Nobody's Fault But Mine

For more on this and Crossroads blues... read on........

Planet Titanic

Did you know that a fair percentage of the rubbish we seperate is put back together and dumped in landfill sites.
The conainers are just there to "educate" us - so the local government says.

When we were evolving as hunter gathers, perhaps it would not have been useful to sit by the cave fire and worry about what might be happening in ten years time. You might have missed the best dinner, or become dinner for a passing cave bear. Consequently it does not seem we are well adapted to worry about the future. Most people think our planet is indestructable, but they thought that about the Titanic too.

I can't help thinking of Blind Willie Johnson

God Moves On the Water



In the year of nineteen hundred and twelve,
April the thirteenth day,
When the great Titanic hit an iceberg
Well, the people had to run and pray.


When the great Titanic was sinkin' down,
Well, they threw lifeboats down,
Cryin', "Save the women and children
We have to let the men drown."


Cap'n Smith was sleeping,
He thought he was tired;
Well, he woke up in a great fright
As many gunshots were fired.

He was warned by a freighter
But the Captain did not take heed
Instead of cutting engines
He ran with greater speed.

Thomas Andrews a mighty man
Thinks he built a ship he understands
Name of the game,  in the end
It's not in our hands

The story of the shipwreck
Is almost too sad to tell
One thousand,six hundred
Went down forever to dwell

At a time where most of Europe has suffered will soon be experiencing a shortage of water again, I would like to know how much is evaporating per day on our wonderful golf courses?
It's a "popular" sport , of course , available to everybody - who has got the cash, of course!!!

Blind Willie Johnson

Blind Willie Johnson

I´M GONNA GET RELIGION"

To say that life was hard for poor people and especially African Americans in the United States at this time is a huge understatement.

Imagine, then, how much worse it was for somebody who was disabled.

One day in 1897 a young boy by the name of Willie Johnson was playing in his home when his father and stepmother began to argue. They became more and more violent and suddenly the woman threw a jar of cleaning fluid across the room. The liquid contained ammonia and some of it went into the young boy's eyes. He was blinded.

From then on Willie spent his dark days practising the guitar and thinking about the mysterious ways of God. Johnson became a Baptist preacher and played and preached in the streets to earn his living.

His music was blues but his message was always the same: follow the word of God and you will be saved for eternity. Blind Willie Johnson recorded many records between 1928 and the mid-30´s and went on to be one of the most distinctive sounding blues players of all times. He was also one of the few to make a reasonable living from his music.

He performed his music in the streets of Texas towns and his thunderous voice was said to frighten people to repent their sins. He lived a fairly comfortable life with the profits from his music and finally settled with his wife in the town of Dallas. One cold day in 1949, the Johnson house caught fire and burnt down. The couple had nowhere to go after and had to return to sleep in the wet ruins. Willie Johnson caught pneumonia and died a few days later.

Willie Johnson's singing has been described as "dark and terrifying" and his incredible control of the guitar impressed many of our modern guitar heroes. His songs have been recorded but such stars as Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Ry Cooder and many more. He was the inspiration for a generation of folk-rockers.

Nobody's Fault But Mine . Blind Willie Johnson

Nobody's fault but mine, nobody's fault but mine

If I don't read my soul be lost. Nobody's fault but mine.

I have a bible in my home, I have a bible in my home

If I don't read my soul be lost. Nobody's fault but mine.

My father taught me how to read, my father taught me how to read

If I don't read my soul be lost. Nobody's fault but mine.

My mother taught me how to read, my mother taught me how to read

If I don't read my soul be lost. Nobody's fault but mine.

Preacher taught me how to pray, preacher taught me how to pray

If I don't pray my soul be lost. Nobody's fault but mine.

Blind Willie got by the best he could and tried to warn us about the way we live. He lived in a time before science had addressed many of our cosmological questions, but his message is still appropriate: educate yourself; don't blame others for your problems.

Perhaps his lyrics need a little updating.

Nobody's fault but mine, nobody's fault but mine,

If I don't read, it'll all be lost, nobody's fault but mine.

I have good books at home, I have good books at home,

If I don't read it'll all be lost, nobody's fauly but mine.

Plato taught me how to think, Plato taught me how to think,
If i don't think, it'll all be lost, nobody's fault but mine.


Hume taught me how to think, Hume taught me how to think,

If I don't think, it'll all be lost, nobody's fault but mine.


Philosophy taught me how to think, Science taught me how to think,

If I don't think, it'll all be lost, nobody's fault but mine.

Blind Willie Johnson had many secular songs in his repertoire, but this was not the case with all the preaching blues men.

Reverend Gary Davis, from South Carolina, was ordained in 1937 when he was forty-one. From this time, until he died from a heart attack in 1972, it was very difficult to persuade him to sing anything but religious songs.

Davis, blind from the age of two, began singing and playing when he was a child, in his local Baptist church. At the age of fifteen he started travelling around North and South Carolina playing his music.

