I
conducted my research with what I feel are the two most thorough and relevant,
or primary, texts on Robert Johnson: An essay by Rolling Stone magazine
journalist and respected blues author Peter Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson, provides a tremendous amount
of biographical information on his life. The second source by author and
recording artist of African American music, Samuel Charters’ Robert Johnson, provides greater
information about his music through detailed transcriptions of his recordings.
A third, detailed yet brief source, is the companion booklet from the dual compact
disc set of Robert Johnson: The Complete
Recordings. The essay, by music historian, photographer, and record
collector, Stephen C. LaVere, provides much elaboration of the details and
stories of Robert’s life covered in the Guralnick and Charters texts. Likewise,
the other sources I investigated apart from those these primary texts, provided
some of the basic focal points with further details but rarely any information
that surpasses that of the primary sources. These include various Internet
sources as well as excerpts from the companion book of Martin Scorsese’s 2003 documentary
The Blues. Both of these sources do
not delve into as nearly as much detail and factual information as the
Guralnick and Charters texts.
Comparison
of limited information from numerous sources only few of which are as concise
as others can lead to conflicts in data comparison. In my research of Robert
Johnson I found this to usually manifest in displacement of information in one
source that was present in another. This was displayed in several Internet
sources, with one such website for the
Robert Johnson Blues Foundation mentioning a biological son of Robert named
Claude, but which no other source, even the Guralnick and Charters or
otherwise, corroborated any son other than Robert’s stepson, Robert Jr.
Lockwood. It was not all that difficult to reconcile informational conflicts
with such a figure as Robert Johnson of whom so little is commonly known that
all concise sources, while elaborative on details, stay consistent to the main
points of fact. Francis Bebey’s African
Music: A People’s Art helped me to draw an anthropological connection
between the country blues era Mississippi Delta and West Africa to expose
underlying retentions that could be contextualized with Robert Johnson. The
investigation of the musical sources was less frenetic. The compact disc
collection, Robert Johnson: The Complete
Recordings , provided the bulk of recorded material from which I
could corroborate information
found in the texts. I was also able to draw elements of Robert’s guitar
playing and singing from the recordings, which I transcribed directly to my
instrument for use in my oral presentation. I also consulted an Internet source
via Youtube.com, which featured blues musician and revivalist, Roy Rogers
demonstrating elements of Robert’s guitar work, in order to further corroborate
what I heard in the recordings.
The first research into Robert Johnson’s life was conducted by, folklorist
and ethnomusicologist, Alan Lomax in 1959. His excursion to the American South
was focused on collecting the folk music of Southern blacks. In the process, Lomax
managed to discover such blues legends as Mississippi Fred McDowell and a
direct influence of Johnson’s, Son
House. The bulk of knowledge about Robert Johnson’s life was eventually
discovered by another folklorist names Mack McKormick, who in the late sixties
and early seventies, managed to unearth Robert Johnson’s sisters, widow,
stepson, as well as the original photographs of Robert and his death
certificate. All of these facts and details about Robert’s life would be
compiled into books by authors, Peter Guralnick and Samuel Charters. Robert’s
surviving sister was found in Washington DC. Her memories of Robert were of him
as a child and younger sibling. Charters interviewed residents of the Delta
region and when asked about their memories of Robert, would only recount vague
details about several different individuals going by the name ‘Robert’ or
‘Johnson’. Most of the sources of facts about Robert Johnson, the man, all
agree on the common points of his life from his place of birth, travels, family
history, encounters, and time and place of death.
Robert
was born on May 8th, 1911 outside of Hazelhurst, Mississippi, the
fourteenth, and illegitimate, child of Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson. Julia
was married at the time to Charles Dodds, a landowner who would later change
his name to Spencer after leaving Hazelhurst. Dodds relocated out of necessity
to Memphis where Julia would end up sending their children, including Robert,
to live with him. Because Julia had had Robert out of wedlock with another man,
Charles Dodds Spencer would not accept her back as his wife. Under the stigma
of being born illegitimate in an already harsh and repressive society, Robert
would spend his childhood relocating as well as changing his last name several
times before adopting the last name of his biological father. Robert’s time
living with his mother’s former husband would be short, yet
productive as he
is said to have learned a few guitar rudiments from his brother Leroy during this
period. He would soon rejoin his mother to live with her and her new husband, Dusty
Willis, in Robinsonville. Robert would begin his musical lifestyle by playing
the harmonica. He continued to learn Delta-styles on the guitar by observing
performances by bluesmen Willie Brown and Charley Patton. In 1930, Robert
married sixteen year-old Virginia Travis who became pregnant with their first
child. Robert’s expectations for his future would be dashed when Virginia died
in childbirth. Having lost his wife and his child, Robert turned to music and
the guitar.
