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".