He moved to New York to make his first recordings and stayed there, making a poor living for many years teaching guitar and evangelising on the street. In the 50´s he began recording regularly and could live comfortably from his performances, but he continued working in the church until he died.

Davis was one of the finest blues pickers of all times. He used his fingers of his right hand to play the guitar in the same way as classical guitarists do. He also mixed blues music with ragtime music, a fast, syncopated style of music popularised by the pianist composer Scott Joplin.

The Devil's Music

THE DEVIL´S MUSIC AND THE KING OF THE BLUES

The birthplace of the blues is often thought to be the area known as the Mississippi Delta. However a delta is the place where a river meets the sea and is surrounded by fertile land which is very good for growing crops. This Mississippi Delta follows the river inland for about 200 miles, but it is called the Delta because the Mississippi River often covers the land after heavy rain and also makes the soil very fertile.

Within the Delta there is a small town called Hazelhurst, where on 8 May 1911 a boy called Robert Leroy Johnson was born. Johnson, who is often called the "King of the Blues", had a difficult childhood and by the time he was sixteen he was living with his mother and his stepfather. This man wanted Robert to work on the land but Johnson had other ideas.

Robert grew up listening to blues music in the local bars (called "Juke Joints") and on records. He saw many of the best blues singers of the time and he absorbed it all. Johnson did not invent the blues, he was not old enough. Neither did he play a new style of the music. Why, then, is he the "King"? Well, he recorded 29 records in 1936-37 before he died in 1938, but these songs are considered to be a perfect cocktail of all the styles of blues that he heard. He was also an excellent guitar player and a passionate singer.

His music was also a very important influence on the first generation of rock stars. People like Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, openly admitted that they had learnt a lot from Johnson’s records. Perhaps this is the key to Johnson’s fame. Without any doubt Johnson was a great blues singer and guitarist, however, maybe he was one of the first major marketing successes in the music business. Music was most commonly released in the single 45 r.p.m. and the Long Player did not become a popular way to sell music until the late 1950’s. Any enthusiasts who were trying to listen to old blues tunes had to search import catalogues for old singles, usually in the form of the “78’s”. In 1961, Columbia records released nineteen of Johnson’s songs on one L.P. called:”Robert Johnson, King of the delta Blues Singers”. This was a great treasure and was easy to find, for any young person searching for blues inspiration.

What exactly happened to this poor, country boy from a small town in Mississippi which turned him into one of the most important pieces of blues history and mystery? What is known about his life was collected mostly by blues enthusiasts at least thirty years after his death so is really no more than rumour and legend.

This legend tells us that as a teenager Johnson used to leave his house while his parents were sleeping, to go to the local bars to watch the singers and musicians who came to town. Some say that what he did on these nocturnal adventures was study the local musicians. It has been said that he had an incredible ear for music and could play a song after hearing it only once .As a teenager he was remembered as mysterious young man, who followed musicians like a ghostly shadow.

The legend seems to have disappeared for a year or so when he was about sixteen, but his reappearance was remembered for reporters by singer/guitarist Eddie James “Son House.”

One Saturday night, in the Delta, Son House and a colleague were playing in a juke when Robert walked in carrying a guitar over his shoulder. They decided to have some fun and make him feel bad. They asked him to come up on the stage and play a song, thinking he could not play well. They were sure that he would look stupid.

They were mistaken. Robert calmly sat down and started to sing and play and the people in the bar fell silent as the heard this boy playing as well as any body they had heard. When he finished, there was loud cheer and the crowd shouted for more. Later Son House went over to Johnson to find out how this boy had learnt so much in such a short time. Robert Johnson answered House immediately.

"I had the best teacher," he said.

"Who was that then?" asked House.

So Robert began to tell the Crossroads story, which has become a legend in blues history.

These were times when few people travelled farther than their nearest town, and even fewer went to school and their religious beliefs were a mixture of Christianity to Voodoo. Many people believed that if you dared to go alone, at midnight, to an isolated crossroads a man would appear and show you how to do anything you wanted. You could not pay this man in dollars, though. He wanted your soul. African Americans had many names for this man, one of them was Legba, but basically we know him as the Devil.

Robert Johnson told Son House that he went down to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil, to be a great blues man and people believed him. How could he have learnt so quickly without the help of the supernatural?

It is said that later, Johnson realised the dreadful mistake he had made and returned to the crossroads to beg the devil to return his soul, but you can’t break a contract with the Devil! He retold this story in his song "Cross Road Blues".

Cross Road Blues

I went down to the crossroad, fell down on my knees.

I asked the Lord above, have mercy, save poor Bob if you please.

Standing at the crossroad, I tried to flag a ride.

Didn’t nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by.

You can run. You can run. Tell my friend Willie Brown.

Lord, that I’m standing at the crossroad. Babe. I believe I’m sinking down.

Sun going down. Dark going to catch me here.

I haven’t got no loving sweet woman that love and feel and care.

Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven when he died and many say that the Devil did not want to wait long to collect his prize. There are various stories about how he died.