Willie Brown was soon joined in the Robinsonville juke joint circuit by
legendary preacher and bluesman, Son House. Robert was tremendously impacted by
Son House’s emotional style of playing and would ultimately be most affected in
his own music by House’s influence. Robert became enamored with watching Son
House and Willie Brown perform at the local juke joints and would often sneak
out of the house at night where he lived with his mother and stepfather. This
led to conflict especially with his stepfather Dusty Willis who was a hard
working field laborer with no affinity for music. The evenings spent with House
and Brown at the juke joints would foster one of the most commonly known
stories about Robert Johnson. Although he idolized the playing of House and
Brown, Robert’s own abilities on the guitar were still very underdeveloped and
limited. While House and Brown would be on a set break, Robert would pick up
one of their guitars and start playing. The crowd, not being impressed by his
performance, would become disgruntled and start booing until someone would walk
up to House and Brown and demand they retrieve the guitar from Robert. Neither
House nor Brown were amused by these events and although they genuinely liked Robert,
they had low opinions about his prospects of being a musician. Faced with the
realization of staying under his stepfather’s roof and potentially leading the
life of a sharecrop farmer, Robert decided that a life as a musician was more
suitable and desirable. Popular folklore about Robert Johnson cites a year long
period of his life where he seemingly disappeared only to emerge as a master
guitar-plying bluesman. It is often thought that this was when he allegedly
sold his soul to the devil. In reality, there is no undocumented period of this
kind. More in-depth sources reveal that Robert left home to return to the town
of his birth, Hazelhurst, where he began cutting his performance chops at juke
joints, lumber camps, and street corners. He also began taking lessons from
another principle influence, Ike Zinnerman.
Robert
would also marry for a second time to Calletta “Callie” Craft. Robert sought
her out for her devotion and ability to care for him, which would become a
pattern of Robert’s with future women. Robert’s interest in women rivaled that
of his interest in music. As fellow bluesman and student of Robert, Johnny
Shines remembers: “Women to Robert…were like motel or hotel rooms: even if he
used them repeatedly he left them where he found them…he loved them all. He
preferred older women in their thirties…because the older ones would pay his
way”(Guralnick, 24). Robert would ultimately leave Callie to return to
Robinsonville. Here is where the other half of the best-known story about
Robert continues. Son House and Willie Brown were still playing in Robinsonville
and had not heard from or seen Robert since he had left for Hazelhurst. One
night Robert walked into a juke joint they were playing and approached them.
Still dubious about
Robert’s playing ability, House and Brown began to tease him for having a
guitar with him. “ ‘Well, boy, you still got a guitar, huh? What do you do with
that thing? You can’t do nothing with it.’ He said…’let me have your seat a
minute.’ So I said, ‘All right, and you better do something with it, too,’ and
I winked my eye at Willie. So he sat down there and finally got started. And
man! He was so good! When he finished, all our mouths were standing
open”(Charters, 8). Robert stayed around in Robinsonville for a little longer
receiving instruction some further instruction from Son House and playing in
juke joints. He then began a traveling spree around Mississippi and
establishing lasting personal and musical connections is Memphis, Helena, and
Greenwood. In Helena, Robert began a relationship with another older woman
named Estella Coleman. In return for her care and kindness, Robert became a
close mentor to her son, Robert Jr. (later known as Robert Jr. Lockwood). Their
relationship developed to the point that Robert took on a stepfatherly role to
Robert Jr. who idolized him. Lockwood would go on to become a Chicago bluesman
signed with Chess Records as a result of the Robert imparting virtually all of
his guitar knowledge onto him. “ ‘Robert Johnson was my beginning. He came
along and taught me how to play…Really my ambition was to play a piano until
Robert came along. He was doing such a good job with the guitar I just
switched’”(Charters, 11).
