This graphic is of a wood cut print courtesy of
Yee Haw Industries
I believe that it is fitting for the first post on this blog to reference the great Robert Johnson. He was born to a dirt poor family in Mississippi in 1911. At his death in 1938 he had recorded 29 songs. (The collection of his work is available on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Recordings-Centennial-Collection/dp/B004OFWLO0/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1425236634 )
His catalog contains great blues standards such as Ramblin' On My Mind, I Believe I'll Dust my Broom, Stones In My Passway and Sweet Home Chicago. Many great blues artists have covered Johnson's songs because the music and lyrics are indeed timeless.
A long lived legend proposes that Johnson met the devil at the crossroads of US 61 and US 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. At that spot Johnson is said to have sold his soul for the ability to play the blues; however, as the poster at the top of this post implies Johnson tricked the devil by putting a little bit of his soul in every song that he played thus giving his soul piece by piece to every one who heard his music.
Johnson was referred to as a "ladies man" who did not seem to pay much attention to the women's marital status. It is said that Johnson was poisoned by a jealous husband and according to reports it took Robert three days to die. Even as Johnson was approaching the end his agent was trying to locate him for a possible Carnegie Hall engagement propelling him into the realm of a super star.
Image courtesy of http://www.shloop.com
“You want to know how good the blues can get?” Keith Richards once asked, answering his own question: “Well, this is it.” Eric Clapton put it more plainly: “I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.” *
US 61 from New Orleans to an eventual side step ending in Chicago passes through such great blues cities as St. Louis and Memphis. The deep Delta blues, only two or three generations removed from the days of slavery where music helped families carry on day after day, started to change. The songs started addressing new troubles being faced and telling new tales of love, hate and sorrow. US 61 brought many gifted musicians on a journey that brought blues in to its own as the great original American music that it is. Bob Dylan pays homage to this great highway in his song Highway 61.
Courtesy of
Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.
Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.
Three years before Robert Johnson died at the age of 27, a scant 115 miles East of "the crossroads" a little boy was born. Less than two decades later that young man walked into the Memphis Recording Service also known as Sun Records and recorded My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Began.
The Blues had crossed the color barrier and there would never be a backward glance.
* From the official Robert Johnson biography http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/biography
