28/10/2024
Despite the thousands of words written about him, we know less about Robert Johnson than we know about Shakespeare - and we know very little about Shakespeare. The world of the southern states of America 90 years ago may seem impossibly strange and distant to us, but the works of Shakespeare written 400 years ago keep reappearing among us as movies, operas, plays, familiar quotations and poetry.
Music evolves and the bluesmen were not above copying each other. Songs that blues folklorists hail as revolutionary, like Kind Hearted Woman, seem now to be what I would call bedrock blues. We are fortunate to have recordings of Robert Johnson, because that is about all we have. The picture is further complicated by his self mythologising, a common practise when self promotion was the only promotion.
Whether or not he went down to the crossroads for Satanic guitar tutorials, it’s now part of the story. Tragedy and death stalk the guitar hero. Robert Johnson died at 27, the same age as Jimi Hendrix when he went to that Great Gig in the Sky. If all we are left with is the story – well, it’s a good story!
See link in comments below for new audiobook Blues Men I Have Buried - a work of fiction inspired by the real life impersonation of Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac, and a commentary on blues music and the people who made it. Featuring two original blues songs.