Robert’s
travels would take him as far as Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and New York
where he was reputed to expand his musical practices by playing in several
small ensembles, though he would almost exclusively perform solo, Robert is
known to have increased his circle of musical associates to include the most
notable names of Sonny Boy Williamson, Peetie Wheatstraw, Robert Nighthawk,
Honey Boy Edwards, Henry Townsend, and Johnny Shines to whom Robert would
become a personal mentor. Shines would become a principle source in Mack
McCormick’s research bringing to light many different aspects of Robert’s
musical practices. As a bona fide, professional musician, Robert traveled
widely and therefore had to have a tremendous amount of repertoire at his
disposal. “By Johnny Shine’s account, Robert Johnson was as likely to perform
‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds’ or the latest Bing Crosby hit as one of his own compositions.
‘You didn’t play what you liked; you played what the people liked. That’s what
you had to do.’…Johnson possessed a singular facility not only for discovering
what the people liked but for learning a tune simply by hearing it once on the
radio or jukebox”(Guralnick, 22). In addition to an advanced repertoire, Robert
was also a masterful purveyor of multiple styles like ragtime, popular tunes,
Hillbilly tunes, waltz and polkas. He could also imitate the styles of his
fellow blues musicians like Lonnie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, country-singer
Jimmy Rodgers, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, and of course Son House. Robert
also had a very astute entertainer’s sense and he knew how to captivate and
charm an audience. As a person, Robert was very well liked as Johnny Shines
remembers: “Robert was one of those fellows who was warm in every respect…it’s
natural for men not to like a musician too much. But Robert was a fellow very
well liked by women and men”(Guralnick, 20). Robert’s affinity for women was
apparent to his peers and although Robert had a great amount of charm, he ran
risks by overtly pursuing so many women in environments of potential hostility
coupled with alcohol consumption. Son House had warned him of the dangers of
flirtations with random women at
juke joint parties in the past. Nevertheless, Robert had gained a reputation in
some circles for these tendencies.
The
path to Robert Johnson’s recording career begins with H.C. Speir, a record
store owner in Jackson, Mississippi. Speir was also a talent scout for ARC and
had his own recording studio in his store. Many musicians would pass by his
record store and audition for an opportunity to record and many of the great
bluesmen did including Son House, Skip James, Tommy Johnson, and Charley
Patton. After hearing Robert’s playing, Speir sent word about him to Ernie
Oertle, another talent scout for ARC. Oertle commissioned Robert for a
recording session to take place in San Antonio, Texas. Samuel Charters breaks
down the number of recording sessions in which Robert Johnson’s twenty-nine
total sides were created into five different sessions based on days: three in
San Antonio, Texas on November 23rd, 26th, and 27th of 1936 and two in Dallas,
Texas on June 19th and 20th of 1937. Other sources divide the number
of sessions into two, by the months and the years. What is known about the
sessions themselves comes mainly from producer Don Law. Robert was not the only
musician there for the recording session, several other groups were also
recording. The presence of other musicians in that environment put Robert into
a mood he was often known for when he felt self-conscious about playing for
people he knew could analyze what he was doing on the instrument. This was a
common trait in some country blues players, notably Skip James as well. Don Law
himself was quoted: “… ‘suffering from a bad case of stage fright, Johnson
turned his back to the wall, his back to the Mexican musicians. Eventually he
calmed down sufficiently to play, but he never faced his audience.’”(Guralnick,
35).
By the
completion of three days of recording in that month of November, Don Law had
produced sixteen sides of Robert Johnson. Some of Robert’s most popular tunes
from the three days of recording were Kind
Hearted Woman Blues, Come On In My
Kitchen, Crossroad Blues, Ramblin’ On My Mind, and Terraplane Blues which sold some four to
five thousand units, a small but noticeable hit and Robert’s most popular tune
of the time. Robert was very proud of his recordings and was quick to show them
to his fellow bluesmen and family. Son House would hear Robert’s recording of Terraplane Blues, which served to
impress him more at his pupil’s progress. The final two sessions took place in
June of the following year, this time in Dallas, Texas. In addition to several classics
like Stones In My Passway, Drunken-Hearted Man, and Love In Vain, Robert also took the
opportunity to showcase a few tunes not commonly included in his public
repertoire. These tunes are considered to be his darkest, and most mysterious.
