It was 1930 in Robinsonville , Mississippi , and 19 - class - quondam Robert Johnson , an aspiringbluesmusician , was string up out at a juke joint junction where Delta blues legends Son House and Willie Brown were make for to a packed house . Between sets , Johnson dare to cull up one of the musician ' guitar and bet his own stuff , but the crew was n’t having it .
" He started to run it and be justnoisingthe the great unwashed , you jazz , " recall Son House in " ReMastered : Devil at the Crossroads , " a Robert Johnson documentary on Netflix . " And the folk music , they ’d come out and say , ' Why do n’t some of y' all go down and make that boy put that thing down , he running us crazy ! ' "
The club owner tossed Johnson out of the Robinsonville juke joint and that was the last that anybody take heed of him for a full year . Johnson simply vanish from the Delta .
Then one night , while House and Brown were playing another gig in Banks , Mississippi , in walks Johnson with a guitar case strapped to his back . House elbowed Brown and pointed gibingly at " Little Robert . "
" Boy , now where are you going with that thing ? " House asked Johnson . " To make noise somebody to decease again ? "
But this time , something was different . Johnson took out his instrument , a unconstipated six - strand guitar fitted with an extra seventh string , something neither House nor Brown had see before . But that was n’t the only new affair .
Johnson had acquire an harebrained skill horizontal surface and strange proficiency , strum a serial of rapid - fervor chords that made the guitar sound almost like a forte-piano — a pianoforte with three hands playing it .
How could this kid , who was lousy enough to get kicked off the point in Robinsonville , return just a class by and by as the most gifted blue guitarist in the Delta ? To the stunned crowd in Banks , Mississippi , there was only one explanation — Johnson had made a deal with the Satan .
Down at the Crossroads
To God - fearing black folks living in the 1920s Deep South , the blues was clearly " the devil ’s medicine . " It lured away good men and womanhood to the juke joints , where they would trip the light fantastic toe and imbibe and partake in infernal affections . So it would ’ve made perfect sense that Johnson ’s unearthly endowment was add by Satan .
In fact , Johnson was n’t the first blues player who reportedly honed his skills with help from the Prince of Darkness . Anearlier guitar heronamed Tommy Johnson — who is not related to Robert Johnson , but rise up in the same Mississippi county — was rumored to have gone down to the crossroads and had his guitar tuned by the devil himself . ( A biography of Tommy Johnsonincludes an interview with his sidekick who say Tommy in person told him the story of this coming together . )
In the Coen brothers movie " O Brother , Where Art Thou ? " a type name none other than Tommy Johnson tells his traveling companion that he just sold his soul at the hamlet for some unholy new guitar science .
" Oh Word , for that you deal your everlasting soul ? " asks the witless Delmar .
" Well , " respond Tommy . " I was n’t using it . "
When the same person - merchandising story was tell of Robert Johnson , he did little to drive out the rumor . In fact , he may have cultivated the devilish connection . Of the 29 Sung Johnson commemorate before his untimely demise at only 27 geezerhood old , there were " Cross Road Blues , " " Hellhound on My Trail , " " Me and the Devil Blues " and " Up rise the Devil . "
The Real Education of Robert Johnson
Steven Johnson — vocalist , a preacher and vice chairwoman of theRobert Johnson Blues Foundation — has a far more earthly explanation for how his grandad Robert transformed ostensibly overnight from an awkward amateur into the guitar - playing hotshot who has inspired generations of world - famous player , including Bob Dylan , Keith Richards and Eric Clapton .
" I suggest that people step outside of the myth and stress to understand the talent , " says Johnson in an interview . " Just because Michael Jordan was as neat as he was on the court , does that mean that he sold his soul to the devil ? No , he practice . And he practiced twice as severely as everybody else . "
By Steven ’s deliberation , his grandad ’s mysterious absence from the Delta euphony scene stretch for closer to three years , not just one . And he spend those class back in his hometown of Hazelhurst , Mississippi , con at the feet of guitar great Ike Zimmerman .
Robert had return to Hazelhurst looking for his biological begetter , Noah Johnson , but found Zimmerman instead . Zimmerman would take Johnson out to the local cemetery at midnight to play to the gravestone and departed spirits .
" No matter how bad you vocalise out here , " Zimmermansays in the Netflix docudrama , " nobody is go to complain . "
The cemetery taradiddle is probably apocryphal , but it added to Johnson ’s reputation as a preoccupied person . The real apprenticeship with Zimmerman was likely far more ordinary . Steven Johnson says that he met Zimmerman ’s daughter , who was only a little girl when her Padre open her home to young Robert .
" She say , ' Your pappa was at our house so much that I thought he was our brother , " remembers Steven . She ask her pa , " Is RL [ that ’s what they called Robert ] our brother ? ' ' No , he ’s not your brother , ' Ike said . ' He ’s just a instrumentalist and unspoiled admirer of mine . ' He would be there always . "
And the pattern certainly compensate off . On his recordings , Johnson was " simultaneously run a disjoin bass contrast on the depressed strings , rhythm on the middle train , and lead on the treble strings while blab out at the same time , " Eric Clapton admiringly recounted in his autobiography , according to Vanity Fair . It go like several people were playing at the same sentence . Johnson ’s fingerpicking style dress the template for the blues .
What Really Happened at the Crossroads
Robert Johnson had a hard liveliness . He was moved from house to put up as a son and abuse by his stepfather . As a new man , he married his sweetheart , Virginia , who die in childbirth with their babe . Johnson base and fall back other love before taking to the road full time and earning a reputation as a hard - drinking womanizer . The husband of one of Johnson ’s mistresses is believed to have envenom him todeath at 27 . Johnson persist dark until a re - going of his record album " King of the Delta Blues Singers " in 1961 .
But when Steven Johnson listens to his grandfather ’s music , he does n’t hear a indurate heathen , but the vocalisation of a man who wanted to do better and be better , but who was weighed down by painful memories , sin and superbia . Even the call " Cross Road Blues , " which casual listeners might think is a retelling of Robert ’s disastrous midnight merging with the daemon , think something much different to Steven .
" I kick the bucket to the crossing , fall down on my knees , " sings Johnson in his eery and coolheaded voice . " Asked the Lord above , ' Have clemency , now redeem piteous Bob , if you please . ' "
" Does that vocalise like a man who was make a batch with the daimon ? " ask Steven . " He was at a crossway in his living . And that ’s what my grandad did at the juncture . He was search and attempt to do good . "
Learn more about Robert Johnson in " Crossroads : The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson . " by Tom Graves . HowStuffWorks picks related titles based on Holy Writ we think you ’ll wish . Should you choose to buy one , we ’ll receive a portion of the sale .
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