The first says simply that he was killed by Black Magic and that Hell Hounds took him away to meet his new master, the Devil.

The second suggests that Robert was stabbed or shot by a jealous girlfriend. This is a little more credible, especially as he was known to be a womaniser.

There is, however, more evidence for the third story. Robert was not just fond of going out with lots of different women; he was dependent on them for somewhere to stay. For most of his short life as a professional musician he travelled from town to town playing

his music. He did not make enough money to pay for somewhere to stay so he used another strategy. As soon as he arrived his priority was to find a woman who would give him a bed and look after him. This was easy for a musician. They were stars; they had a bit of money and they had a good time. They were, in other words, interesting people.(Have things changed?)

On 16 August 1938, in Greenwood, Mississippi Robert Johnson was doing what he did every Saturday night: playing in a bar and constantly looking at the woman he was having an affair with. This night was different though. The woman in question was married and her husband knew what was going on. Her husband was the owner of the bar, and he was not prepared to let this situation continue.

Robert was playing that night with another man, "Honey Boy" Edwards, and they were getting a little money in their hat, from the crowd, and the barman was sending them drinks. That was as good as they could expect and, anyway, it was better than playing in the street.

Suddenly Johnson's partner noticed that the bar had sent then an opened bottle of whiskey. This was not normal. These were dangerous times. Edwards knew that Robert's affair with the woman had been discovered and he suspected that the bottle could contain poison. He smashed the bottle from Johnson's hand and warned him to be careful. Johnson became very angry and told Edwards to mind his own business. He didn't need Edwards´ help.

When the second bottle arrived, also opened, Johnson quickly began to drink the whiskey, but a little while later he became ill and stopped playing. A few days later Johnson was dead. Edwards had been right. The whiskey was poisoned.

Robert left us twenty-nine songs and many questions about his short life. Only one of his records was successful during his lifetime, but this gave him enough fame to bring a lot of people to hear him play. We can easily imagine that he would have been very successful if he had lived, because we know that his reputation had reached New York and people were looking for him to promote his music more.

Johnson's crossroads story is does not quite have the power that it did at the time he composed it. Superstition was the answer to many unexplainable occurrences almost hundred years ago. (To many people it still is!) Perhaps, however, the song does have a more universal message. How many of today's "upwardly mobiles" will do absolutely anything to get what they want? Maybe those "Snakes in Suits" have made their own personal "Pact with the Devil".

Waiting for the Train.

Waiting for the Train.

African tribes have sung about everyday life, like the man at Tutwiler station was doing, for thousands of years. Singing and music have always been very important in African culture, as they are in all cultures. The roots of blues include at least three kinds of songs: work songs, chain gang songs and moans.

A person who was working alone sometimes sang to pass the time and make the job easier. They often invented the words as they sang, describing the things that were happening in their lives at the time. These were known as work songs.

Chain gang songs were often used to co-ordinate work. Men trying to lift heavy weights needed to be able to lift or pull together. Often one man sang a line of a song and the group answered as they lifted something together, loaded a boat or worked to construct new railway lines. Prisoners were often taken out to work, cruelly chained together so that they could not escape. These chain gangs used this music to co-ordinate their movements and to avoid thinking of their suffering.

Moans were often heard at night from the place where the slaves or plantation workers slept and were about their pain and sadness. It was often one person singing alone.

These styles of singing were commonly sung in the southern United States by African Americans, and are considered to be the ancestors of the blues.

A bit about the Blues

Chapter One

In 1903 W.C. Handy, a well known band leader and songwriter was waiting for his train in Tutwiler, Mississippi. His train was 9 hours late so he decided to try to sleep on the bench in the station. There was nothing else to do in this small town in the middle of the night.

Tutwiler only had a few hundred inhabitants and at that time of night everything was closed. Handy probably felt the loneliness of the place with only the noise from the wind in the trees and a stray cat or dog for company, curled up and quickly fell asleep Some hours later he was woken when a man sat down on the bench next to him. The man then began to sing and play the guitar in a style that even Handy as an experienced musician, had never heard before.

The guitarist was dressed in old worn out clothes and carried an old battered guitar. Everything about this style was new to Handy. He played notes that were not common in the music Handy knew. He was producing sounds by moving a knife handle along the strings and he was singing about the train he was waiting for. This man was playing the blues, but he was almost certainly not the inventor of the blues, only playing a style of music which was already common in the area.

If this guitar player was not the father of the blues, where did it begin?

Slaves were being imported to the United States for two hundred years until the abolition of slavery in 1865.The languages and cultures of these Africans were forbidden because the slave owners did not understand them and feared that they could be used to organise and inspire rebellion. These slaves began to develop their own form of the English language and their own music, which was a mixture of their African roots and the European music they heard around them. Blues music was part of this musical evolution. When slavery became illegal the conditions of African Americans improved a little, in some cases, but most of them were obliged to continue working under inhuman conditions with no constitutional rights. Under these conditions the music which we now call blues continued to develop.