They have always added a tremendous amount of allure to the popular conception
of Robert Johnson. They are also currently among his most popular and
influential especially to later Rock n Roll players: Hellhound On My Trail, and Me
And The Devil Blues.
Once the last two sessions were complete, Robert had a few
hundred dollars in cash and a collection of new recordings. The sides numbered
a total of twenty- nine with three alternate takes. After the sessions Robert
met up with Johnny Shines in Red Water, Texas. The two roamed around together
in the north portion of the state, and then back to the southern portion, and
then on to Arkansas and St. Louis. During this period, Shines remembers Robert’s
reclusive, loner-styled persona taking over. “…Robert displayed a
certain
uneasiness with his traveling companion. Frequently he would slip away from
him, and Shines would have to guess which way he went and try to catch up with
him”(LaVere, 18). The two would ultimately part ways when Robert headed back to
Mississippi. During the last year of his life, Robert traveled the Delta
country to his old haunts in Memphis and Helena, and spending his time playing
juke joints, house parties, saloons, and street parties. Like Shines, Robert’s
other associates all had their own accounts of the last time they ever saw him.
Despite the murky details surrounding his demise that Charters encountered
during his investigations into Robert Johnson in the 1950s, there is a general
consensus on the time, place, and circumstances surrounding his death. Witness
testimony, including that of Sonny Boy Williamson, exists along with a death
certificate uncovered by Mack McCormick. All of the Guralnick, Charters, and
LaVere texts agree that Robert Johnson was outside of Greenwood, Mississippi,
at a juke joint location called Three Forks. Robert had been playing there for a
few days and had struck up a flirtation with the reputed wife of the owner.
Sonny Boy Williamson was also on the bill and recounted how he had noticed some
animosity from fellow patrons toward Robert’s flirtations with the woman. At
one point, someone handed Robert an already open, half-pint of whiskey.
Although Sonny Boy discouraged him from drinking it, Robert insisted. “It
wasn’t too long after Robert returned to his guitar that he soon could no
longer sing. Sonny took up the slack for him with his voice and harmonica, but
after a bit, Robert stopped short in the middle of a number and got up and went
outside. He was sick and before the night was over, he was displaying definite
signs of poisoning…”(LaVere, 22). By the end of the night Robert had to be
taken by a few friends back to a house where he lay bed-ridden for three days.
During those three days, in his weakened state, he contracted pneumonia and
finally expired on August 16, 1938.
The
rest of the world that knew of Robert Johnson would learn of his death when
Ernie Oertle was instructed by Don Law, at the instruction of John Hammond, to
find Robert and ask him to participate in a showcase at Carnegie Hall organized
by John Hammond called “From Spirituals to Swing”. Don Law was skeptical that Robert would be able to play such
a large production due to his displays of apparent stage fright in the studio
but Hammond insisted. It wasn’t long before Oertle learned of the Robert’s
fate. Three different reputed locations exist where Robert Johnson is said to
rest, but the one location that has received the most acknowledgment is in a
small cemetery of a church in Morgan City, Mississippi.
What
is often most striking about Robert Johnson’s recordings are the intricate
nuances present in his rhythm and vocals. I found that tapping your own steady
pulse in time to his music is very telling of his ability to gravitate back and
forth, almost effortlessly, from the underlying pulse. The juxtaposition of his
guitar work against his vocal work reveals that at times they have varying
rhythmic structures, and seem almost independently executed from one another.
Robert’s guitar playing is full of signature Delta-motifs; plucked or strummed,
with bottleneck or slide. These motifs permeate themselves through all of his
tunes, some better examples than others. Listening closely to Robert’s guitar
playing one hears so much activity in the fingers and across the strings that
it is truly amazing to think it is performed by a single guitar player. This
was the same opinion
shared by later musicians and devotees to Robert’s music, Keith Richards and
Eric Clapton. Keith Richards is quoted as saying of the first time he heard a
Robert Johnson record: “…I was hearing two guitars, and it took me a long time
to realize he was actually doing it all by himself.”(LaVere, 25).
Robert
Johnson’s technical contributions to the blues can be pulled right out of his
playing. Charters specifies several consistent elements: “Some of the
accompaniments are built on triplets, or rhythms in 8ths…three line verse unit,
with a four beat measure as the base rhythm…”(Charters, 24). Other sources I
consulted went deeper into the technical makeup of Robert’s playing. A video
clip on Youtube.com featured blues revivalist Roy Rogers talking about and
demonstrating aspects of Robert Johnson’s technique. Rogers cited Johnson’s
correlation of feeling and technique as what gave his music its powerful sound.
