Higdon3

Robert Johnson’s impact on music
By Stacie Higdon

Robert Johnson was known as the greatest blues musician who ever lived. His lyrics and guitar skills have been written about, copied, and honored for generations. Robert Johnson’s impact on the blues is so wide spread that everyone knows who he is. Known as the “devil’s friend,” many legends follow this famous name, but what really made Robert Johnson so famous? Was it his wondrous guitar skills, his “dance with the devil,” or his mysterious death?

Robert Johnson was born to Julia Dodds on May 8, 1911 in Hazelhurst, Miss. His mother had been married to a man by the name of Charles Dodds. Robert was Julia’s eighth child and he was born illegitimate. As a youth, Robert Johnson was also known as Robert Spencer and sometimes Robert Dodds. Finally, his mother let him in on the secret of his father. When he learned the true identity of his father, Noah Johnson, he changed his name to Robert Johnson and it stayed that way until his death.

Robert Johnson began to learn the guitar by watching his older brother Charles play. Johnson had already taught himself how to play the harmonica, but Johnson set himself the task to learn to play the guitar better than anyone before. He gathered inspiration from Son House, Charley Patton, and Willie Brown.

In an amazingly short time, Robert Johnson began to play the guitar with a skill that no man could explain. He was a blues guitar master, hence the myth of his Cross Roads experience “visit with the Devil.” The Cross Roads is a place in the town Johnson grew up where the county lines met. It was very secluded and dark and it was know to legend to be where Satan made his deals with mortals.

According to writer Ted Obrecht, the legend says that Robert Johnson “shook hands with Satan.” Robert Johnson had supposedly gone to the cross roads outside of town at midnight and made a deal with the Devil that if the Devil would give him this talent with the guitar then Johnson would sell his soul. Considering the short time that it took Johnson to acquire such amazing guitar skills, the myth has long been believed and taken very seriously.

Johnson’s physical attributes would certainly explain some of his talent. Robert Johnson had very large hands and long skinny fingers, and with these monstrous hands, he could reach chords on the guitar that no other man could. But these attributes alone could not have resulted in such skilled musical style.

The tale is an amazing story. If Johnson did get his talents from Satan, that’s remarkable in and of itself, but if he did not, his guitar playing talent is so amazing that it would be fascinating to find out where it did come from, something now lost to history, however.

Robert Johnson’s amazing life lasting only twenty-seven years makes for very interesting “fictional reading.” He went through many heartaches and trials in his life that matches the image of the “perfect novel.” His mother had not told him about his father; his wife died in childbirth; and some say his wild ways are what got him murdered, which is how he met his end.

The most interesting aspect concerning Robert Johnson and what has made his legend so large was his supposed mysterious meeting with the Devil at the cross roads. Some have suggested that Johnson was obsessed with Satan. According to music writer John Guralnick, Johnson’s lyrics about the struggle between good and evil was a small hint about the truth of his meeting with the Satan.

Another aspect of Robert Johnson’s musical career is that it helped pave the way for future jazz musicians. His soul and feeling in his music helps perpetuate his popularity. His talent has even been depicted through fiction and many other accounts of his career. Writer Guralnick states flatly that Robert Johnson made the largest impact of anyone on blues history, and blues mythology, as well as influencing the careers of many other blues musicians. Even after all of the years that have passed since his death, his impact on the blues is still as large as it has ever been.
If Robert Johnson had never been born, the blues may well have had to invent someone like him on their own.

Johnson is still a large source of inspiration for the entire blues community, but there is some frustration on the part of many students. Most can never hope to grasp the detail and difficulty of Johnson’s playing techniques. In fact, there has been no musician yet who has had the ability to match his talent, with the closest perhaps being Jimi Hendrix, another acknowledged master of the guitar.

Johnson’s only two recording sessions occurred only a couple of years before his death. The first recording took place in November of 1936 in San Antonio, Texas in a hotel room. The songs that he recorded during his first session were “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Cross Road Blues,” and “Come on in My Kitchen.” His second session was in June 1937 in a Dallas warehouse where he recorded songs like “Love in Vain Blues,” “Hell Hound on my Trail,”and “Me and the Devil Blues.” After his recording sessions, Johnson resumed his wandering around the Mississippi River region.

All of the fame and the mysteries of Robert Johnson’s life ended too soon. Robert Johnson died at the young age of twenty-seven. The mystery that surrounds his death has forever been questioned because no one knows exactly what happened. It has been said that Johnson died from drinking poisoned whiskey. This additional mystery helps all of the writers and fans of Robert Johnson keep his memory alive.

The real fact is no one will probably ever truly know the facts surrounding the life of Robert Johnson. One thing is for sure, however: It is very likely no one will ever have the same impact on blues music that he did. Robert Johnson was a truly remarkable man and his life will forever live on in his recordings.

Just remember -- be careful about selling your soul to the Devil at the crossroads, for the Devil already gave the greatest guitar talent away.

###

Click here to respond.

Return to top Return to Issue Three contents Return to Main Page