Son House, an early mentor, concerning him selling his soul to the devil at midnight, at a lonely Mississippi crossroads. In exchange, Johnson received his seemingly unearthly ability to play the instrument Son House attested he’d been so useless with just a few months earlier. Unlikely as it may appear to we, mere mortals, rather than simply discounting the story out of hand, Blues historians in the modern day have actually argued over which crossroads the deal went down. For the record, the accepted site was at the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 49.
Further supporting that myth, of course, was the devil’s early collection of Johnson’s soul, when he was poisoned by an allegedly, jealous husband, whose wife was offering the handsome young Bluesman some undue attention at what would be his last gig, on the 16th of August 1938.
In celebration of the centenary of Johnson’s birth, there are two special editions of his music being made available, one of them, vinyl reproductions of the original 10-inch, 78rpm discs on which his recordings were first released. This is serious stuff, for serious collectors only but evidence of just how important Johnson’s name still is, even after a hundred years. And people are still recording his music today.
Robert Johnson is dead. Long live the King of the Delta Blues. You can bet this won’t be the only blog posted online today in dedication to his memory.
I rather think he would have been mightily impressed with all the fuss we’re making.
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R-jon is still red hot! And where would the world be without Love In Vain or Crossroads? By the way, Pete Ham (Badfinger) and Mia Zapata (The Gits) are also in the 27 Club, along with many, many more. Did you know there is a 2008 movie called “The 27 Club”? It is about members of a ficticious band, called “Finn” (no relation) who join the club also. No well-known actors in it, but not a bad movie overall. Sal Mineo, Bobby Darin and Michael Hutchence have tried to start a “37 Club”, but “The 38 Club” is proving more popular with George Gershwin, Harry Chapin, and JFK Jnr in it. And don’t get me started on “The 36 Club”, with Marilyn Monroe, Bob Marley and Princess Diana in it!