Rogers demonstrates a particular motif that he describes as placing emphasis in
front or behind the main beat, which roughly translates as a cross-rhythm or in
some cases triplet eighth notes. After investigating that source, I listened
closely to recordings of Crossroad Blues
and Terraplane Blues and found the
same motif. When I transcribed it to my own guitar, it felt as though I was
wrapping the syncopation of the lick around the main pulse and in a way, almost
rhythmically separating them. This gave me new insight into what is really
going on with Robert’s playing in the recordings. On top of cross-rhythmic plucking,
Robert is also layering rhythmic vocal inflections and extended call and
response riffs. Another significant contribution attributed to Robert’s playing
was his adaption of the left-hand Boogie Woogie piano pattern to the guitar.
Later known as the Chicago Shuffle, this pattern of straight eighths was not
commonly heard in any of the music of the pre-Robert Johnson Delta blues
players. I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom
and Kind Hearted Woman Blues are his
best examples of what would ultimately become the most defining and
recognizable blues motif. Also notable is Johnson’s slide guitar technique in
which he is believed to have performed with a glass bottleneck. In his video,
Roy Rogers demonstrated a slide concept that he attributed to Johnson. The
concept that Rogers described sounded familiar to me and although I could not
immediately find an example in Johnson’s recordings of the exact motif that
Roger’s executed in his own stylistic adaption, I did find examples in Robert
Johnson’s recordings of the interspersing of his slide phrasing with the main
melodic motifs and in the accompaniment of them. A good example of this can be
found in both If I Had Possession Over
Judgment Day and Preachin’ Blues.
In his article on the connections between Afro-American music and West
African musical practices, Olly Wilson explains the importance of understanding
Afro-American music through a contextual orientation. “It is vital to
understand the concept of adaption of African practices if there is to be an
understanding of Afro-American music.” (Wilson, 15). I believe that Robert
Johnson’s story and music are reflective of possible African retentions that
exist in the Delta-blues tradition, and in the story of Robert Johnson as the
ultimate purveyor of that tradition. While Wilson’s statement is primarily in
reference to technical aspects of West African music, which are of course
present in Robert Johnson’s music, I felt that the implications of Wilson’s
thesis also hint at an anthropological perspective on Robert Johnson and the
lineage of the world he came from. After
examining sources on Robert Johnson’s life and music I have found myself
inferring from the information a larger picture of Johnson within the context
of his place and time. I also feel that Johnson can be further understood
through examining the connections to West African cultural traditions. In his
book Music of Africa: A Peoples Art, Francis
Bebey examines the African Griot and his place in the greater communal context
of Africa. He defines the Griot as “…a living archive of his people’s
traditions. But he is above all a musician, without whom, no celebration or
ritual would be complete. Although the talents of these extraordinary musicians
are much admired, it must be admitted that they rarely enjoy personal esteem.
People fear them because they know too many secrets.”(Bebey, 24). I believe
that the Griot, as an African retention, is present in the Delta blues
tradition and in the bluesmen like Robert Johnson. If Johnson was the
culmination of country blues then he was also the culmination of the Griot
tradition in the Afro-American framework. As the Griot of West Africa is a
bearer of his people’s traditions, so is the Delta bluesman. Robert Johnson’s
music encapsulates a state of mind and a state of being that permeated not only
the musicians, but the general community of the Mississippi Delta. Robert’s
songs were not only about himself and his own experience but also that of his
people and his country. He sang the pains and woes of his fellow southern
blacks and lived the realities along side them. In doing so, Robert Johnson’s
story takes on a direct trans-cultural element shared between the West African
and Afro-American traditions that I believe places Robert Johnson, the man and
the musician, in a new and disseminating light.
Bibliography
Written Sources
-Guralnick, Peter. Searching for Robert Johnson. New York: Obelisk Books, E.P. Dutton, 1989.
- Samuel. Robert Johnson. New York: Oak Publications/Embassy Music Corporation, 1973.
-LaVere, Stephen C. Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings. New York: Sony Music Entertainment, 1990.
No comments:
Post a Comment